RTÉ100 Anniversary Show Gets Much Right, but Misses the Basics

RTÉ’s centenary documentary wants to be a nostalgic tour of Ireland’s shared cultural memory and a serious examination of public broadcasting. Instead, RTÉ100: Points of View often struggles to decide which programme it wants to be.

The film moves from journalist Sinéad O’Carroll recalling Davy Fitzgerald and Clare’s 1995 All-Ireland victory to comedian Colm O’Regan remembering the excitement of entering Bosco’s cardboard home. It then turns to heavier subjects. Lindsey Earner-Byrne describes The Late Late Show as a national outlet for trauma accumulated during decades of theocratic rule, while Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole recalls Joe Duffy’s Liveline as a warning signal to the government during the 2008 financial crisis.

Film-maker Jim Sheridan offers the sharpest contribution. He contrasts the unruly energy of Love/Hate with the more calculated entertainment of its successor, Kin, which he says was shaped for international streaming services. Sheridan argues that RTÉ is trying to satisfy the same forces that threaten its future.

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the voice of the GAA

The documentary also stumbles over basic details. It calls Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh “the voice of the GAA” without acknowledging that the title could also belong to his predecessor, Michael O’Hehir. Another contributor offers the observation that different people find different things entertaining, a line the review treats as conspicuously obvious.

Most strikingly, the programme never directly tells viewers that it is marking 100 years of public broadcasting. Contributors refer to the milestone in passing, but the fact that RTÉ’s predecessor began broadcasting in 1926 remains unstated. For a film about a major anniversary, that omission captures its wider weakness: it often understands the subject, but fails to explain the premise.

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What one person finds entertaining is completely different to what someone else finds entertaining.