The Riordans
Encyclopedia
The Riordans was the second Irish
soap opera
made by Raidio Telefís Éireann
(then called Telefís Éireann). It ran from 1965 to 1979 and was set in the fictional townland
of Leestown in County Kilkenny
. Its use of Outside Broadcast Units and its filming of its episodes on location rather than in studio, broke the mould of broadcasting in the soap opera genre
, and inspired the creation of its British equivalent, Emmerdale Farm
(now called Emmerdale) by Yorkshire Television
in 1972.
, a soap opera set in a working class
part of Dublin. Its success was immediate, with its actors becoming household names. One year later, aware that Ireland was still a largely rural country, and of the immense popularity of rural-based radio shows on RTÉ Radio (then called Radio Éireann), notably The Kennedys of Castleross
Telefís Éireann decided to create a new rural based soap opera, set on a family farm. Located in Dunboyne, The Flathouse, owned by the Connolly family was the setting for this programme.
was to be called The Riordans after the name of the family, and to feature two middle-aged parents, Tom Riordan and his wife Mary Riordan, with their oldest son, Benjy and other siblings, including brother Michael and sister Jude, all of whom except Benjy had left farming for other careers and had more adverturous personal lives. Other leading characters included the family doctor, his Protestant gentry-born wife, the (radical Vatican II-oriented) Catholic
priest, the conservative
Church of Ireland
rector, the local pub owner, some nomadic Irish Traveller
s and others.
Part of the success of the series was because many of the leading actors were themselves from the background they represented. John Cowley
, who played the patriarch of the family, Tom Riordan was from real farming stock in Ardbraccan
in County Meath
and many of the issues his character had to deal with reflected his own life experiences in rural Ireland. Actor Tom Hickey, who played Benjy was from County Kildare
in the midlands and also had personal experience of life in the part of the country in which the programme was set.
One additional twist to the series was that the elderly gossip, Mrs Brennan, though considerably older than all the other characters (and actors) in the series except her onscreen 'husband' Batty Brennan (he had to be written out of the series suddenly when the actor playing him died), was played by the elderly Anne Dalton, the real-life wife of John Cowley, Tom Riordan, the lead middle aged character. The striking difference in ages of the couple (she was his senior by twenty years, and as Minnie Brennan was made to look even older through make-up) became a source of comment among viewers, as some noted in letters to the show that she was old enough on screen to convincingly play his mother. Local actors included Peter Greene, who played a young boy always in trouble. Many other locals were cast during the many seasons.
Telefís Éireann decided however to film most of The Riordans on location given that creating a farm set was not possible around the Dublin city studios at Montrose. Even if there had been the space, it would have been impossible to mask the city sounds (traffic, aeroplanes overhead, Garda Síochána
(police) sirens, etc.). However to speed up the process of getting the film back to studio for editing, it filmed the programme on a farm near Dunboyne
in County Meath, even though it set it in County Kilkenny
, which was further away.
In 1975 the programme began to be filmed and transmitted in colour, having been available in monochrome only up to then.
, which, aware of the success of The Riordans, was planning its own rural-based soap opera, travelled to Ireland to see how The Riordans was made on location. Its new soap, Emmerdale Farm
(in 1989 renamed Emmerdale) was heavily influenced by what its makers had learnt from watching the making of The Riordans. By the late 1970s and 1980s, first Coronation Street, then EastEnders
and most dramatically Brookside
were influenced in the their greater use (or in the case of Brookside complete use) of on location filming started by The Riordans and brought to Britain
by Emmerdale Farm.
, a chat show which unlike other shows worldwide included full audience participation, a flexible contents list and other innovations. RTÉ, through The Riordans, The Late Late Show, and other shows like 7 Days
earned a reputation for innovation throughout the broadcasting world in the 1960s, with many international broadcasters sending people to study and copy RTÉ's ideas. Some of RTÉ's most successful staff members, both broadcasting (Terry Wogan
and Gay Byrne
), and administrative, (Eamonn Andrews
), either had returned from working on British television, worked simultaneously in both British television and RTÉ or, in the case of Wogan, ended up working with the BBC
, again adding the international flavour of the station. John Cowley
, who played Tom Riordan, had prior to the role acted in both Z-Cars
and The Avengers
, two cult television shows in Britain in the 1960s.
. Conservatives within RTÉ associated with the Knights of Columbanus clashed with liberals and with Marxists associated with Official Sinn Féin, over the content of programmes, through the extent to which the ultimate liberal victory was a product of one side infiltrating the station more successfully than the other is disputed, with one academic saying that the liberal win only represented the triumph of the 'liberal consensus'. However, then-leading OSF intellectual Eoghan Harris
suggests that left wing radicalism was of crucial importance in shaping RTÉ's output in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
The Riordans tackled many 'conservative versus liberal' issues from its very start. Its start coincided with the coming into force of the Succession Act which for the first time granted to the wife of a farmer an automatic right of succession to the family farm, so removing the danger that after her husband's death she could be left with nothing, with the property being will
ed to a total stranger. The issue was at the time controversial; banks until the 1970s would not allow a wife to open a bank account except with the approval of her husband. Conservatives suggested that the new Act, which had been pushed through in the face of opposition by then Minister for Justice Charles Haughey
, would undermine the traditional family and lead to the sale of a farm owned by a family, were a farmer's marriage to break up. Liberals argued that the reform was one of social justice and a long-overdue recognition of the rights of farmers' wives.
In the words of academic Dr Finola Kennedy, The Riordans "introduced one of the most sensitive issues in rural family life – the links between property, farm ownership and marriage at the very time of the debate on the Succession Bill".
