Glenroe

Infobox Television
show_name = Glenroe


caption = A sign on the road approaching Kilcoole
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genre = Drama
creator = Wesley Burrowes
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starring = Mick Lally, Joe Lynch, Mary McEvoy, Emmet Bergin, Geraldine Plunkett, Robert Carrickford
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opentheme = "Cuaichín Ghleann Néifinn"
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country = Ireland
language = English
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runtime = 30 minutes
channel = RTÉ One
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first_aired = September 1983
last_aired = May 2001
preceded_by = "Bracken"
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"Glenroe" was an Irish television drama series broadcast between September 1983 and May 2001 on RTÉ One. The programme was a spin-off from "Bracken", a short-lived RTÉ drama itself spun off from "The Riordans". "Glenroe" was broadcast on Sunday nights at 20.30, generally from September to May. The show was created, and written for much its run, by Wesley Burrowes. Glenroe was the first show to be subtitled by RTÉ, with a broadcast in 1991 starting the station's subtitling policy. [ [http://www.rte.ie/about/facts_english.pdf] ]

The programme centred on the lives of the people living in the fictional rural village of Glenroe in County Wicklow. The real-life village of Kilcoole was used to film the series. The main protagonists were the Byrne and McDermott/Moran families, related by the marriage of Miley Byrne to Biddy McDermott. Other characters included the Roman Catholic and Protestant priests of the village (Tim Devereux and George Black respectively), Teasy McDaid, the proprietor of the local pub, Biddy's cousin Fidelma Kelly, and others. One notable character was James DuffyFact|date=May 2008, who was one of the first traveller characters on television.

The show

Title sequence

The programme was noted for its original title sequence, which featured the words "Gleann Rua" in Gaelic script morph into "Glenroe" over a series of rural images. The original title sequence was used for the 1983/84 series to the end of the 1992/93 series; and was replaced with a more up-to-date title sequence at the start of the 1993/94 series. "Glenroe"'s theme tune was that of a traditional Irish song called "Cuaichín Ghleann Néifinn" and was arranged by Jim Lockhart of Horslips. The original version was used from the 1983/84 to the end of the 1992/93 series. A newly recorded version, arranged by Máire Ní Bhraonáin of Clannad, was introduced with the start of the 1993/94 series, and the changes to the title sequence. A song from the series, "The By-Road to Glenroe", performed by Mick Lally, was released as a single in Ireland in 1990, featuring the Jim Lockhart version of the theme tune as its B-side, and reached Number 1 in the Irish singles chart.

Plot

The programme focused on a cast of characters living in a rural area near the village pub. The main characters were Miley Byrne and Biddy McDermott whose courtship and marriage formed the centerpiece of the action during the early years. Their parents were also heavily featured in the storylines. Miley's father Dinny Byrne was a chancer and Biddy's mother, who was widowed early in the series, conducted a long-running affair with Dick Moran, local solicitor. Dick occasionally had other affairs such as that with Terry Kileen.

Religion was featured in the programme on numerous occasions. When Miley, a devout Roman Catholic, believed his daughter, who had been critically ill with meningitis, was saved by prayer and divine intervention whilst Biddy, who rarely went to Mass credited their doctor with her recovery. The parish priest, Father Tim Devereaux, was upset that nobody was listening to his pastoral advice and retired to embark on a round-the-world cruise with Shirley Manning, a widow of Protestant and Jewish ancestry. One episode focused on how much money should be spent on a girl's First Communion dress.

