Playing every Friday on RTE One at 8:30pm is this four-part series about the creation of a new area at Emerald Park theme park in Ireland. Here’s our Nerves of Steel review.
Featuring documentary-style interviews with late founder Raymond Coyle this documentary has real sentimental value as though Raymond is speaking from beyond about the love for his park.
Charles Coyle MD of Emerald Park
We get to learn the history of Emerald Park, formerly known as Tayto Park which opened in 2010 with an €8.5 million investment by Ray Coyle who was a potato farmer who established Largo Foods and eventually bought out the popular Tayto crisps brand.
In February 2022, the park was rebranded and would be renamed Emerald Park from January 1st 2023 and with their new Emerald Isle inspired park name it was time to build a new land with two brand new rollercoasters.
This huge €22-million-euro investment is called a ‘gamble’ by Ray but he insists this new area will draw in over 100,000 more visitors to Emerald Park each year when they eventually open Europe’s largest intertwining steel roller-coasters in a new land called Tír na nÓg.
 
The documentary takes us into brainstorming sessions as well as concept stages where ideas are thrown around including how high a particular piece of castle theming will be on one of the Vekoma boomerang coaster spikes. A coaster that goes forwards through a layout until it goes up a spike and then rolls backwards through the same layout back into the station.
With Nerves of Steel only being in four 30-minute episodes I feel as though there is a lot to cover in a short space of time and all of the trials and tribulations of getting an area correct will be explored in further episodes as this one was a very brief, not staying on one subject for too long breezethrough.

History of the park, Raymond discusses his love for the park and a very brief look at concept CAD designs for what this new area will consist of and the coaster train designs revealed.
The Quest (boomerang coaster) and Na Fianna Force (Vekoma suspended coasteR) are state-of-the-art new designs from the Dutch manufacturers and this exclusive glimpse into how the meetings go is rather interesting.
I love it when a theme park is just one family-owned park. There’s no big company that has multiple parks within their portfolio to juggle and spread the investment, there’s one park, one family togetherness and a real commitment to making sure the park is as good as it can be.
 
I’ve never visited Emerald Park but have seen multiple videos where the rides are nicely themed and are quite unique in their attention to detail, this new area is another step forward for the park as they’re aiming to have it themed unlike anything else they have currently in the park.
After Raymond’s passing the baton has been passed down as Tír na nÓg along with its two coasters and a 56-seater chair swing ride named The Celtic Dreamer will be the next step forward for the Irish theme park as they introduce the park’s first fully themed immersive land.
The start of many to come perhaps?

Theme Park documentaries are a real passion of mine and I love how this one oozes that family vibe, I just hope that in the episodes to come, we get a deeper dive into the new area outside of one meeting.
It’s a nice series to have as not only a tribute to Raymond but to conclude the documentary with the opening of the new area and continue Raymond’s legacy through this beautiful new land.
Nerves of Steel has whet my appetite for more and does make me appreciate the new area which we have been invited to go and see for ourselves before it opens to the public for us to cover on our theme park site Lift Hills and Thrills.