Italo disco

In 2000, an expedition to the Mexican island of Guadalupe launched a fight to save its ecosystem from being eaten by goats.Russian whalers had introduced the goats to the island in the 19th Century and the population exploded as they ate their way through Guadalupe’s plants, shrubs and trees.Several species of birds were already extinct when a group of scientists, from the San Diego Natural History Museum, visited to inspect the damage.Their expedition would begin the campaign to save the island’s wildlife from extinction, as Professor Exequiel Ezcurra tells Jane Wilkinson.(Photo: Goats on Guadalupe Island. Credit: Northern Light Productions)

31 Aug 202310min

On 14 August 2013, Egypt's army killed hundreds of protestors in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. They were protesting against a military coup that had taken place a month earlier, in which the democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted.Sameh Elbarky was in the square that day. He speaks to Ben Henderson.(Photo: A poster of Egypt's ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, among debris in Rabaa Square. Credit: NurPhoto/Corbis via Getty Images)

30 Aug 202310min

In June 2000, a historic meeting took place between South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il.This was the first inter-Korean summit since the Korean War, almost 50 years earlier.Professor Chung-in Moon from South Korea was a special delegate at the summit. He told Gill Kearsley about his experience in North Korea.(Photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. Credit: Newsmakers)

29 Aug 202310min

Sixty years ago, there was a boycott of local bus services in the English city of Bristol. The bus company had specified that it did not want to employ black bus drivers. The boycott ended on 28 August 1963 and the campaign helped to bring about Britain's first laws against racial discrimination.In 2013, Louise Hidalgo heard from Paul Stephenson and Roy Hackett, who died in 2022.This programme contains some racist language, used at the time.(Photo: Bus on Park Street in Bristol in the early 1960s. Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images)

28 Aug 20239min

The Forty Foot is a famous sea swimming spot in Ireland’s capital city of Dublin. For hundreds of years, only men had the privilege of bathing in its deep, icy waters – naked if they chose.That was until one day in the summer of 1974, when a group of women decided to plot an invasion.At a time when Irish women couldn’t even access contraception, why did this group of hardy feminists decide to fight this particular battle for equality?Rosie Blunt speaks to poet, writer, women’s rights activist, and swimmer Mary Dorcey.(Photo: Woman diving at the Forty Foot in 2019. Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

25 Aug 202310min

In 2006, Michele Burke and her fiancé William were looking forward to moving into their dream home in the picturesque town of Killaloe, in Ireland. But when Ireland's economic boom - known as the Celtic Tiger - ended and the global financial crisis of 2008 hit, construction on Michele and William's new house abruptly stopped. The couple were stuck paying a mortgage on a home they couldn't move into. They were not the only ones struggling. During the recession, there were more than 1,000 abandoned 'ghost estates' in Ireland. Michele tells Vicky Farncombe about her eight-year fight to move into her house.(Photo: Michele Burke outside her abandoned home in Killaloe in 2013. Credit: BBC)

24 Aug 202310min

In 1959, Tralee, in Ireland, hosted a festival to promote the town and build Irish connections around the world. It became known as the Rose of Tralee and is now one of Ireland’s oldest and largest festivals, as well as one of the most watched TV programmes. Last year, more than 30 international ‘roses’ or contestants took part, including representatives from Toronto, Sydney and Dubai. Rachel Naylor speaks to the first woman to be crowned the Rose of Tralee, an unofficial ambassador of Ireland, Alice O’Sullivan, from Dublin.(Photo: Alice O'Sullivan at the Rose of Tralee in 1959. Credit: George Doyle, Paudi Cronin (Neustock Media). From Kerry County Museum’s photo library, created with support from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht through their 2020 Audience Engagement Fund)

23 Aug 20239min

In May 1948, Canon John Hayes flicked a switch and brought electricity to the parish of Bansha, in Ireland. The village was the first in County Tipperary to be connected to the grid, under the Rural Electrification Scheme. The ambitious programme ran from 1946 to 1964 and saw 300,000 homes powered up. Vicky Farncombe produced this episode of Witness History using archives from Irish electricity board, the ESB.(Photo: Erecting electricity poles in rural Ireland. Credit: ESB Archives)

22 Aug 202310min