Ronan Keating's Wild Atlantic is a 'labour of love'
Pop star Ronan Keating stars in a new BBC show called Wild Atlantic.
Ronan Keating's new TV series was a "labour of love".
The 49-year-old pop star travels around the west coast of Ireland for a new BBC series called Wild Atlantic, and Ronan has explained why the project means so much to him personally.
He told the BBC: "It's kind of a labour of love, really.
"It was a bit of a journey for me, you know, it started out as a beautiful travelogue of the west coast of Ireland, where I used to spend my childhood holidays. It evolved more into a journey to discover why my brother [Ciarán], who passed away two years ago in a terrible car accident, chose the west coast of Ireland.
"It started as a lovely travelogue and turned into this kind of journey to understand my brother's decisions, and really, it just made me fall in love more with the west coast of Ireland."
Ronan said filming the series helped him to process his grief, and he even invited his late brother's children to take part.
The singer said: "I got a lot of therapy after my brother was killed. I struggled a lot with it. And to be honest, I still don't think I've unboxed a lot of it. But it was a very natural thing [to speak about].
"I was just talking while making the show and it just came out, and while we were out on the road, we adapted, and we changed the plan. I invited my brother's elder children out and to come on the journey with me and speak about my brother, to almost help them to understand and help them deal with the loss of their dad."
Ronan also reflected on his complicated relationship with returning to Ireland, having found fame as a teenager.
He said: "Every time we came home to Ireland, it got a little bit more difficult to be there and live there. And I fought through it, because I always was so proud and loved the country so much. I wanted to be there, but I struggled with it a lot.
"But going back there now, look, I've grown up a lot, and I think, seeing it through grown-up eyes … I don't really given a s****. It was just beautiful. It was wonderful. I was welcomed with open arms back home."
