Flesh and Blood Episode Guide

Episode Guide

Flesh and Blood: Season 3

• Season 3 Episode 2: EPISODE: 2

  Bestselling author Paddy Doyle, who was placed into care after both his parents died, returns to the Co Wexford village of Killinick from which he was removed at the age of four. Here, he becomes convinced that some members of the comminity are purposefully thwarting his efforts to investigate his past, and claims they are withholding vital information regarding his true parentage

• Season 3 Episode 1: EPISODE: 1

  Documentary discussing the effect a person's early years can have on their future. In the first programme, a woman gives a frank account of her life, disclosing how an introduction to Buddhism in Thailand helped her to overcome memories of being sexually abused as a child

Flesh and Blood: Season 2

• Season 2 Episode 4: EPISODE: 4

  Singer Mary Coughlan and her sister Angela Magennis recall their childhood on the Shantallagh council estate, the first of its kind in Galway. The red-headed girls lived in a busy household and their mother dressed them in identical home-made clothes. They reflect on how her death two years ago has affected their lives today. Last in series

• Season 2 Episode 3: EPISODE: 3

  The life of Boy George's mother Dinah O'Dowd, who was driven by shame from Dublin in the 1950s into the hands of an abusive husband. For more than 40 years she suffered in a destructive marriage, only finding relief and a voice of her own when her son hit the big time. Family members, including the singer himself, share their recollections

• Season 2 Episode 2: EPISODE: 2

  The life of Celine Roberts, born in Cork in 1948 to an unmarried 19-year-old who gave her to foster parents. Enduring a life of beatings, cruelty and extreme poverty, her real nightmare began when she was raped. Celine's one hope was to find her natural parents

• Season 2 Episode 1: EPISODE: 1

  The story of Sunday Independent columnist Antonia Leslie's upbringing and the impact of her father's infidelity and hedonistic existence on her adult life. Following a fairy-tale beginning in Castle Leslie, Co Monaghan, the journalist experienced life as a teenage runaway and went on to become a 'creature of the night' on the Paris club scene

Flesh and Blood: Season 1

• Season 1 Episode 6: Patricia Quinn Murphy

  Patricia Quinn Murphy discusses her struggle to find the truth behind her family's secret involving the tormented life of her aunt Rose - a woman who was forced into marriage and later sent to an asylum where she died after six months. Last in series

• Season 1 Episode 5: Joy Burniston

  The life story of Joy Burniston, who was adopted by an Irish man and his English wife when she was just a few weeks old. She discusses her childhood, and talks about the strong bond she had with the father who raised her and the steps taken following his death to find her birth mother

• Season 1 Episode 4: Brendan Mullins

  Brendan Mullins discusses the legacy of a family feud that began in the 1920s after his grandfather bequeathed the family farm to his father and mother. When his aunt disputed the will, the ensuing battle saw his parents stripped of all livestock and machinery, and Brendan is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and meet up with long-lost cousins

• Season 1 Episode 4: EPISODE: 4

  Documentary series discussing how secrets of the past can control people's lives and the effect a person's childhood can have on their future

• Season 1 Episode 3: Lynda Sheridan

  Lynda Sheridan, who underwent surgery to change her sex from a man to a woman, speaks about the life-changing process she has gone through and the events leading up to her decision. She reveals the secret life she led before receiving her wife's blessing to go through with the procedure

• Season 1 Episode 2: Kathleen O'Malley

  Documentary discussing the troubled past of Kathleen O'Malley, a Dublin-born woman who was sexually abused as a child. Sent away from her family until the age of 16, she eventually chose to leave the country. Kathleen talks about her relationship with her mother and how she felt let down by Irish society

• Season 1 Episode 1: Nuala O'Faolain

  Documentary series discussing how secrets of the past can control people's lives, beginning with author Nuala O'Faolain, who talks about her best-selling memoir Are You Somebody - a revealing insight into her troubled childhood

Flesh and Blood:

• Brendan Lynch

  Journalist Brendan Lynch and his brother Colm revisit the village of Toomevara and the home they once shared. Brendan found himself at odds with the politics and religion of the community, and flew the nest to taste life in England, later returning to nurse his dying mother, with whom he had shared a turbulent relationship. Last in series

• Harry Browne

  Reporter Mike Peelo talks to journalist Harry Browne and his mother Flavia Alaya about life as the secret family of Roman Catholic priest Father Harry Browne. They describe the relationship they each had with him and discuss Flavia's choice to pursue happiness in the face of adversity and break the mould of the traditional 20th-century family

• Jim Fitzpatrick

  Renowned artist Jim Fitzpatrick discusses his childhood, during which his father abandoned him and his mother after drinking and gambling his way through a small fortune. However, Jim has recently discovered that his father also had another son to whom he was a doting and loving parent - a contrast of behaviour that the artist struggles to reconcile