The Riordans

The Riordans
The Riordans title card
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	James Douglas
Country of origin	Ireland
Original language(s)	English
Production
Location(s)	Dunboyne, County Meath, Ireland
Running time	60 minutes
Release
Original network	RTÉ One
Original release	4 January 1965 – 28 May 1979

The Riordans was the second Irish soap opera made by Raidio Telefís Éireann (then called Telefís Éireann). It ran from 1965 to 1979 and was set in the fictional townland of Leestown in County Kilkenny. Its location filming with Outside Broadcast Units, rather than using only TV studios, 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 show was called The Riordans after the name of the central family, who were two middle-aged parents, Tom Riordan and his wife Mary Riordan, together with their oldest son, Benjy and other siblings, including brother Michael and sister Jude, all of whom except Benjy had left farming for other careers and had more adventurous personal lives. Other leading characters included the family doctor, his Protestant gentry-born wife, the (radical Vatican II-oriented) Catholic priest, the conservative Church of Ireland rector, the local pub owner, some nomadic Irish Travellers and others.

In 1964 the fledgling Telefís Éireann had launched Tolka Row, a soap opera set in a working class part of Dublin. Its success was immediate, with its actors becoming household names. One year later, aware that Ireland was still a largely rural country, and of the immense popularity of rural-based radio shows on RTÉ Radio (then called Radio Éireann), notably The Kennedys of Castleross Telefís Éireann decided to create a new rural soap opera, set on a family farm. Located in Dunboyne, The Flathouse, owned by the Connolly family, was the setting for this programme.