Almost from the moment moving images were first projected by cathode ray tubes, politicians have been aware of the medium’s power. Television came into its own as their soapbox on the evening of September 26th, 1960. A young, relatively unknown senator from Massachusetts outshone his rival, the vice-president, in the first live televised debate between candidates for the US presidency. The performance arguably propelled John F Kennedy to the White House.
Since then television has been central to political discourse. Its development in Ireland over half a century has seen it move from a very limited, single-channel experience, deferential to the ruling elite, to a pervasive and ever-present phenomenon, where programme makers have become as influential as those they question.
Here are 20 seminal political moments on television.
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1: Kennedy v Nixon, 1960
Nine out of 10 American households had TV sets at the time. In the first live television debate John F Kennedy looked calm and confident. Richard Nixon, recently discharged from hospital, looked wan and sickly and was visibly sweating. Radio listeners thought the Republican had won, but for viewers Kennedy had the upper hand. "It was the TV more than anything else that turned the tide," Kennedy said shortly after winning the election.
2: RTÉ, 1961
On this side of the Atlantic, in a recording to coincide with the opening of Teilifís Éireann on the last day of 1961, President Éamon de Valera offered a vision that was more dystopian than hopeful: "I feel somewhat afraid. Like atomic energy, [television] can be used for incalculable good, but it can also do irreparable harm. It can lead through demoralisation to decadence an disillusion."
3: Derry, 1969
The civil-rights marches in Northern Ireland and the violent reaction of the authorities were filmed by RTÉ cameras and shown around the world. In a decade when protest against war had become common, they struck deeply. The suppression of nationalists became so intolerable that it prompted Taoiseach Jack Lynch to address the nation on RTÉ. It was clear, he said, "that the Irish government can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse."
4: Fianna Fáil ardfheis, 1971
A conspiracy among certain ministers to import weapons intended for use in the Troubles, and the subsequent "arms trial", split Fianna Fáil. When supporters of Kevin Boland tried to take over the party's ardfheis in 1971 it was the urbane, quietly-spoken Paddy Hillery who mounted a vehement, outraged defence. "You can have Boland, but ye can't have Fianna Fáil," he bellowed.
5: Section 31, 1971
This section of the Broadcasting Act came into force in 1971 and was not repealed until 1994. It barred all representatives of proscribed organisations from the airwaves. That mainly concerned Sinn Féin and the IRA. It was controversial. Its supporters argued that publicity should not be given to people who wished to overthrow the State. Its opponents argued that an essential voice was missing on a grave matter. Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin leader, believes it set the peace process back several years. Even two decades after its lifting it still rankles.
6: Charles Haughey's address to the nation, 1980
In January that year, shortly after becoming taoiseach, Charles Haughey told the nation that we were living beyond our means. The rich irony of that statement became apparent only years later, when it was revealed how profligate Haughey himself had been as a spender.
7: Haughey v FitzGerald, 1982
Our own version of Kennedy v Nixon took place in 1982, chaired by Brian Farrell. The debates commanded huge audiences and still make for compelling viewing. Haughey edged the first, in February; Garret FitzGerald, his Fine Gael rival, won the one held during the election in November that year. One of the main talking points was FitzGerald's refusal to pose for a photograph with Haughey before the debate.
8: Margaret Thatcher's "Out, out, out" speech, 1984
After an Anglo-Irish summit in which the Irish government came up with three solutions to the national question, the British prime minister dismissed them conclusively, and brutally, in a press conference: "A unified Ireland was one solution. That is out. A second solution was confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out."
9: Brian Lenihan's "mature recollection", 1990
The late Brian Lenihan snr was caught being economical with the truth during the 1990 presidential election. He initially denied having contacted President Hillery during a constitutional crisis in 1982. When a tape emerged of Lenihan contradicting this statement in an earlier interview, he was forced to backtrack on RTÉ's Six One News. He lost the presidential election to Mary Robinson.
The former justice minister disclosed on a late-night chatshow that Charles Haughey knew about illicit phone tapping a decade earlier. It contributed to Haughey’s political demise.
11: Jeremy Paxman, 1997
TVinterviewers were deferential to politicians in the beginning; the relationship later grew confrontational and rancorous. Paxman, who anchored BBC's Newsnight for 25 years, was the chief proponent of that mode of interview. Famously, in 1997, he asked the Tory minister Michael Howard the same question 12 times in an effort to prise an answer from him.
12: Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, 1998
When he was US president Clinton responded to allegations of an affair with Lewinsky by saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." It was a lie.
13: Pádraig Flynn's three houses, 1999
Like so many political moments, this happened on The Late Late Show. Flynn, a European commissioner at the time, told Gay Byrne how hard it was to maintain three houses on his salary of £140,000. He also insulted the developer Tom Gilmartin. So outraged was Gilmartin that he responded by going to the McCracken tribunal with allegations about Flynn.
14: States of Fear, 1999
Mary Raftery's powerful documentary about sexual and physical abuse in industrial and reform schools opened up a shameful and hidden chapter in recent Irish history.
15: IRA ceasefire, 2005
There was a time when the IRA phoned statements into newsrooms using a code word, but when it announced its final cessation of violence, in 2005, the influential IRA figure Séanna Walsh, or Séanna Breathnach, read out its statement by video.
16: "F*** you, Deputy Stagg", 2009
Live coverage of the Oireachtas has been available for two decades. Arguably the most dramatic sentence was that delivered by the former Green TD Paul Gogarty to Emmet Stagg, of the Labour Party, in December 2009: "With all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language, f*** you, Deputy Stagg."
17: Irish presidential debate, 2011
Presidential elections in Ireland are more televisual events than any other. Martin McGuinness came a cropper when confronted in front of TV cameras by the son of a soldier shot by the IRA. Vincent Browne also confronted him with a library of books claiming that he was a member of the IRA. The big denouement was the collapse of Seán Gallagher's campaign. For all the media training politicians receive, Gallagher struggled to deal with claims on the Front Line programme after a rogue tweet was broadcast. The tweet's airing would later also cause controversy for the programme makers.
18: Marriage-equality referendum, 2015
The coverage of the celebrations from Dublin Castle after the resounding Yes made for compelling viewing. Katherine Zappone (who is now a Minister) proposed to her long-term partner, Ann Louise Gilligan, live on TV.
19: Danny Healy-Rae on climate change, 2016
Another claim without evidence to back it up, but this one was so mellifluous and easy on the ear that it became a huge hit, especially when live images combined with social media. The words of the Kerry TD were heard all over the world: "If we go back to the 11th and 12th centuries, this country was roasted out of it, and in the 15th and 16th centuries we were drowned out of it," he said. "In the 1740s we had a famine in which we lost more than three million people because of two years of bad weather. God above is in charge of the weather, and we here can't do anything about it."
20: Donald Trump, 2016
Rather than a politician mastering television, here we have a TV personality mastering politics. Trump tore up the rule book. The more he was criticised for his insults and outrageous attacks, the more of them he used.
Harry McGee's Polaitíocht: Power on the Box is on RTÉ One on Monday, November 28th, at 7.30pm