The show also focused on a range of farming issues, from the promotion of new farm technology to safety on farms. (In the 1970s Tom and Benjy featured in a television advertisement urging farmers to have metal framed cabs put onto their tractor
s to protect themselves from serious injury should the vehicle overturn.)
Other issues were also raised, such as illegitimacy, poverty
, the problems of old age, marriage break-up, sexual activity, the dramatic changes in the post-Vatican II Catholic Church, and most famously contraception
, when it was revealed that Benjy's wife, Maggie, for medical reasons could not risk having a second pregnancy. The decision of the couple to use contraception (the Pill) caused considerable controversy and criticism from "family values" organisations and some in the Catholic Church. The show was on many issues both praised and criticised in the national media and even in Dáil Éireann
. while civil servants in the mid 1960s criticised the image portrayed of a 'farm advisor' sent out to advise farmers on new advances in farming but who in the series was seen drinking in the pub
and gossiping.
's orchestral arrangement of the Irish traditional tune, "The Palatine's Daughter". The decision of the actor Tom Hickey to leave the series caused some problems. His character, Benjy was not killed off but went abroad "on the missions" (i.e., to work with the Catholic Church in Africa). A new farm labourer, played by new actor Gabriel Byrne
, was introduced in 1978 and he played the love-interest for Maggie, Benjy's wife, who had remained after refusing to go to Africa with him. While the show had declined somewhat from its heyday, it still regularly battled with The Late Late Show to top the TAM ratings and was itself surprised when one episode, which unusually departed from the 1970s and focused on Tom Riordan as a young man in the 1930s at a family céilí, was critically acclaimed by the media and many older viewers, who viewed it as an accurate representation of life on an Irish farm in the 1930s and 1940s. With its considerable popularity, large cast of respected actor
s and high production values, and its central location on the schedules of RTÉ 1
, few expected the show to be axed, let alone so suddenly.
There was however considerable surprise, and a lot of criticism, when the new Director of Programming at RTÉ, Muiris MacConghail decided that the show had run its course and so axed it. Part of the justification was cost: it was one of RTÉ's most expensive shows to make. With the launch of RTÉ 2
in 1978 the station believed that it needed to produce more shows for its limited budget as a small station, and it could not do that if The Riordans took up much of the budget. Critics however suggested that RTÉ had failed to market the show internationally and that, given the size of the Irish diaspora
internationally, all interested in 'home', it could have had an international market among stations in countries with large Irish audiences, with its sale recouping much of the cost involved in its making.
The public, the media and politicians all criticised the axing of one of the most popular shows on RTÉ. However, notwithstanding the outcry, and condemnation by John Cowley who argued that the cast had been badly treated, the last television episode was broadcast on RTÉ television in May 1979.
Fine Gael
TD
Tom Enright
, during a 1980 debate in Dáil Éireann
said of the decision:
The show was resurrected for RTÉ Radio 1
as a fifteen minute daily show where it lasted a few years. The move to radio allowed some of the older actors to retire, while departed characters, such as Benjy, could be brought back, albeit not with the original actors but with actors who sounded like the person who played them in the television series. The Riordans was later dropped from the radio schedules as part of a re-organisation of the schedules.
While occasional media reports have wondered whether the show should return, notably when the independent TV3
was launched and was seeking to capture the audience, something it might have done had it had The Riordans in its schedule, there is in reality little chance of its return, given the death of some of its leading actors, including John Cowley
(Tom Riordan), Chris O'Neill (Michael Riordan), Anne Dalton (Minnie Brennan), Tony Doyle (Fr. Sheehy), Joe Pilkington (Eamon Maher), Christopher Casson
(The Rector) and Jack O'Reilly (Johnny Mac) as well as the retirement from acting of Biddy White Lennon (Maggie Riordan) and the unavailability of Tom Hickey (who does not want to reprise his role of Benjy) and Gabriel Byrne
, now a Hollywood actor.
was Taoiseach
. When it finished, his son-in-law the controversial Charles Haughey
was months from becoming Taoiseach. The Riordans covered a period of rapid transition in Irish life, from an agrarian, protectionist Ireland of the early 1960s to membership of the European Economic Community
and so a rapidly changing rural economy in the 1970s. In the 1960s, Ireland was still rural, conservative and Catholic, with storylines like a character going on the Pill containing a shock value unthinkable a decade later. By the late 1970s, Ireland was becoming less rural, less conservative and less Catholic. Ironically, one of the biggest shock issues of the early show, the use of contraception, became less of a shock when in 1979 the provision of contraception was legalised, albeit with tight controls, in the very year the show was taken off air.
The changing nature of Irish society was shown in the soap operas that replaced The Riordans. After the short interregnum Bracken, came Glenroe
, another 'rural' show that however was not set, like The Riordans in a rural townland, but on the fringes of a town close to Dublin, with some characters living in an urban housing estate. Even the central characters, a farmer and his father Miley Byrne and Dinny Byrne, blurred the urban and rural worlds in a way Tom Riordan never did, by turning their farm into an open farm for urban people to visit, and selling their produce in their own shop in the local town. After two decades that show itself was axed, leaving RTÉ with only one major homegrown soap opera, one that has no rural aspect at all, and is set in inner-city Dublin, Fair City.
The final 26 episodes of The Riordans was shown in about 1980 on the various ITV regions - for the most part, in most areas, it was shown three times a week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 12:30 - most regions temporarily dropped Australian wartime drama The Sullivans
, which had been aired in that timeslot in most regions, to accommodate The Riordans - in the Tyne Tees region, The Sullivans continued to air on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30, but The Riordans aired on Wednesdays only - they gradually fell behind the network as a result.
