Within the growing field of television studies, little work has yet been done on the Irish context. This volume aims to fill this gap by offering new and compelling studies of contemporary Irish TV series. Fictional TV series, which constitute an autonomous genre within the broader cultural phenomenon of TV broadcasting, are explored here as paradigmatic representations of Irish popular culture. This book investigates the vast number of series produced in Ireland over the past two decades, focusing on their cultural impact at a time when American and British dominance have led many critics and viewers to underestimate the significance of Irish programming. The essays collected here reveal a distinctly Irish culture of TV fiction series, in both the Irish and English languages, and examine some of its finest examples, from Father Ted to Love/Hate and Sin Scéal Eile.

Flore Coulouma is Associate Professor in the English Department at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre. She is the author of Diglossia and The Linguistic Turn: Flann O'Brien's Philosophy of Language and has written on contemporary Irish and American literature and popular culture. She teaches and researches in English linguistics and Irish literature and her other research interests include ecocriticism and the relationship between law and linguistics.

Contents: Flore Coulouma: Introduction – Sylvie Mikowski: by Roddy Doyle: Goodbye to the ‘Cosy Homestead’ – Cornelius Crowley: : Priests on Screen and Irish Self-Images – Sheamus Sweeney: : Dublin on the Verge of an Economic Breakdown – Deirdre Quinn: : Negotiating Power and the Past in Irish Television Drama – Thierry Robin: Ireland According to : Shifting Satirical Paradigms and the Reconfiguration of National Stereotypes – Catherine Conan: Post-Tiger Noir? The TV Adaptation of Benjamin Black’s Novels – Anthony P. McIntyre: : Nostalgia, Region and the Elision of Celtic Tiger Aspirationalism – Flore Coulouma: Where’s the Love in ? Gangster Violence, Irish Identity and Global Television – Ruth Lysaght: [That’s Another Story]: Contemporary Screen Adaptations of Irish-Language Stories for TG4.