By Laura Molloy
Fair City is an Irish television soap opera that has been broadcast on RTÉ One since 1989. Produced by the public service broadcaster RTE, it first aired on Monday, 18th of September 1989. It has won several awards and is both the most popular and the longest running Irish drama series.
Plots focus on the domestic and professional lives of the residents of Carrigstown, a fictional suburb of the Northside part of the city of Dublin. The area encompasses a restaurant, pub, garage, corner shop, community centre, charity shop, surgery, boxing club (Esker/Carrigstown Boxing Club) and various businesses. Originally aired as one half-hour episode per week for a limited run, the show is now broad casted year-round on RTÉ One in three episodes per week.
Fair City is the most watched drama in Ireland, with average viewing figures of 550,000. Devised by executive producer Brigie de Courcy and series producer Teresa Smith, it has remained a significant programme in terms of RTÉ’s success and audience share, and also in the history of Irish television drama, tackling many controversial and taboo issues previously unseen on Irish television.
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