It was dropped from that timeslot after a while - only to continue in the 3:45 slot on Tuesday afternoons (a brief narrated refresher course was provided) and carried on in that slot until the final episode.
Bracken - this was shown around the ITV regions, those that took the show usually aired it on a Wednesday afternoon around half-past two.
Glenroe - in the UK, that was again regionalised - the first 26 or so episodes were aired, and then the series was discontinued.
on radio to The Riordans on television, RTÉ had focused heavily on rural life as a context for its soap operas. The axing of The Riordans was not however the end of rural soaps on RTÉ. A spin-off series, Bracken was launched around Pat Barry (Gabriel Byrne), and which featured Irish actor Niall Toibin
, Mick Lally
and former Coronation Street
actor Joe Lynch (who had played a lover of the Street's Elsie Tanner). After two series, that show was replaced as planned by its own spin-off, Glenroe
, which followed the Lally and Lynch characters as they moved from the fictional townland of Bracken to the outskirts of the fictional town of Glenroe. The axing of Glenroe in 2001 brought to an end the tradition of rural soap operas on RTÉ. Since the axing of Glenroe RTÉ have focused on the urban soap opera Fair City
, which not only touched on the same themes as Tolka Row thirty years earlier but even starred one of the stars of the earlier urban drama in a new role. However, rural drama remains as strong source of material as seen in On Home Ground (2001 - 2002), Pure Mule
(2005 - 2009) and the popular detective series Single-Handed
(2007 - Date).
One of Ireland's most successful screen writers, Wesley Burrowes
, having been responsible for much of the output on The Riordans, was the creator of both Bracken and Glenroe. Some of those associated as writers and directors with The Riordans went on to have successful film and stage careers, including novelist, playwright
and screenwriter, Eugene McCabe
and playwright Joe O'Donnell
and filmmaker Pat O'Connor
.
However some 1960s episodes remain, as do a lot from the 1970s.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
made by Raidio Telefís Éireann
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
(then called Telefís Éireann). It ran from 1965 to 1979 and was set in the fictional townland
Townland
A townland or bally is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. The townland system is of Gaelic origin—most townlands are believed to pre-date the Norman invasion and most have names derived from the Irish language...
of Leestown in County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. The territory of the county was the core part of the ancient Irish Kingdom of Osraige which in turn was the core of the Diocese of...
. Its use of Outside Broadcast Units and its filming of its episodes on location rather than in studio, broke the mould of broadcasting in the soap opera genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, and inspired the creation of its British equivalent, Emmerdale Farm
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
(now called Emmerdale) by Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
in 1972.
Launch
In 1964 the fledgling Telefís Éireann had launched Tolka RowTolka Row
Tolka Row was an Irish soap opera set in a fictional housing estate on the northside of Dublin. Based on Maura Laverty's 1951 play of the same name, the show was set around the trials and tribulations of the Nolan family...
, a soap opera set in a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
part of Dublin. Its success was immediate, with its actors becoming household names. One year later, aware that Ireland was still a largely rural country, and of the immense popularity of rural-based radio shows on RTÉ Radio (then called Radio Éireann), notably The Kennedys of Castleross
The Kennedys of Castleross
The Kennedys of Castleross was an Irish serial drama or soap opera which was broadcast on Radio Éireann from 1955 to 1973.The serial was devised by Arks advertising agency on behalf of its client, Fry-Cadbury and the first script writers were Mark Grantham and Bill Nugent. The first episode was...
Telefís Éireann decided to create a new rural based soap opera, set on a family farm. Located in Dunboyne, The Flathouse, owned by the Connolly family was the setting for this programme.
Characters
The show, which was created by James DouglasJames Douglas
-Lords of Angus:* James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Angus , Scottish nobleman* James Douglas, Earl of Angus , son of the 2nd Marquess of Douglas-Lords of Douglas:...
was to be called The Riordans after the name of the family, and to feature two middle-aged parents, Tom Riordan and his wife Mary Riordan, with their oldest son, Benjy and other siblings, including brother Michael and sister Jude, all of whom except Benjy had left farming for other careers and had more adverturous personal lives. Other leading characters included the family doctor, his Protestant gentry-born wife, the (radical Vatican II-oriented) Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priest, the conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
rector, the local pub owner, some nomadic Irish Traveller
Irish Traveller
Irish Travellers are a traditionally nomadic people of ethnic Irish origin, who maintain a separate language and set of traditions. They live predominantly in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.-Etymology:...
s and others.
Part of the success of the series was because many of the leading actors were themselves from the background they represented. John Cowley
John Cowley (actor)
John Cowley was an Irish actor, best known for his role as paterfamilias, Tom Riordan, in the long-running RTÉ Television drama series, The Riordans....
, who played the patriarch of the family, Tom Riordan was from real farming stock in Ardbraccan
Ardbraccan
Ardbraccan is an ancient place of Christian worship in County Meath, Ireland. It is the location of the former residence of the Roman Catholic, then, after the Reformation, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath. It is located approximately 30 miles from Dublin.-Origins:Ardbraccan originated as a...
in County Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
and many of the issues his character had to deal with reflected his own life experiences in rural Ireland. Actor Tom Hickey, who played Benjy was from County Kildare
County Kildare
County Kildare is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county...
in the midlands and also had personal experience of life in the part of the country in which the programme was set.
