The United States is never not in our lives, and in recent months it is safe to say that many people will have had more than enough of the Land of the Free/Trump’s Mordor (delete according to how much you’re enjoying the World Cup and/or the television output of Taylor Sheridan). But there is no ignoring this chest-thumping geopolitical gorilla: love, loathe, or feel entirely indifferent to it, America will always loom large over Ireland. We have, however, done a bit of looming ourselves – as is made clear in the first episode of Réabhlóid Mheiriceá – Na Laochra Gael (Irish Heroes of the American Revolution), TG4’s enjoyably brisk account of the Irish people who fought on behalf of the 13 Colonies, as they then were, during the American War of Independence (TG4, 9.30pm).It is presented by Cormac Ó hEadhra, who makes for chipper company as he travels from Boston to Pennsylvania, Cork to New York. The characters he encounters are colourful and it is a mystery why they have been so thoroughly written out of history.There is Stephen Moylan from Shandon in Cork City, a buccaneering butcher whose business interests took him to Philadelphia, where he ended up wearing one of those stylish three-pointed hats and serving as a leading administrator to George Washington and coiner of the term “United States of America”. If they ever make an Irish Hamilton, he’ll get at least one song for himself.He wasn’t the only Irish person fighting the good fight against George III. There was also Strabane, Co Tyrone printmaker John Dunlap, who mass-produced copies of the Declaration of Independence. This left him open to charges of sedition. Had Britain prevailed against the rebels, his head would have been literally on the chopping block.Likewise, doing her bit to cast off the yoke of British dominance was Margaret Corbin, a “camp follower” who accompanied Washington’s forces into battle and provided logistical and medical support – and then became a cannoneer for good measure. The documentary’s opening episode isn’t all that interested in more profound questions about the American Revolution – how the colonists’ enthusiasm for slavery undermined their belief in democracy, for instance. Nor is there much on their eagerness to conquer Native American territory, in contrast to the relatively benign British policy of live and let live. [ ‘The United States is still an experiment,’ says descendant of signatory of Declaration of IndependenceOpens in new window ]However, the film does highlight the contested legacy of the revolution – how it is claimed both by Trump’s Maga movement and its detractors. For some, it means “we can seize power”; to others, the Declaration of Independence articulates a “belief in human rights”, says historian Molly Hester. But if focus in part one is narrow, its sweep is broad and it is a reminder that the history of Ireland and the US was intertwined from the very start. Before the first musket had been fired in anger, Irish people were part of the American story – eyewitnesses to the birth of a superpower and of everything good and bad that has followed.