In the fourteenth season, Tommy McArdle, the show's producer, introduced the travellers issue, frequently in the news at the time. The storyline involved Miley and Biddy trying to evict a family of travellers who parked their trailer on the edge of the farm. The episodes depicted the attitudes of some Irish people who believed that travellers were "stupid, dirty and dishonest". When two pet rabbits disappear the community suspects the travelers must have eaten them in a stew. Another storyline involved an extramarital affair between a traveller and an upper-middle-class local woman. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E4D91E3AF932A35757C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title=When Dirty Laundry Shows, Use Tougher Soaps|date=1997-04-01|accessdate=2008-08-11|publisher="The New York Times"]

The final episode of the penultimate series saw the death of main character Biddy in a road accident involving her car and a tractor. The final series dealt largely with husband Miley's coming to terms with the loss of his wife and the struggles he faced in raising their two surviving daughters. [cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20000910/ai_n14509849|title=GLENROE'S BIDDY PROVES THERE'S LIFE AFTER SOAP; RTE star Mary goes|date=2000-09-10|accessdate=2008-08-11|publisher=BNET]

End

On January 19 2001, despite claims four years previously that it could run for another ten years, [cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_19971005/ai_n14472094|date=1997-10-05|accessdate=2008-08-17|publisher=BNET] RTÉ announced that Glenroe was to end after eighteen series. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1126536.stm|title=Irish soap Glenroe axed|date=2001-01-19|accessdate=2008-08-17|publisher=BBC] The final episode of the Irish soap was to be broadcast the following May. RTÉ's Director of Television, Cathal Goan, said it had been clear for some time that Glenroe was "coming to the end of its natural life". [cite web|url=http://www.rte.ie/arts/2001/0119/glenroe.html|title=Glenroe to end after 18 years|date=2001-01-19|accessdate=2008-08-17|publisher=RTÉ] This announcement came after a sequence of negative events involving cast members. Mary McEvoy (Biddy) resigned (her character was subsequently killed off in a road accident), Joe Lynch (Dinny) quit after being "shamefully treated" and offered "small potatoes" when he asked for a pay rise and by Mick Lally (Miley) opted to split his schedule between RTÉ and the BBC show, "Ballykissangel". [cite web|url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/small-potatoes-forced-dinny-to-quit-glenroe-377244.html|title=`Small potatoes' forced Dinny to quit Glenroe|date=2000-05-26|accessdate=2008-08-17|publisher="Irish Independent"] Lynch criticised RTÉ for preventing him from doing other acting work alongside Glenroe.

``I was terrible restricted in RTÉ they wouldn't let me off for anything, even commercials.``

He was also upset that he was not to get a pension but died soon afterwards anyway. [cite web|url=http://www.irishnews.com/searchlog.asp?reason=denied_empty&script_name=/pageacc.asp&path_info=/pageacc.asp&tser1=ser&par=ben&sid=233069|title=Glenroe star dies suddenly |date=2001-08-03|accessdate=2008-08-17|publisher="The Irish News"]

The last episode of "Glenroe" was transmitted on 6 May 2001, attracting an audience of 591,000 viewers. [ [http://www.medialive.ie/Comment/may2001.html] ] . Its place in the Sunday evening schedule was taken by "On Home Ground", a drama series set at a fictional rural GAA club, which ran for two seasons from September 2001 until May 2003. RTÉ's present Sunday night drama series is "The Clinic", a medical drama. Actor Mick Lally went on to join the cast of the TG4 drama series "Ros na Rún" in 2008. [cite web|url=http://www.rte.ie/arts/2008/0905/lallym.html|title=Glenroe legend joins Ros na Rún|date=2008-09-05|accessdate=2008-09-06|publisher=RTÉ]

Characters

Main characters

Viewing figures

Over one million people watched Biddy get killed off.

Broadcasting details

UK regional transmission

Although "Glenroe" was not networked, 13 of the 15 ITV regional franchises had transmitted the series. After this point listings (which have been sourced from The Times Digital Archive) are no longer available.

In December 1995, as part of a soap opera-themed weekend, Channel 4 broadcast an episode of "Glenroe".

"Glenroe" was also shown on the Tara Television network in the United Kingdom via cable and SkyDigital from 1997 to the closure of the station in 2002. Classic episodes were shown in the daytime and repeated in the early evenings on weekdays, and current episodes were simulcast with RTÉ on Sunday evenings during each season. Tara had reached the 1992/93 season of "Glenroe" at the time of the station's closure.

References