Connemara is about to become the backdrop for RTÉ’s big new crime drama, and one of its stars is a Hollywood captain. Kate Mulgrew, best known worldwide as Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, leads The Galway Bay Murders, which begins on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Sunday 8 November at 9.30pm.
Mulgrew and co-star Clinton Liberty were lined up to discuss the series on Friday night’s Late Late Show Halloween special, alongside a tribute to veteran Irish actor Fionnula Flanagan.
What is The Galway Bay Murders about?
Mulgrew plays Nora Savage, a seasoned NYPD detective who, after a traumatic event, takes a career break and returns to her family home in Galway on an exchange with An Garda Síochána. Before long she is pulled into the investigation of a murdered female climate activist, a case that sets her against a ruthless environmental magnate, according to RTÉ.
The six-part series was filmed in Conamara, the Meath Chronicle reported. Alongside Mulgrew, the cast includes fellow Star Trek veteran Colm Meaney, Love/Hate star John Connors, India Mullen, Cillian O’Sullivan, Jack Rowan, Clinton Liberty and Dervla Kirwan. RTÉ describes the themes as power, control, fanaticism and deception.
There is a local story behind the script, too. Writer Eithne Verling, for whom this is a first television drama, wrote the series specifically for Mulgrew after meeting her by chance while the actor was on holiday in Galway, RTÉ said. Verling also set out to explore Traveller culture, drawing on her 12 years of work with Galway City Museum.
Mulgrew remembers Patrick Stewart
Mulgrew’s promotional round came in a week of sadness for the Star Trek family following the death of Sir Patrick Stewart at the age of 86. Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s The Oliver Callan Show on Friday, she recalled meeting Stewart just as he finished playing Jean-Luc Picard. She said he advised her to commit herself completely to Janeway for seven years, as he had to Picard, and promised she would be deeply rewarded. She said he was very kind to her and that she followed his advice.
The rest of the Late Late Halloween line-up
Patrick Kielty’s Halloween edition, broadcast on RTÉ One at 9.35pm on Friday, also honoured Fionnula Flanagan, whose stage and screen career spans more than 60 years. She returned to live in Ireland in 2024 after six decades in Hollywood, the Meath Chronicle reported.
Also on the bill were former Liveline presenter Joe Duffy, talking about his new book drawn from callers’ stories over almost 30 years on RTÉ Radio 1; comedian and podcaster Shane Daniel Byrne, who is touring his show Baby This Time and playing Clarence in the Gate Theatre’s It’s a Wonderful Life; and Joe McGucken, star of RTÉ Kids’ The Unreal. Toshín provided the music, and RTÉ promised Halloween stories, a scare challenge for one guest and a new take on a Halloween classic.
Liberty, who grew up in Laytown, Co Meath, is known for playing Addam of Hull in HBO’s House of the Dragon and appeared in the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People.
What happens next
The Galway Bay Murders premieres on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Sunday 8 November at 9.30pm, with the trailer already available from RTÉ. The Late Late Halloween special can be caught up on via RTÉ Player.
For viewers in Galway and Connemara, the series will offer the chance to spot familiar landscapes in a prime-time Sunday night slot. Whether a drama about a murdered climate activist and a powerful developer strikes a chord in a region where planning rows and energy projects are a live issue remains to be seen when episode one airs.
Sources
- RTÉ: New RTÉ drama The Galway Bay Murders unveils trailer (17 October 2026)
- RTÉ: Late Late Show reveals Halloween Special line-up (29 October 2026)
- Meath Chronicle: Laytown actor joins Halloween special line-up for The Late Late Show (29 October 2026)
- RTÉ: Kate Mulgrew shares Patrick Stewart’s Star Trek wisdom (30 October 2026)
Featured image: Kate Mulgrew (52113297399) by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Leave a Reply