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Abstract
This article emerges from a broader project that explores the history of television in Ireland using audience life story interviews. It argues that a dominant narrative persists in the history of television in the Republic of Ireland. Based in institutional sources this narrative is ideologically narrow although it tells a story of cultural liberation. A key example of its ideological limitation lies in the way that Irish people’s experience of British television transmissions has been forgotten. The reason for this lies in historical methods rather than conscious bias. Nevertheless, historical methods themselves can promote limited visons of reality that promote the interests of nation states and national broadcasters. This work argues that a turn to audience memories, as a non-institutional source, can help to disrupt an unannounced alliance between media history scholarship and the nation state.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Tovey and Share, for example, write that ‘television arrived in Ireland at 7pm on New Year’s Eve 1961 though for a short period prior to that, some enthusiasts on the east coast were able to pick up British TV signals’, 376.
2 The Irish Independent. ‘North’s new’.
3 The service was initially called Telefís Éireann. It was later combined with radio under the name Radió Telefís Éireann.
4 Also cited in Gibbons, “From Kitchen Sink,” 21; Savage, Irish Television, 1; Morash, A history, 172–73.
5 Irish Prime Minister.
6 De Valera also alluded to the positive qualities of television and expressed his hope that the audience would demand beneficial programming over damaging content. Horgan, Irish Media, 84.
7 Also cited in Savage, Irish Television, xi; by Savage Citation1996: xi, Morash, A history, 172; Cormack, “Angelus, bells, television,” 274; Horgan, Irish Media, 84, Wylie, “Streaming history,” 237; Gibbons, “From Kitchen Sink,” 21; Pettitt, Screening Ireland, 147.
8 This was a Papal Encyclical on the dangers of motion pictures from 1936. This informed Irish legislation on the censorship of films in 1939. Morash, A History, 172.
9 Savage, Irish Television, xii.
10 Cormack, “Angelus, Bells, Television,” 274.
11 Horgan, Irish Media, 83–84.
12 Also cited in Morash, A History, 171.
13 Ibid.,173.
14 Kelly and Rolston, “Broadcasting in Ireland”, Kelly, “The Poor Aren’t News”, Curtis, Ireland Propaganda War.
15 See Inglis, Lessons in Irish Sexuality, 36.
16 Woodman, Media Control in Ireland; Morash, A History, 138–47; Horgan, Irish Media, 12.
17 Inglis, Moral Monopoly, 92.
18 Gibbons, “From Kitchen Sink”; Sheehan, Irish Television Drama; O’Connor, “The Presentation of Women”.
19 Gibbons, “From Kitchen Sink”; Silj, East of Dallas; Sheehan, Irish Television Drama; O’Donnell, Good Times, Bad Times.
20 Horgan, Irish Media, 89.
21 Ferriter, Occasions of Sin, 374.
22 O’Toole, Lie of the Land, 145.
23 Ibid., 146–7.
24 Savage, “Loss of Innocence,” 207.
25 This study is not described beyond a reference to Collins, “Late Late”.
26 Pettitt, Screening Ireland, 169–70; also cited in Savage, Loss of Innocence?, 207.
27 Pettitt, Screening Ireland, 169.
28 Ferriter, Occasions of Sin, 376; also cited in Bowman, Window and Mirror, 221.
29 Tóibín, “Gay Byrne,” 66; also quoted in Sweeney, “RTÉ Public Service Broadcaster,” 78; Morash, A history, 180; Horgan, Irish Media, 89; Pettitt, Screening Ireland, 169.
30 Bowman, Window and Mirror, 232.
31 See Morash, A History, 168.
32 See Savage, Irish Television, 18; Cormack, “Angelus, Bells, Television,” 273; Horgan, Irish Media,” 79.
33 See Morash, A History, 168.
34 Central Statistics Office (CSO), That Was Then, 57.
35 The Cork Examiner. “Commercial T.V”.
36 McLoone and MacMahon, Television and Irish Society, 150.
37 48% of television households could receive British channels in 1963. See McLoone and MacMahon, Television and Irish Society, 150.
38 Ibid., 150.
39 Chubb, The Government, 73.
40 Ibid., 73.
41 McLoone and MacMahon, Television and Irish Society, 150.
42 Comreg, Irish Communication Market, 71.
43 Conway, “Ireland and Television,” 33.
44 Flynn, “It is Against”.
45 Morash does acknowledge that Irish people were watching television from the early 1950s. However, his subsequent discussion concentrates on the institutional creation of RTÉ rather than on the activity of Irish television audiences, 168–69. Pettitt also acknowledges multi-channel viewing and comments that after 1976 the availability of British programmes undermined Irish attempts at censorship of paramilitary groups, 149–50.
46 See Schudson, “Historical Approaches,” 188–89; Curran, “Narratives of Media History,” 1; O’Sullivan, Television Memories and Cultures; Dhoest, “Audience Retrospection,” 66; Penati, “Remembering Our First,” 7–8.
47 Bourdon, “Detextualizing,” 12–16; Dhoest, “Audience Retrospection,” 66.
48 See Horgan, Irish Media; Doolan, Dowling, and Quinn, Sit down; Bowman, Window and Mirror.
49 Earls, “The Late Late Show,” 107–8.
50 Ibid., 108.
51 The Irish parliament.
52 Bell and Meehan, “International Telecommunications Deregulation,” 77.
53 Dhoest, “Audience Retrospection,” 65.
54 See Bourdon and Kligler-Vilenchik, “Together, Nevertheless”; Dhoest, “Audience Retrospection”; Penati, “Remembering Our First”; O’Sullivan, Television Memories and Cultures.
55 Dhoest, “Audience Retrospection,” 65.
56 Bourdon and Kligler-Vilenchik.” Together, Nevertheless,” 35.
57 McLoone and MacMahon, Television and Irish Society, 8.
58 Cronqvist and Hilgert, “Entagled Media Histories”.