Queen Victoria visited Ireland four times during her reign and each time she was greeted with wild enthusiasm and huge crowds. Her reign saw the Great Famine, the struggle for Home Rule and the tightening of administrative control over John Bull's Other Island - so why was her last visit in 1900 apparently as popular as her first in 1849?

Declan Kiberd presents a survey of the Anglo-Irish relationship in her reign, using recent historical research and contemporary material to show what Irish history reveals about the Victorian mindset. Ireland was used as a laboratory for experimental ideas and with cartoons, novels and street songs, as well as extracts from Queen Victoria's journals, the programme offers surprising angles on subjects from Gladstone to tourism.