Documentary in a Changing State: Ireland since the 1990s

Notes and References

INTRODUCTION: MACKEOGH AND O’CONNELL 1. For more extensive discussions on this topic see: J. Horgan, Broadcasting and Public Life: RTÉ news and current affairs 1926–1997 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004); J. Dowling and L. Doolan, Sit Down and Be Counted: The cultural evolution of a television station (Dublin: Wellington, 1969); K. Woodman, Media Control in Ireland 1923–1983 (Carbondale, IL: University of Southern Illinois Press, 1985); R. Savage, Irish Television: The political and social origins (Cork: Cork University Press, 1996). 2. See Dáil Debates, vol. 243, 16 December 1969: RTÉ programme: Establishment of Tribunal, http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0243/D.0243.196912160053.html 3. J. Keane, The Media and Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991); P. Dahlgren, Television and the Public Sphere (London: Sage, 1995). 4. Speech by Bertie Ahern, TD, Aislinn Education Centre, 25 March 2009, http://bertieahernoffice .org/speech_14.php (accessed 10 June 2010). 5. Susan O’Keeffe, a World in Action journalist (Granada TV, Manchester), ‘investigated scandals within the Irish meat industry in two films in 1991, setting in motion a threeyear Tribunal of Inquiry in Dublin, which found that much of her criticism of the industry was substantiated. The Tribunal, though, demanded that she name her informants , and when she refused to do so, she was charged by the Irish Director of Public Prosecutions’: Labour Party website, http://www.labour.ie/press/listing/ 1238174595273891.html(accessed 31 March 2011). 6. T. Inglis, ‘Irish Civil Society: From Church to Media Domination’, in T. Inglis, Z. Mach and R. Mazanek (eds), Religion and Politics: East–West contrasts from contemporary Europe (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2000), pp. 49–67. 7. J. Habermas, ‘The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article’, in S.E. Bronner and D.M. Kellner (eds), Critical Theory and Society: A reader (New York: Routledge, 1989), p. 136. 8. Forced to explain the inexplicable confessions of Joanne Hayes and her family to the murder of two new-born babies found fifty miles apart in 1984, one of which could not have been her own, the gardaí concocted a bizarre theory of ‘superfecundation’ – that she had become pregnant by two men simultaneously. Similarly, in the McBrearty case, Frank McBrearty Jr confessed to a murder for which he was later cleared. The judiciary itself came under scrutiny some years later when Judge Brian Curtin, who had appeared for the Hayes family during the tribunal of inquiry, was investigated for possession of child pornography. The medical profession came into disrepute through controversies such as the ‘Hep C’ scandal in 1995 (whereby patients contracted, or later developed, Hepatitis C after receiving contaminated Anti D products through blood transfusions) and the Michael Neary case which documented extraordinarily high levels of hysterectomies performed over a 25-year period in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda. 157 Notes and References 9. For a full version of the recent report see Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into Payments of Politicians and Related Matters (http://www.moriarty-tribunal.ie/ images/sitecontent_425.pdf (accessed 30 March 2011). 10. While the attitude of the Irish public to the EU appears to have moved away from one of immediate support, the impact of the EU has been felt at a number of levels – political, economic and social. J. O’Mahony, ‘Ireland and the European Union: A Less Certain Relationship’, in N. Collins and T. Cradden (eds), Political Issues in Ireland Today (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004 [1994]), pp. 15–33, at p. 15. 11. While wary of attributing too much of a liberalising influence to the EU, a number of high-profile legal cases have challenged traditional mores in Ireland, and Girvin argues that ‘Decisions by the Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights have prompted Irish governments to change domestic legislation’. B. Girvin in R. Eatwell (ed.), European Poliltical Cultures: Conflict or convergence? (London: Routlege, 1997), pp. 122–38, at p. 129. 12. E.M. Trauth,‘Leapfrogging an IT Labor Force: Multinational and Indigenous Perspectives’, Journal of Global Information Management, vol. 7 (1999), pp. 22–32. 13. H. O’Brien, The Real Ireland: The evolution of Ireland in documentary film (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), p. 189. 14. J. McMahon and M. McLoone (eds), Television and Irish Society (Dublin: RTÉ/IFI, 1984); L.Gibbons, J. Hill and K. Rockett, Cinema and Ireland (London: Routledge, 1988). 15. H. Sheehan, Irish Television Drama (Dublin: RTÉ Publication, 1988); McMahon and McLoone (eds), Television and Irish Society. 16. O’Brien, The Real Ireland...