Tensions and rivalries
As with all soap operas, The Riordans was centred on various tensions, rivalries and relationships. Among the central ones were- generational - conservative parents (Tom and Mary) and radical young son and heir (Benjy); Batty Brennan and his wife Minnie Brennan , as the old people in the community, against everyone else.
- mother versus son - Mary against Benjy, which some critics likened to John Millington SyngeJohn Millington SyngeEdmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the cofounders of the Abbey Theatre...
's The Playboy of the Western WorldThe Playboy of the Western WorldThe Playboy of the Western World is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on January 26, 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo during the early 1900s...
; - liberal versus conservative - radical priest Father Sheehy versus his older parishParishA parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
ioners; conservative parents Tom and Mary against liberal children Michael and Jude; conservative Catholic Tom and Mary versus their contraceptionContraceptionContraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
-using daughter-in-law, Maggie Riordan; - outsider versus insider - the Riordan family, with their middle class farming background, against orphanOrphanAn orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
Maggie, wife of Benjy; members of the nomadic Irish traveller community versus the settled, non-nomadic farming community; - Class - well-to-do characters like the Church of Ireland upper middle class wife of the doctor, Mrs. Howard, and the middle class farming Riordans, against farm labourers Batty Brennan and Eamonn Maher.
- community gossip - as with most soaps, The Riordans contained a 'local gossip' character, Minnie Brennan, who, typically for the such characters, proclaimed no interest in gossip at all, but nevertheless became the source of local information on the lives and loves of the community.
One additional twist to the series was that the elderly gossip, Mrs Brennan, though considerably older than all the other characters (and actors) in the series except her onscreen 'husband' Batty Brennan (he had to be written out of the series suddenly when the actor playing him died), was played by the elderly Anne Dalton, the real-life wife of John Cowley, Tom Riordan, the lead middle aged character. The striking difference in ages of the couple (she was his senior by twenty years, and as Minnie Brennan was made to look even older through make-up) became a source of comment among viewers, as some noted in letters to the show that she was old enough on screen to convincingly play his mother. Local actors included Peter Greene, who played a young boy always in trouble. Many other locals were cast during the many seasons.
Revolutionising television though using OBUs
The Riordans proved to be a revolutionary television programme, both in Ireland and internationally. Its most dramatic innovation was in the use of OBUs (Outside Broadcast Units) to film most of each episode on location in the countryside. This was a marked innovation. Previously soap operas had all been studio-based, with even supposed exterior filming all done with studio sets built in sound stages. On location filming was up to that point avoided for technical and financial reasons; firstly on location filming was reliant on weather conditions, which meant it was difficult to manage costs. Secondly costs of transporting sets, wardrobe, cameras, and film made on location shooting more expensive, while the extra time involved in transporting edited footage back to studio, in the days before satellite links, also meant that on location shoots, unless taking place beside the studio, were avoided. Thirdly, recording sound was thought to be more complicated in an open environment, and much easier on closed studio sound stages.Telefís Éireann decided however to film most of The Riordans on location given that creating a farm set was not possible around the Dublin city studios at Montrose. Even if there had been the space, it would have been impossible to mask the city sounds (traffic, aeroplanes overhead, Garda Síochána
Garda Síochána
, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...
(police) sirens, etc.). However to speed up the process of getting the film back to studio for editing, it filmed the programme on a farm near Dunboyne
Dunboyne
Dunboyne is a town in County Meath in Ireland. For the most part, it is a dormitory town for the city of Dublin.-Location:Dunboyne is centred on the crossroads formed by the R156 regional road and the old Maynooth Road ....
in County Meath, even though it set it in County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. The territory of the county was the core part of the ancient Irish Kingdom of Osraige which in turn was the core of the Diocese of...
, which was further away.
In 1975 the programme began to be filmed and transmitted in colour, having been available in monochrome only up to then.
Template for Emmerdale Farm
The successful use of OBUs to film The Riordans made international waves in broadcasting, given that all soap operas elsewhere, notably Coronation Street, were entirely studio-based. In the early 1970s, Yorkshire TelevisionYorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
, which, aware of the success of The Riordans, was planning its own rural-based soap opera, travelled to Ireland to see how The Riordans was made on location. Its new soap, Emmerdale Farm
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
(in 1989 renamed Emmerdale) was heavily influenced by what its makers had learnt from watching the making of The Riordans. By the late 1970s and 1980s, first Coronation Street, then EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
and most dramatically Brookside
Brookside
Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
were influenced in the their greater use (or in the case of Brookside complete use) of on location filming started by The Riordans and brought to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by Emmerdale Farm.
RTÉ in the 1960s - a reputation for innovation
RTÉ's revolutionary method of making The Riordans was also matched in its revolutionary The Late Late ShowThe Late Late Show
The Late Late Show, sometimes referred to as The Late Late, or in some cases by the acronym LLS, is the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster and the official flagship television programme of Irish broadcasting company RTÉ...
, a chat show which unlike other shows worldwide included full audience participation, a flexible contents list and other innovations. RTÉ, through The Riordans, The Late Late Show, and other shows like 7 Days
7 Days (Ireland)
7 Days was a Radio Telefís Éireann current affairs programme presented by Brian Farrell, Brian Cleeve and John O'Donoghue and broadcast in Ireland from 1966 until 1976.-Background:...
earned a reputation for innovation throughout the broadcasting world in the 1960s, with many international broadcasters sending people to study and copy RTÉ's ideas. Some of RTÉ's most successful staff members, both broadcasting (Terry Wogan
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL , or also known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career...
and Gay Byrne
Gay Byrne
Gabriel Mary "Gay" Byrne is a veteran Irish presenter of radio and television. His most notable role was first host of The Late Late Show over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999...
