RTE Lyric FM radio, available via the internet at http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/ broadcast the first of three programs on Irish maritime songs today. Parts 2 and 3 will be broadcast on Thursday and Friday, December 30 and 31, at 1800 GMT - 1 PM EST in the USA.

Listening to the program is easy. There's a "Listen Live" box in the top right, and the documentary will play on both Windows Media Player and Real Audio.

Here's the information from their website:

THE SEA IN SONG

A 3-part series celebrating Ireland's maritime song tradition. Historians may have neglected our maritime heritage, but our singers have not and a good song can give us a feel for life at sea better than any text book can. Discover a song chest of rousing sea shanties, ballads of hardship and heroism as well as heart rending tales of love, loss, betrayal and revenge.

Programme 1: Hard Men to Shave (29th December 2010) Programme one explores key narratives in the sea shanties and ballads of the 19th century and taps into some hair-raising accounts of life at sea for Ireland's ocean mariners in the age of sail powered ships.

Programme 2: The Tumbling Wave (30th December 2010) Programme two sifts through the huge collection of Irish coastal songs to retrieve vivid tales of shipwrecks, smugglers, drownings and heroic rescues.

Programme 3: Love is Tempestuous (31st December 2010) Some of our most powerful laments and romantic ballads were inspired by events at sea. The concluding programme in the series pursues themes of love and loss through motifs such as the maid on the shore, the female sailor and the mermaid in traditional maritime song.

The series is produced and presented by Mary Owens. An independent production for RTÉ lyric fm by Well Said Productions and made with the support of the Sound & Vision Broadcasting Funding Scheme, a Broadcasting Authority of Ireland initiative.

I understand the program will be archived.

Dan Milner