A Terrible Beauty is the story of the men and women of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, Irish and British, caught up in a conflict many did not understand and of the innocent men and boys, executed because of what transpired in The Battle of Mount Street Bridge. The British soldiers were the last of the Great War volunteers, who joined up together to fight the Germans. They knew that there was a strong chance they would die in France, but to die in Dublin would never have crossed their minds. The Irish Volunteers were weekend warriors many of whom had no idea they were about to take part in large scale battles on the streets of Dublin.

Between 1793 and 1867 the British Government banished its radicals, dissenters and rebels to harsh prison colonies at the very edge of the known world, Australia. Some escaped and returned to their homeland as heroes but many stayed on in this alien new world... The life stories of these rebels are full of acts of bravery and derring-do. In their own words they tell tales that are at once stirring, heart wrenching, dark, creepy, and even funny.

Halloween, often seen as an American custom, dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which was already known in Gaul and Ireland. A two-thousand-year-old bronze calendar attests to this tradition. At that time, people believed that the gates to “another world” were open. The documentary uses archaeological evidence to show how Celtic customs gave rise to the modern Halloween festival.

A young Irish musician arrives in London in 1982 full of optimism and the desire to realise her dreams as an artist. She will have to come up against a reality of violence and oppression, even from the police.