), and administrative, (Eamonn Andrews
Eamonn Andrews
Eamonn Andrews, CBE , was an Irish television presenter based in the United Kingdom.-Life and career:...
), either had returned from working on British television, worked simultaneously in both British television and RTÉ or, in the case of Wogan, ended up working with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, again adding the international flavour of the station. John Cowley
John Cowley (actor)
John Cowley was an Irish actor, best known for his role as paterfamilias, Tom Riordan, in the long-running RTÉ Television drama series, The Riordans....
, who played Tom Riordan, had prior to the role acted in both Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
and The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
, two cult television shows in Britain in the 1960s.
Pushing agendas
Irish broadcasting in the 1960s and 1970s reflected the clash of ideas between elements of traditional rural Catholic society and new liberal ideas coming from the United States, Britain and in Catholicism itself through the reforms of the Second Vatican CouncilSecond Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
. Conservatives within RTÉ associated with the Knights of Columbanus clashed with liberals and with Marxists associated with Official Sinn Féin, over the content of programmes, through the extent to which the ultimate liberal victory was a product of one side infiltrating the station more successfully than the other is disputed, with one academic saying that the liberal win only represented the triumph of the 'liberal consensus'. However, then-leading OSF intellectual Eoghan Harris
Eoghan Harris
Eoghan Harris is an Irish journalist, fiction writer, director, columnist and politician. He currently writes for the Sunday Independent. He was a member of Seanad Éireann from 2007–11, having been nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern....
suggests that left wing radicalism was of crucial importance in shaping RTÉ's output in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
The Riordans tackled many 'conservative versus liberal' issues from its very start. Its start coincided with the coming into force of the Succession Act which for the first time granted to the wife of a farmer an automatic right of succession to the family farm, so removing the danger that after her husband's death she could be left with nothing, with the property being will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
ed to a total stranger. The issue was at the time controversial; banks until the 1970s would not allow a wife to open a bank account except with the approval of her husband. Conservatives suggested that the new Act, which had been pushed through in the face of opposition by then Minister for Justice Charles Haughey
Charles Haughey
Charles James "Charlie" Haughey was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving three terms in office . He was also the fourth leader of Fianna Fáil...
, would undermine the traditional family and lead to the sale of a farm owned by a family, were a farmer's marriage to break up. Liberals argued that the reform was one of social justice and a long-overdue recognition of the rights of farmers' wives.
In the words of academic Dr Finola Kennedy, The Riordans "introduced one of the most sensitive issues in rural family life – the links between property, farm ownership and marriage at the very time of the debate on the Succession Bill".
The show also focused on a range of farming issues, from the promotion of new farm technology to safety on farms. (In the 1970s Tom and Benjy featured in a television advertisement urging farmers to have metal framed cabs put onto their tractor
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
s to protect themselves from serious injury should the vehicle overturn.)
Other issues were also raised, such as illegitimacy, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, the problems of old age, marriage break-up, sexual activity, the dramatic changes in the post-Vatican II Catholic Church, and most famously contraception
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
, when it was revealed that Benjy's wife, Maggie, for medical reasons could not risk having a second pregnancy. The decision of the couple to use contraception (the Pill) caused considerable controversy and criticism from "family values" organisations and some in the Catholic Church. The show was on many issues both praised and criticised in the national media and even in Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
. while civil servants in the mid 1960s criticised the image portrayed of a 'farm advisor' sent out to advise farmers on new advances in farming but who in the series was seen drinking in the pub
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
and gossiping.
Controversially axed
The show underwent a number of changes in the mid-1970s, most notably moving from a half hour to one hour format, as well as a change in theme tune. The music originally used to introduce each episode was Seoirse BodleySeóirse Bodley
Seóirse Bodley is an Irish composer and former associate professor of music at University College Dublin . He has been Saoi of Aosdána since 2008.-Biography:...
's orchestral arrangement of the Irish traditional tune, "The Palatine's Daughter". The decision of the actor Tom Hickey to leave the series caused some problems. His character, Benjy was not killed off but went abroad "on the missions" (i.e., to work with the Catholic Church in Africa). A new farm labourer, played by new actor Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...
, was introduced in 1978 and he played the love-interest for Maggie, Benjy's wife, who had remained after refusing to go to Africa with him. While the show had declined somewhat from its heyday, it still regularly battled with The Late Late Show to top the TAM ratings and was itself surprised when one episode, which unusually departed from the 1970s and focused on Tom Riordan as a young man in the 1930s at a family céilí, was critically acclaimed by the media and many older viewers, who viewed it as an accurate representation of life on an Irish farm in the 1930s and 1940s. With its considerable popularity, large cast of respected actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s and high production values, and its central location on the schedules of RTÉ 1
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...
, few expected the show to be axed, let alone so suddenly.
There was however considerable surprise, and a lot of criticism, when the new Director of Programming at RTÉ, Muiris MacConghail decided that the show had run its course and so axed it. Part of the justification was cost: it was one of RTÉ's most expensive shows to make. With the launch of RTÉ 2
RTÉ Two
RTÉ Two is a free-to-air general entertainment channel operated by Irish state broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. RTÉ Two is available throughout the island of Ireland through digital terrestrial service Saorview, VHF and UHF bands, and is also available via satellite to Irish subscribers of...
in 1978 the station believed that it needed to produce more shows for its limited budget as a small station, and it could not do that if The Riordans took up much of the budget. Critics however suggested that RTÉ had failed to market the show internationally and that, given the size of the Irish diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
internationally, all interested in 'home', it could have had an international market among stations in countries with large Irish audiences, with its sale recouping much of the cost involved in its making.
