By Jon Kavanagh

These days we hardly notice the gigantic TV screens occupying an entire wall in our living rooms. Yesteryear, sitting down to watch a program was a planned event, shared by the whole community. TV sets are few and far between. Two sisters living locally are running a defecto cinema; opening the door of their cottage to anyone who wants to view their newfangled google-box. My father is among the patrons, visiting there twice a week to see The Virginian and The Fugitive. A debate opens up between my mother and father - now that we have electricity in the new house should we rent our own television? He is for, she is sitting firmly on the fence. Perhaps swayed by her growing suspicion that the sisters’ abode is a flea distribution centre, she capitulates. Ecstatic, my father heads to Paddy Weston’s television shop on the main street in Swords to arrange delivery. Paddy duly arrives in his Citroen DS, hauls in the heavy apparatus, connects a rabbit ears antenna, tweaks various knobs and hey presto a black and white picture flickers into life. My mother allocates herself the role of censor; issuing regular dictates: “TURN THAT OFF!” at the first hint of anything she deems inappropriate. I am mesmerised by the cartoons: The Flintstones, Bugs Bunny, Mr Magoo, and the famous duo Barney and Beany who are advertising a well-known brand of baked beans. Detectives including McCloud (who propels my normally serious father into convulsive laughter as he gallops his horse through the streets of New York), lolly pop addict Kojak, and the well disguised genius Columbo who always has “Just one more thing” to ask the culprit, chase the bad guys across our screen. Garda Patrol alerts us to real crime happening locally whilst Frank Hall shines a satirical torch on the not so fictional townland of Ballymacash. Bunny Carr “Stops the lights” on Quicksilver, as he doles out prizes ranging from shillings and pence to the jackpot of ten pounds. We see ourselves when we visit the microcosm of Leestown where The Riordans, and their eclectic friends and neighbours reflect our own daily lives. Real reality TV.