The temperature is rising every hour on all shores, but this is still an election free zone and I hope ye agree with that decision especially since I have extremely good tidings for all of you, maybe especially those in the United States.

This good news cancels out the fact that I have not yet managed to obtain my audition with the uniquely gifted porcine King of Paradise I informed ye about last week. Worry not, it will happen soon.

Let me then cut straight to the core of the good news. This will enrich the future for many of you with Irish blood coursing through your veins and that almost insatiable hunger so many of you out in the diaspora have for more knowledge about your ancestry and background.

I have met so many Irish Americans and Anglo-Irish indeed down the years, both in Ireland and in the USA and in Europe, who have this genetic curiosity. It is deep-rooted and it is touching and I am well aware that it is often not fully satisfied by the information gleaned from orthodox heritage searches. Even for those who visit the homeland in their quest for the deepest roots.

That trip is not feasible for many of you for varied reasons. It is also a modern fact of this New Ireland that the media image of the state, especially on the public broadcasting services such as RTE, is one which has a definite spin on it, a spin directed at enhancing not just our crucial tourism industry but also the international reputation of a little island just slowly emerging from a horrific recession.

It is a reality that the Dublin angles on about every issue are "spun" that way and that the huge swathes of rural Ireland whose folk were the majority of the passengers on the coffin ships to the New World, lose out significantly.

Wherever in the diaspora you are reading this piece, it is most likely that the ancestors who begat you hailed from the areas hardest hit by the Famine, the poorer counties along the west and south coast. It is hopefully likely you know from which county your ancestors emigrated. If that is the case I have very good news for you indeed.

I have glancingly mentioned the new TV station called Irish TV a few times in the recent past. I wish to stress that I have absolutely no professional connection with Irish TV, have never freelanced for them or had any contact whatever except as a TV viewer.

But what I am saying here and now is that the reality and truth of modern life in your home county today is to be found 24/7 on Irish TV in a homespun way that Is quite unique.

The Mayo-based station has its faults, and plenty of them, and the majority of its presenters are not like the polished pundits and anchors of the mainstream media, but, dammit, maybe because of that, Irish TV is broadcasting to the wide world the unvarnished 2016 realities, warts and all, of what we are.

It's crews and cameras visit the small townlands and parishes which the other stations largely shun except when there is a major tragedy there.

And, in a truly impressive schedule, they have a weekly show devoted to every county. No matter which county blood is in your veins, you can now view the ordinary daily life there nowadays.

The cameras show agricultural shows, festivals and parades and sporting celebrations and concerts and dancing and music. If you have Irish relatives still you may see them dancing a set in the parish hall, drinking a pint in the pub, selling a calf or a sheep at the mart. Maybe you will be lucky enough to see a namesake cousin who bears an uncanny resemblance to you or some other family member.

Irish TV's slogan is that it brings local stories to a global audience. It is doing that.

If you have that curiosity about your past I warmly commend you to check out it’s offerings on the Internet. It could very well offer you another window into understanding exactly what makes you tick and tock. Try it and see.