Compiled by
SHANE HEGARTY
This article was amended on January 5th, 2012. The original article incorrectly stated that RTE had suspended four employees pending an investigation. Set in a working-class Dublin secondary school, RTÉ's 1978 drama series The Spike had an agenda, with scriptwriter Patrick Gilligan seeking to highlight inequities in the education system. However, the show's biggest controversy arose from its depiction of an art class, complete with nude female model. The scene so affronted JB Murray, founder of the League of Decency, that he suffered a heart attack while phoning newspapers to complain about the drama. In response, RTÉ's director general cancelled the rest of The Spike's run.
The 1990 presidential raceseemed a foregone conclusion until the damaging revelations – via doctoral student Jim Duffy – that Fianna Fáil frontrunner Brian Lenihan had phoned then president Patrick Hillery in 1982, urging him to dissolve the Dáil and allow Charles Haughey to form a government. Realising that his accounts of such constitutional breaches were sinking his campaign, Lenihan appeared on RTÉ's Six-One , where he said that "on mature recollection" he had not phoned the president. The ploy failed, Mary Robinson romped to victory and a new political catchphrase entered the lexicon.
In 1999, with his 65th birthday looming, Gay Byrne signalled his intention to depart The Late Late Show. The identity of his successor was the subject of much speculation, unsurprisingly as the job was the most coveted in Irish broadcasting. Pat Kenny was an obvious choice in terms of experience and seniority, but his presence changed the nature of the show. Without the popular touch of "Uncle Gaybo", the Late Latebegan its long decline into the overlong chat show of today.
Starting with Anything Goes in 1980, RTÉ spent much of the decade courting younger viewers with a series of ever-more self-conscious "yoof" programmes, reaching its peak with the 1986 series TV Ga Ga. Hosted by journalist Liam Mackey, the programme featured supposedly edgy items such as graphic, close-up displays of detecting testicular cancer and discussions on homosexuality with Fr Seán Fortune, later revealed to be an abusive paedophile. Even the show's most famous moment, U2's performance of Knockin' On Heaven's Door, now looks ridiculous, as Bono invites two bemulleted audience members to join them.
Charles Haughey had so many skeletons in the cupboard that they popped out in the most unexpected places. Hosted by Shay Healy, Nighthawks was an innovative Network 2 chat show but one hardly associated with seismic political events. In January 1992, however, Healy interviewed former Fianna Fáil justice minister Seán Doherty, who said Haughey had known of the decision to tap the phones of journalists Geraldine Kennedy and Bruce Arnold, something he had previously denied. Shortly afterwards Haughey stood down as taoiseach. In truth, his days as leader were already numbered, but the revelations of his once-loyal lieutenant symbolised his fall.
For years, Ireland's parliamentary system of government seemed to preclude the kind of television debatesthat dominated American presidential races, but the bitter rivalry between Charles Haughey and Garret FitzGeraldin the 1980s changed that. When the idea was first mooted during the 1981 election, Haughey initially resisted a direct confrontation with FitzGerald, insisting Labour party leader Frank Cluskey also participate. The two men finally went head-to-head in 1982, though the expected fireworks did not materialise. But the television debate has since been an integral part of Irish elections.
Having previously set the agenda with its undercover investigations, Prime Time Investigates found itself at the centre of scandal this year. A Mission To Prey?, reporter Aoife Kavanagh's investigation into the sexual abuse by Irish missionaries in Africa, erroneously alleged Fr Kevin Reynolds had raped a minor and fathered a child 30 years previously, despite the priest offering to take a paternity test before the programme was broadcast. When a subsequent test proved Reynolds was not the father, RTÉ apologised.* Three inquiries were ordered into the affair.
The 1979 visit to Ireland by Pope John Paul IIwas a major logistical challenge for RTÉ, requiring the network to augment its outside broadcast units with additional resources from other countries. But the comprehensive television coverage was a key part in the success of the papal visit, epitomised by footage of the pontiff's declaration to youthful worshippers in Galway: "Young people of Ireland, I love you."
In 2004, with The Late Late Showenduring one of its many post-Gaybo slumps, the show's Friday night ratings supremacy seemed vulnerable for the first time in its 42-year history. All that was needed was for someone to wield the dagger. Step forward Eamon Dunphy and TV3: The Dunphy Show promised to be controversial, edgy and compelling. Instead it was amateurish, uncertain and flat. It was pulled a week shy of its first full season, as the Late Late's staid professionalism triumphed.
A comedy-drama about three feckless single blokes living in the city, Bachelors Walk was a diverting slice of entertainment. But in portraying the atmosphere of a newly prosperous Dublin, the 2001-2003 series captured a fleeting moment between the optimism of the Celtic Tiger and the materialistic mania of the property bubble. It also helped that the misadventures of Raymond (Don Wycherley), Michael (Simon Delaney) and Barry (Keith McErlean) had a light yet assured touch all too rare in Irish television drama.
* This article was amended on January 5 th, 2012. The original article incorrectly stated that RTE had suspended four employees pending an investigation.
