Michael Moynihan: Adultery and pregnancies — why we need 'Southside' on our screens
Moira Deady in ‘The Riordans’ (1968), a show that was set in the Midlands.
The other day I was busy with my morning stroll — which coincides with one of the routes in the much-discussed Bus Connects plan, of which more at a later date — and listening to .
This is a terrific podcast run by Aoife Bhreathnach in which she discusses books which were censored or banned at various times in Ireland, often with hilarious results (Walter Macken’s Brown , a truly wild ride, is my nomination for a future episode).
In this case, she was talking to Morgan Wait of Trinity College about an Irish soap opera which lasted for just a couple of years on RTE about fifty years ago.
I was halfway across the road when I realised they were talking about an Irish soap opera set in Cork.
Seriously?
I was intrigued enough to track Morgan down. Her research focus is on the history of women and television and Ireland, and she filled me in on this lost masterpiece.
was a soap opera which ran in the 1969-70 TV season. Then it switched name — and format, slightly — to in the 1970-1971 season, though , the original, is a much more interesting show than .
“It was focused on two families in an indistinct suburban area of Cork. The Mahers and the McDermotts were the families and the show was about their exploits, but it also tackled a bunch of things that people wouldn't expect to see tackled on Irish TV in the sixties.
Back to that shortly. Was there a particular reason it was set in Cork — was the national broadcaster making a deliberate decision with that decision?
“It was an exceptionally deliberate decision. You’ll probably be familiar with the two other RTE soap operas, which were Tolka Row, which was very much an urban show, set in Dublin, and The Riordans, which was set in the midlands, a rural show.
“The original spec script for was set in Dublin, but the writer, David Hayes, was specifically asked to change the setting in order to give the station a Cork offering. So it was done to cover that audience.”
Turns out that the angry reaction was based on the subject matter rather than the location, though.
“There were themes like adultery in the programme,” said Morgan.
“That’s a lot of what you get in , and the reaction shows that a lot of people in Cork were unhappy with the show because of that. Most of the people writing in to say ‘we don't like this show’ were from Cork.
“But definitely the writer, for his part, wanted to show what he felt were important social issues, and the suggestion of adultery was one of those. There was also a suggestion of an unwanted pregnancy, though it’s difficult to be very clear about that because the episodes are lost: the character who finds herself pregnant and unmarried apparently throws around the idea of abortion, so these social issues come up in the show.
Whether adultery was more prevalent in sixties Cork than the rest of the country is a question which, alas, we cannot now answer. What’s surprising to me is that the show seems to have vanished from the popular mind. Compared to other soap operas which gripped the Irish public, the Cork show doesn’t even have a cult following.
“ ran from 1964 to 1968,” says Wait.
“While went from 1966 to 1979. In comparison, only had two seasons, and the second season was completely watered down compared to the first.
“But it was exceptionally popular. It was in the top ten of the TAM ratings in its entire run, and towards the end of its run it was at the top of the ratings — it would beat The Riordans and The Late Late Show, so it was doing really well.”
All of which makes it all the more inexplicable that the programme disappeared. However, rather than being targeted by jealous inhabitants of the capital for its stirring depiction of life on Leeside — adultery included — it appears was the victim of philistines in the accounting department.
And Dana.
“The reason the station offered for the eventual cancellation of the series, despite its popularity, was the Eurovision.
“In 1970 Dana won the Eurovision with 'All Kinds of Everything', which meant RTE was going to have to host the competition in 1971.
“This in turn caused a massive budget crisis within the station. So they started chopping things, and one of the things they chopped was .
“Drama series are always costly for a television station and at the time they already had , so they had a drama series in place.
“In addition, they had had a lot of pushback in RTE about ; I think that was possibly part of the reason they discontinued the show.
“And the second season is very different to the first one.
“They don’t deal with a lot of contentious issues in the second season — if I’m being absolutely honest it’s bit boring, and the critics mention that as well in their coverage. It was still quite successful, though it’s hard to tell know if that was because people actually liked it or because there was a sense of anticipation of more cutting edge topics like the first season.”
Why Cork’s bespoke TV soap doesn’t live on as cult attraction remains a mystery.
, for instance, which had an even shorter run than , remains in the public mind.
“I can’t offer a definitive answer to that question, why it’s not better remembered — in the era in which it existed it was overshadowed by other well-remembered offerings like .
“It also only ran for those two seasons, which probably had an impact on how it’s remembered. Mentioning — that came later and got its own documentary from RTE some years ago, which probably shapes how people remember it.
“Theoretically if that attention were paid to that could happen, but as far as I know I’m the only person who’s looked at the files about it in RTE. Some things just get buried, I guess.”
It only remains for me to ask whether the time has come for a revival — a screening in some hostelry, perhaps, with a former cast member as an honour guest.
A tribute weekend in Cork? There’s a tourist opportunity if ever there was one.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
