Panorama | All stories

For decades, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe, and its dire economic situation meant that many young Irish emigrants moved abroad in search of work. Now, however, the situation has been completely reversed. A sustained economic boom means that foreign workers including thousands of Czechs are now flocking to Ireland in search of employment. In Dublin alone, there are now so many people from the Czech Republic living there that a Czech bar has even opened up to cater for them. In this edition of Panorama, we pay a visit to Ireland's

It’s Monday evening and the ballroom in Prague’s Lucerna is slowly filling up with teenagers in evening dresses. Girls are rushing to the dressing room to take off their trainers and slip into high-heeled shoes while boys are instructed to tuck in their shirts and spit out their chewing gums before they are allowed onto the dance floor. A lot has changed since 15 years ago, when I used to come here, but the tradition of Czech dancing lessons or “taneční”, as they are called, appears to enjoy the same popularity.

Czech women’s basketball is on the rise. The national team, currently ranking 10th in the world, won the European Championship in 2005. Two teams from the Trocal Women’s League regularly participate in Euroleague, Europe’s most prestigious club competition, and one of them – Gambrinus Sika Brno – even won the entire event in 2006. With more international success, more international players have come to the Czech women’s basketball league – roughly 20 foreigners are on the line-ups of the 10 first division clubs this year. One of them, playing for

Bluegrass originates from the Appalachian region of the United States of America, and is a type of music as American as apple pie. But bluegrass enjoys a long and rich history in the Czech Republic too. Lee Bidgood is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Virginia - the cradle of bluegrass. For the past five years, he’s been looking at the way this music is performed in the Czech Republic:

“…A Bude Hůř” (It’s Gonna Get Worse), published in 1985 by author Jan Pelc, based in Paris at the time, has long enjoyed cult status, arguably remaining one of the rawest testimonies of the Normalisation period which followed the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. The novel maps main character Olin and his acquaintances’ descent into booze and drugs in the ‘70s in a working class area in north Bohemia, a hard-hitting cocktail of abuse and destruction underlined by daily clashes with authority and a desire for escape.

Faded jeans, platform shoes, pointed collars and lapels, striking colours and prints: that’s what you recall when you think of 1970s fashion. Now, you can see some of its finest – or at least most garish – examples on display at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. The exhibition entitled Kytky v popelnici or Flowers in the Dustbin is part of a long-term cycle which aims to present fashion in the course of history. The show is also part of a larger project that has presented 1970s lifestyle in photography, living and now, in fashion.

This week in Panorama – Rob Cameron takes to the skies for a flight over North Bohemia in a Cessna 150 light aeroplane, skilfully flown by IT consultant and qualified pilot Emir Halilovic. Fasten your seatbelts – but best leave your luggage at home.

Did you know there was a black ambulance riding around Czechoslovakia during the 1980s, kidnapping children for their organs? Ask any Czech who lived at that time and they’ll confirm it to you. In fact, however, it’s unlikely that anything like that ever happened. It’s just a legend created by oral tradition; in other words, it’s an urban myth. Ethnographer Petr Janecek recently published what is his second collection of such stories, proving that folklore is definitely not a matter of history. Its title - Cerna Sanitka or The Black Ambulance -

The Czech Republic paid a memorable visit to a highly regarded culture venue in Brooklyn, New York, recently, when the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Cinematheque played host to the 'New Czech Films' festival. Leading representatives of Czech cinema such as director Jiri Menzel and actress Klara Issova came to Brooklyn for the event, which has now been running for eight years.

At this time of year, Prague’s cemeteries are carpeted with red and yellow leaves, and in this chilly weather, you are quite unlikely to bump into that many other visitors. Prague’s thirty-or-so city maintained cemeteries offer a step back from the hustle and bustle and traffic jams of the metropolis - and provide the visitor with a glimpse into the Czech capital’s history as well.