The Riordans

The Riordans was the second Irish soap opera made by Radio Telifís Éireann (then called Telifís 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.

The tradition of rural drama on RTÉ

From the Kennedys of Castlerosse on radio to The Riordans on television, RTÉ had focused heavily on rural life as a focus for 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 Tobin, 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. Instead the station returned to urban soap opera with 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.

Related Topics:
Bracken - Niall Tobin - Mick Lally - Coronation Street - Joe Lynch - Glenroe - 2001 - Fair City

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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.

Related Topics:
Wesley Burrowes - Novel - Playwright - Eugene McCabe - Joe O'Donnell - Pat O'Connor

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