Record viewer numbers were reached by last Friday night’s airing of RTE’s Nationwide programme which featured the looting and burning of Mitchelstown Castle in 1922. The castle was the biggest house burned in the War of Independence and Civil War, but very few people outside the locality know much about it.
The hugely popular programme had an audience reach on Friday night of 371,400, making it the second most-watched Nationwide programme of 2023. RTE figures also reveal that 37.4% of audience share in Mitchelstown tuned in to watch the programme. These figures do not include thousands of people who have since watched the programme on the RTE iPlayer.
“I’m stunned by the reaction to the programme,” said historian Bill Power, whose book ‘Doomed Inheritance: Mitchelstown Castle Looted and Burned August 1922’ prompted the team at Nationwide to film the programme over two-and-a-half days last March. Bill said he’s received hundreds of texts, emails and personal messages since the programme was broadcast.
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