RTÉ farm dramas educated and scandalised the nation

Soap matriarch Biddy White Lennon has revealed how she believes television farming dramas, The Riordans and Glenroe, played a role in educating Catholic Ireland on contraception and divorce.

The actress scandalised the nation in the 1970s when her character Maggie Riordan had a full-blown love affair with the brooding Hollywood star-to-be Gabriel Byrne when he was still an unknown actor.

The Riordans, which ran from 1965 to 1979, focused on the lives of Tom and Mary Riordan and their son Benjy (Tom Hickey), who was married to Maggie, played by White Lennon.

In a special edition of Ear to the Ground to mark half a century of farming on Irish television, the actress said the legendary farming soap was aimed at educating the rural community on everything from modern farming practices to pressing social issues.

“It was part educational, part social issues, part drama with a good leavening of comedy. That was set right from the start and kept to. I suppose we sometimes went overboard on some of the social issues.

“We did divorce in the early 1970s, we did contraception in the 1970s, we did drug addiction, then we did separation Irish-style where Benjy went off into the wilds of Africa.”

White-Lennon said she immediately knew Gabriel Byrne was going to be a star when he auditioned for his debut television role as the smouldering Pat Barry. “I did his audition tape and I knew then. My character had a full-blown love affair with him. I was read off every altar in Ireland for that,” she said.

When The Riordans ended in 1979, a new rural drama set on a Wicklow hill farm called Bracken gave Gabriel Byrne a starring role and this series was followed by yet another farm-based drama series, Glenroe, which was based on the Bracken characters, Miley (Mick Lally) and Dinny Byrne (Joe Lynch).

Actress Mary McEvoy, who played Miley’s wife, Biddy, said she was initially very shy around her co-stars as she had grown up watching Bracken.

“I went in there star-struck because Dinny and Miley were there,” she said.

“Nobody thought it would last as long as it did, nobody including RTÉ. It surprised everybody with its popularity.”