The public, the media and politicians all criticised the axing of one of the most popular shows on RTÉ. However, notwithstanding the outcry, and condemnation by John Cowley who argued that the cast had been badly treated, the last television episode was broadcast on RTÉ television in May 1979.
Fine Gael
Fine Gael
Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
TD
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...
Tom Enright
Tom Enright
Thomas W. Enright is a former Irish Fine Gael politician.Enright was born in Shinrone, County Offaly in 1940. He was educated at the Cistercian College, Roscrea, University College Dublin and the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland...
, during a 1980 debate in Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
said of the decision:
- “The Riordans”, one of the finest programmes that I can remember seeing and was most enjoyable, was dropped from television some time ago. It touched on many important social aspects of not just rural Irish life but all aspects of Irish life. It incorporated many delicate matters and matters which people shied away from and it was an in-depth study of life in Ireland. I am certain that the cost factor had a lot to do with the removal of this programme, but it was a mistake to remove it and this is evident when we see some of the programmes that replace it on the television service.
The show was resurrected for RTÉ Radio 1
RTÉ Radio 1
RTÉ Radio 1 is the principal radio channel of Irish public-service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926...
as a fifteen minute daily show where it lasted a few years. The move to radio allowed some of the older actors to retire, while departed characters, such as Benjy, could be brought back, albeit not with the original actors but with actors who sounded like the person who played them in the television series. The Riordans was later dropped from the radio schedules as part of a re-organisation of the schedules.
While occasional media reports have wondered whether the show should return, notably when the independent TV3
TV3 Ireland
TV3 is a free-to-air commercial television network in the Republic of Ireland. Launched on 20 September 1998 it was Ireland's first commercial broadcaster. The channel is owned by TV3 Group a subsidiary of Doughty Hanson & Co.-The TV3 Group:...
was launched and was seeking to capture the audience, something it might have done had it had The Riordans in its schedule, there is in reality little chance of its return, given the death of some of its leading actors, including John Cowley
John Cowley (actor)
John Cowley was an Irish actor, best known for his role as paterfamilias, Tom Riordan, in the long-running RTÉ Television drama series, The Riordans....
(Tom Riordan), Chris O'Neill (Michael Riordan), Anne Dalton (Minnie Brennan), Tony Doyle (Fr. Sheehy), Joe Pilkington (Eamon Maher), Christopher Casson
Christopher Casson
Christopher Casson was an English-born actor who became a citizen of Ireland in 1946. His work included stage, screen, radio and television roles...
(The Rector) and Jack O'Reilly (Johnny Mac) as well as the retirement from acting of Biddy White Lennon (Maggie Riordan) and the unavailability of Tom Hickey (who does not want to reprise his role of Benjy) and Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...
, now a Hollywood actor.
Context and conclusion
The Riordans overall is seen as a crucial show in the development of late 20th century television drama. It gave RTÉ its first experience of how to create a long-running soap opera. Its use of OBUs changed the methodology by which later soaps in both Britain and Ireland were made. It embodied the changing Ireland of its period. When it was first broadcast, the reforming Sean LemassSeán Lemass
Seán Francis Lemass was one of the most prominent Irish politicians of the 20th century. He served as Taoiseach from 1959 until 1966....
was Taoiseach
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...
. When it finished, his son-in-law the controversial Charles Haughey
Charles Haughey
Charles James "Charlie" Haughey was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving three terms in office . He was also the fourth leader of Fianna Fáil...
was months from becoming Taoiseach. The Riordans covered a period of rapid transition in Irish life, from an agrarian, protectionist Ireland of the early 1960s to membership of the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
and so a rapidly changing rural economy in the 1970s. In the 1960s, Ireland was still rural, conservative and Catholic, with storylines like a character going on the Pill containing a shock value unthinkable a decade later. By the late 1970s, Ireland was becoming less rural, less conservative and less Catholic. Ironically, one of the biggest shock issues of the early show, the use of contraception, became less of a shock when in 1979 the provision of contraception was legalised, albeit with tight controls, in the very year the show was taken off air.
The changing nature of Irish society was shown in the soap operas that replaced The Riordans. After the short interregnum Bracken, came Glenroe
Glenroe
Glenroe was an Irish television drama series broadcast between September 1983 and May 2001 on RTÉ One. The programme was a spin-off from Bracken, a short-lived RTÉ drama itself spun off from The Riordans. Glenroe was broadcast on Sunday nights at 20.30, generally from September to May. The show was...
, another 'rural' show that however was not set, like The Riordans in a rural townland, but on the fringes of a town close to Dublin, with some characters living in an urban housing estate. Even the central characters, a farmer and his father Miley Byrne and Dinny Byrne, blurred the urban and rural worlds in a way Tom Riordan never did, by turning their farm into an open farm for urban people to visit, and selling their produce in their own shop in the local town. After two decades that show itself was axed, leaving RTÉ with only one major homegrown soap opera, one that has no rural aspect at all, and is set in inner-city Dublin, Fair City.
The final 26 episodes of The Riordans was shown in about 1980 on the various ITV regions - for the most part, in most areas, it was shown three times a week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 12:30 - most regions temporarily dropped Australian wartime drama The Sullivans
The Sullivans
The Sullivans is an Australian drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran from 1976 until 1983. The series told the story of an average middle-classMelbourne family and the effect World War II had on their lives...
