How Does Fair City Shape Our Cultural Identity?

By Rosemarie O Byrne

Fair City. Love it or hate it, it’s a classic staple of Irish culture and media. It’s an Irish soap opera which follows the lives of a range of characters living in Dublin, and is often centred around rather monotonous storylines with little to no dramatic intensity. So why is it such an integral part of our nation, and daresay, our cultural identity?  I’m going to hypothesise about whether the show is reflective of our society and its changing attitudes or if the show itself has a part to play in influencing said attitudes. 

RTÉ has been broadcasting Fair City on our television screens since 1989. Therefore, by delivering a predictable plot and familiar characters at the same reliable time and place each night, it has to be admitted that this is a show that brings comfort to many Irish households. Personally, I have many memories of singing along to the opening theme tune as the soap played as background noise in the living room. One hour specials of the show at Christmas time saw my family gathered around the telly engaged with whatever unrealistic scenario they were feeding us that night. A visit to a grandparents’ house would be cut short if the soaps were starting and they didn’t want us talking over the “riveting dialogue” appearing on screen. I believe there is a fair share of credit due to Fair City for uniting the people of Ireland. Perhaps it does so by allowing for evenings of complaining about its far fetched, often uneventful storylines, and acting levels that don’t quite compare to Florence Pugh’s. Or perhaps it is unifying because it encompasses a sentiment of Irish identity that provides comfort and a feeling of connection to its viewers. 

How effective is Fair City at delivering a sense of social realism and holding up a mirror to its viewers to portray an accurate depiction of Irish society? 

First, let’s look at who the show is designed for, and then at the diversity of the cast. The show’s viewership tends to be people in their later stages of life, and is made up of a majority of women. Its audience primarily consists of people who have followed along with the show since the earlier seasons and are reluctant to give up on or let go of these familiar characters just yet. The lack of diversity in the cast members is disappointing. While there is a reasonable range of personalities and a solid attempt to display the different types of families that can be found in Ireland, characters are predominantly white, straight and cisgender. Some may argue that Fair City’s does not exist to serve the purpose of offering representation or to become politicised in nature, due to the fact it is a fictional show for entertainment that is known for its older audience who seem content with the lack of change. However, its attempts to reach a younger audience by introducing storylines surrounding themes of cyberbullying, social media and adolescent life will only become effective once young people can see themselves and their peers represented onscreen and truly identify with the characters portrayed. 

It’s time to explore the notion that Fair City is reflective of Irish societal values and attitudes at the time of each season's release. At significant time stamps for Ireland, and at pivotal moments of progressive change in the mindset and values of the public sphere, Fair City was there to document it all. Same-sex sexual activity was still technically a criminial offence in Ireland for the first four years of Fair City being on screens. It wasn’t until 1993 when homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland. Three years later, Fair City showed two male characters having an ‘almost-kiss’ moment, where they lean in towards each other and break contact just as they are about to kiss. If they had committed, this would have been the very first on screen LGBT kiss to be shown on Irish television. Undeniably, this moment is representative of the changing attitudes prevalent in Irish society towards same-sex couples. By being the first television show on Irish screens to create a physical or romantic connection between two male characters, Fair City was ahead of the game, in some respects, as it sought to portray a storyline that was more relevant to the nation, now that the decriminalisation act had been passed and homosexuality was no longer an illegal activity. Kerrigan from the Irish Examiner writes that characters from certain minority groups have frequently been included in the Irish soap opera as a reflection of Ireland's larger developments. In particular, the portrayal of LGBT people as characters over the years has undoubtedly been crucial in ‘introducing gay people nightly into Irish living rooms’ (Irish Examiner). In 1995, just two years after the decriminalisation act, Fair City made the decision to create a new character who is gay, Eoghan Healy, and welcome him into Carraigstown to wave the metaphorical rainbow flag. Kerrigan states that after the character Eoghan Healy’s coming out episode in 1995, calls to a regional gay helpline nearly doubled straight after the episode was broadcasted (Irish Examiner). This is indicative of not only the political significance of having LGBT representation on Fair City, but also of the changing attitudes in Irish society represented in the soap opera. Since then, there have been several LGBT characters such as bisexual Yvonne Doyle, lesbians Katy O Brian and Laura Halpin, trans man Ryan Donnelly and gay man Cristiano San Martin. Was the show simply responding to society’s changing attitudes by delivering new storylines? Or can it be argued that Fair City played a role itself in influencing and changing society’s attitudes? By including multifaceted characters who live regular lives and also happen to be gay, Fair City aided in normalising the LGBT community. In 2012, Laura Halpin came out as the show’s first recurring lesbian character. In 2015, three years later, the Marriage Equality Act was passed. By that stage, being gay wasn’t a big headline or major part of the plot, it was just another piece of information about her character. It could be argued that having a regular character on the show who had relationships with other women helped to normalise the notion of same-sex partnerships and let its audience come around to the idea of marriage equality. A similar argument can be applied when examining Fair City’s handling of pregnancies, miscarriage and abortion. The soap ran a controversial and divisive abortion storyline in 2001, before the coalition to repeal the eighth amendment in 2018. The show encouraged Irish households to have difficult conversations and think about their political standpoints by bringing attention to scenarios that mirrored real life cases. 

Fair City is an integral part of understanding our Irish identity as it acts as documentation of our country’s history. During the pandemic, the actors wore masks, kept a two metre social distance from one another and followed government guidelines surrounding the virus. The show was even taken off air for the first time in 2020 due to Covid and returned after a five month break. By continuing to produce content over the Covid period, and by writing the pandemic into the script, Fair City acts as an important documentation of our past. 

The programme has been making a significant effort recently at improving the promotional trailers for the show. With a shot of the actors dramatically staring down the camera lens and an overlay of broken glass, the words ‘Life With a Sharp Edge’ are plastered over the characters faces. Competing with popular soap operas like Eastenders in the UK, there is some pressure to create more high intensity storylines and dramatics, but I think we watch Fair City for some lighter drama and escapism. I often wonder whether some of the scenes would come across as a comedy if they were shot in front of a live studio audience or if there was a laughing track played over it. That’s why there's a certain comfort that comes with watching this soap as opposed to some of the competitors with arguably higher production values. 

Fair City represents, to an extent, Irish values and societal attitudes, while at the same time encouraging its viewers to challenge their beliefs. It is a politically significant show that is indicative of our culture and will remain an integral part of Irish identity for years to come.