Comments on: The Riordans

By: Eimear Ní Mhéalóid

Eimear Ní Mhéalóid — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:40:27 +0000

Also, the Succession Act actually came into force on the 1st of January 1967.

By: pjk

pjk — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:11:31 +0000

I stand corrected. I had an idea the Abbakebabrara was one of the early kebab joints. Evidently, my ‘post pub’ recall is not so good. I can’t imagine why.

I’ll let the remark about the Succession Act stand.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:55:48 +0000

Possibly thinking of the kebab stand opposite the Baggott Inn.

By: mollymooly

mollymooly — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:28:29 +0000

pjk @10:

The first Abrakebabra restaurant was opened in Rathmines in December 1982 . Whatever you ate after the pub in the seventies, it wasn’t one of their kebabs.

The Riordans started in 1964, before the Succession Act.

By: pjk

pjk — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:32:44 +0000

Vivian@6:
Sorry to dissapoint you, the Succession Act was enacted in 1965. I am open to correction on this but I think there was opposition to dividing farms given that many were small to be begin with.
The pita bread was used to serve the ‘kebab’ (or ‘gyro’ to you) that was consumed ‘post -pub’ in the early 70’s at the local Abbakebabra, if you lived in Dublin.
I will confess to the study of sociology but only because one had to go to Belfast to study social anthropology. However, in the early seventies it was n’t hard to dissuade one from moving to Belfast.

By: John Smyth

John Smyth — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:42:12 +0000

The axing of The Riordan’s might have been a shock to the cast but not to the audience – it was looking very tired by the time it ended.

Still, Wesley Burrowes managed to recycle most of the scripts when Glenroe was commissioned.

By: toby

toby — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:13:29 +0000

“The Riordans” probably was slightly influenced by “The Archers”, but that was a radio soap. Radio Eireann had its own radio soaps in the 1950s like (and this goes back) “The Kennedys of Castlerosse”, scripted by Hugh Leonard. “The Foley Family” was another.

Before “The Riordans” was “Tolka Row” set in Dublin… one of its actors (who was the teenage son of the family in the soap) is now a mainstay on a current soap “Fair City”.

So I think RTE had plenty of its own experience in scripting soap operas. “The Riordans” was a phenomenon because it was at a time just when the transition from mainly rural to mainly urban or suburban dwelling was just beginning. it caught the conflicts youth vs age, settled vs traveller, town vs country fairly well. It did outstay its leave and was a crashing bore by the time it finished up (but then, arn’t they all?).

By: ajay

ajay — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:50:17 +0000

Was this programme a) a deliberate copy of the BBC’s “The Archers”, anotherlong running and periodically informative soap about a farming family b) the inspiration for the same c) completely unrelated?

By: vivian

vivian — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:38:07 +0000

Wait, Ireland made it to the 1970’s without basic inheritance for women? And into the 1990’s without pita bread? But you all didn’t mind because you had Father Ted and the Riordans. Does this explain Henry’s and Kieran’s interest in sociology – cause now I’m fascinated :)

By: mollymooly

mollymooly — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:06:36 +0000

I read a piece by Wesley Burrowes describing a script of his for The Riordans that was vetoed for hinging on the postmistress’ gossiping out the contents of some portentous telegram. RTE’s P&T colleagues felt this libelled the entire cadre of postmistresses. The disgruntled Burrowes, to prove the point, sent a honeypot telegraph to himself, purportedly offering him millions from Hollywood, and waited for the whispering to start. It never did.

By: Bruce Baugh

Bruce Baugh — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:02:22 +0000

I just wanted to say that “Tyler Cowen evidently doesn’t realize” is pretty much a complete post on its own. But that I enjoyed the rest of this one.

By: EWI

EWI — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:10:19 +0000

(In the 1970s Tom and Benjy featured in a television advertisement urging farmers to have metal framed cabs put onto their tractors to protect themselves from serious injury should the vehicle overturn.)

A more difficult task to accomplish than you might expect. I can recall two Major tractors held on the matrilinial side of the family which were without roll-bars for the entirety of the Eighties…

By: Cryptic Ned

Cryptic Ned — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:04:03 +0000

Blind Biddy White Lemon Jefferson?

By: P O'Neill

P O'Neill — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:17:00 +0000

On the topic of RTE shows getting the ax too soon, I was never clear on why Hall’s Pictorial Weekly disappeared when it did.