, which had been aired in that timeslot in most regions, to accommodate The Riordans - in the Tyne Tees region, The Sullivans continued to air on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30, but The Riordans aired on Wednesdays only - they gradually fell behind the network as a result.
It was dropped from that timeslot after a while - only to continue in the 3:45 slot on Tuesday afternoons (a brief narrated refresher course was provided) and carried on in that slot until the final episode.
Bracken - this was shown around the ITV regions, those that took the show usually aired it on a Wednesday afternoon around half-past two.
Glenroe - in the UK, that was again regionalised - the first 26 or so episodes were aired, and then the series was discontinued.
The tradition of rural drama on RTÉ
From the Kennedys of CastlerossThe Kennedys of Castleross
The Kennedys of Castleross was an Irish serial drama or soap opera which was broadcast on Radio Éireann from 1955 to 1973.The serial was devised by Arks advertising agency on behalf of its client, Fry-Cadbury and the first script writers were Mark Grantham and Bill Nugent. The first episode was...
on radio to The Riordans on television, RTÉ had focused heavily on rural life as a context for its soap operas. The axing of The Riordans was not however the end of rural soaps on RTÉ. A spin-off series, Bracken was launched around Pat Barry (Gabriel Byrne), and which featured Irish actor Niall Toibin
Niall Toibin
Niall Tóibín is an Irish comedian and actor. Born in Cork into an Irish speaking family, Tóibín grew up on the north-side of the city in Bishop's Field. He has appeared in Ryan's Daughter, Bracken, The Irish R.M., Caught in a Free State, Ballykissangel, Far and Away, and Veronica Guerin, and has...
, Mick Lally
Mick Lally
Michael 'Mick' Lally was an Irish stage, film and television actor. He departed from a teaching career for acting during the 1970s...
and former Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
actor Joe Lynch (who had played a lover of the Street's Elsie Tanner). After two series, that show was replaced as planned by its own spin-off, Glenroe
Glenroe
Glenroe was an Irish television drama series broadcast between September 1983 and May 2001 on RTÉ One. The programme was a spin-off from Bracken, a short-lived RTÉ drama itself spun off from The Riordans. Glenroe was broadcast on Sunday nights at 20.30, generally from September to May. The show was...
, which followed the Lally and Lynch characters as they moved from the fictional townland of Bracken to the outskirts of the fictional town of Glenroe. The axing of Glenroe in 2001 brought to an end the tradition of rural soap operas on RTÉ. Since the axing of Glenroe RTÉ have focused on the urban soap opera Fair City
Fair City
Fair City is an award-winning Irish television soap opera on RTÉ One. Produced by Radio Telefís Éireann, it was first broadcast on Monday, September 18, 1989...
, which not only touched on the same themes as Tolka Row thirty years earlier but even starred one of the stars of the earlier urban drama in a new role. However, rural drama remains as strong source of material as seen in On Home Ground (2001 - 2002), Pure Mule
Pure Mule
Pure Mule was an Irish six-part drama mini-series aimed at a young audience and broadcast on RTÉ Two as part of RTÉ's autumn schedule in 2005, shot and screened in 2004–2005 in County Offaly....
(2005 - 2009) and the popular detective series Single-Handed
Single-Handed (2007 drama)
Single-Handed is an Irish television drama series broadcast on RTÉ Television. Set and filmed in the west of Ireland, it focuses on the life of a member of the , Sergeant Jack Driscoll . Three two-episode, single-story series aired, one each on consecutive nights in 2007, 2008 and 2009...
(2007 - Date).
One of Ireland's most successful screen writers, Wesley Burrowes
Wesley Burrowes
Wesley Burrowes is an Irish playwright and screenwriter. Originally from Northern Ireland, he is now a resident of the Republic of Ireland...
, having been responsible for much of the output on The Riordans, was the creator of both Bracken and Glenroe. Some of those associated as writers and directors with The Riordans went on to have successful film and stage careers, including novelist, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and screenwriter, Eugene McCabe
Eugene McCabe
Eugene McCabe is an Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and television screenwriter. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Irish emigrants, but moved with his family to Ireland in the early 1940s. He lives on a farm near Clones in County Monaghan near the border between the Republic of...
and playwright Joe O'Donnell
Joe O'Donnell
Joseph Roger O'Donnell was an American documentarian, photojournalist and a photographer for the United States Information Agency...
and filmmaker Pat O'Connor
Pat O'Connor (director)
Pat O'Connor, born in Ardmore, County Waterford, is an Irish film director.In 1982, O'Connor won a Jacob's Award for his direction of the RTÉ TV adaptation of William Trevor's short story, Ballroom of Romance starring Cyril Cusack and Brenda Fricker. It was shot near the village of Ballycroy,...
.
Later careers of the actors
Some of the actors had distinguished careers after the axing of The Riordans.- After Bracken Gabriel Byrne went to the United States where be became a successful film actor.
- Tony Doyle, Father Sheehy, who had left the series in the mid-1970s, became a successful television actor with the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, starring in among other shows BallykissangelBallykissangelBallykissangel is a BBC television drama set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural community. It ran for six series, which were first broadcast on BBC One in the UK from 1996 to 2001...
, before dying suddenly aged 58 on the brink of his biggest television role yet. - John CowleyJohn Cowley (actor)John Cowley was an Irish actor, best known for his role as paterfamilias, Tom Riordan, in the long-running RTÉ Television drama series, The Riordans....
worked largely in films, playing the "auctioneer" in John B. KeaneJohn B. KeaneJohn Brendan Keane was an Irish playwright, novelist and essayist from Listowel, County Kerry.-Life and career:...
