Memories of Imported Programmes and International Broadcasts

Abstract

Histories of television in Ireland have tended to emphasise the role of Irish-made programmes while overlooking the social effects that foreign programming may have had. The historical muting of foreign television content and broadcasts is an important way in which a dominant, state-oriented, narrative persists. In this chapter, Brennan demonstrates the centrality of imported programmes in the Irish experience of television. British broadcasts in areas like popular music, sport and entertainment became habitual. American westerns became part of Irish life. The Fugitive was Ireland’s first experience of fictional ‘event television’ and so on. Television brought the global into Irish homes. However, Brennan argues, the vision of the global that Irish people saw through their private screens came, overwhelmingly, from Britain and the United States.