's The FieldThe FieldThe Field is a play written by John B. Keane, first performed in 1965. It tells the story of the hardened farmer "Bull" McCabe and his love for the land he rents. The play debuted at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in 1965, with Ray McAnally as "The Bull" and Eamon Keane as "The Bird" O'Donnell. The play...
with Richard HarrisRichard HarrisRichard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
and also on stage. Cowley also continued with his lifelong campaign against coursingCoursingCoursing is the pursuit of game or other animals by dogs—chiefly greyhounds and other sighthounds—catching their prey by speed, running by sight and not by scent. Coursing was a common hunting technique, practised by the nobility, the landed and wealthy, and commoners with sighthounds and lurchers...
and other blood sports. He died in 1998. - Annie Dalton, Minnie Brennan, who was Cowley's much older wife in real life, died in 1983.
- Chris O'Neill, Michael Riordan, worked for some years as agent for Gabriel Byrne. He died in the United States in 1991.
- Biddy White Lennon, Maggie Riordan, left acting and has become a successful author and publisher of cookery books.
- Tom Hickey is now an acclaimed stage and film actor.
- Moira DeadyMoira DeadyMoira Deady was an Irish actress. She starred as Mary Riordan in The Riordans from 1965 until it was axed in 1979, before appearing as Nellie Connors in Glenroe. Mary Riordan was considered "the quintessential Irish mammy" - Irish Independent/The Irish Times...
went on to act in Glenroe, the spin-off show that came from Bracken, the spin-off from The Riordans. She also starred in a number of films, including Angela's AshesAngela's AshesAngela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's...
.
Back catalogue wiped
A controversial policy of RTÉ's in the 1960s and 1970s led to the erasing of previous episodes of old programmes, so that the expensive video that had been used to record them could be reused again. As a result, little remains of RTÉ's 1960s output, with shows like The Riordans, The Late Late Show and others routinely wiped after broadcast.However some 1960s episodes remain, as do a lot from the 1970s.
Actors and roles
- Frank O'Donovan - Batty Brennan
- Gabriel ByrneGabriel ByrneGabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...
- Pat Barry - John CowleyJohn Cowley (actor)John Cowley was an Irish actor, best known for his role as paterfamilias, Tom Riordan, in the long-running RTÉ Television drama series, The Riordans....
- Tom Riordan - Annie Dalton - Minnie Brennan
- Moira DeadyMoira DeadyMoira Deady was an Irish actress. She starred as Mary Riordan in The Riordans from 1965 until it was axed in 1979, before appearing as Nellie Connors in Glenroe. Mary Riordan was considered "the quintessential Irish mammy" - Irish Independent/The Irish Times...
- Mary Riordan - Tony Doyle - Father Sheehy
- Tom Hickey - Benjy Riordan
- Johnny Hoey - Francie Maher
- Mary Kearns - Delia Maher
- Biddy White Lennon - Maggie Riordan
- Anna ManahanAnna ManahanAnna Maria Manahan was an Irish stage, film and television actress. She interpreted the works of, among others, Sean O'Casey, John B Keane, J. M. Synge, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Martin McDonagh, Christy Brown, and Brian Friel....
- - Pamela Mant - Mrs Howard
- Michael McDowell - Dan Hennessy
- Chris O'Neill - Michael Riordan
- Jack O'Reilly - Johnny Mac
- Gerry O'Sullivan - Owen Howard
- Joe Pilkington - Eamonn Maher
- Ann Rowan - Julia Mac
- Vincent Smith - Murph
- Brenda Wilde - Eily Maher
- - Frank Tracey
Series writers
Among the many writers were- Wesley BurrowesWesley BurrowesWesley Burrowes is an Irish playwright and screenwriter. Originally from Northern Ireland, he is now a resident of the Republic of Ireland...
- Pat O'ConnorPat O'Connor (director)Pat O'Connor, born in Ardmore, County Waterford, is an Irish film director.In 1982, O'Connor won a Jacob's Award for his direction of the RTÉ TV adaptation of William Trevor's short story, Ballroom of Romance starring Cyril Cusack and Brenda Fricker. It was shot near the village of Ballycroy,...
- James Douglas (original creator)
- Eugene McCabeEugene McCabeEugene McCabe is an Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and television screenwriter. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Irish emigrants, but moved with his family to Ireland in the early 1940s. He lives on a farm near Clones in County Monaghan near the border between the Republic of...
Spin Offs
- Bracken (1978-1982)
- GlenroeGlenroeGlenroe was an Irish television drama series broadcast between September 1983 and May 2001 on RTÉ One. The programme was a spin-off from Bracken, a short-lived RTÉ drama itself spun off from The Riordans. Glenroe was broadcast on Sunday nights at 20.30, generally from September to May. The show was...
(a spin-off from Bracken) (1983-2001)
Footnotes
- 'Soap Opera and Social Order: Glenroe, Fair City and Contemporary Ireland' by Dr. Dr Helena Sheehan. A paper given at IMAGINING IRELAND conference, Irish Film Centre, Dublin, 31 October 1993
- Finola Kennedy, Cottage to Crèche: Family Change in Ireland (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 2001) pp. 302. Price: €30.47
- Dáil Éireann - Volume 220 - 01 February, 1966 Private Members' Business. - Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Bill, 1965: Second Stage (Resumed) Dáil Éireann - Volume 257 - 24 November, 1971
- Irish Independent report on release of state papers containing file on civil service criticism of The Riordans
- Ceolta Éireann CD
- Dáil Éireann - Volume 324 - 18 November, 1980