Public Service and Politics: the BBC's Irish history programmes prior to and during the Troubles in Northern Ireland

This thesis examines how the BBC approached and presented Irish history in the years leading up to and during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It does so by examining three major Irish history projects broadcast between 1965 and 1981. By combining the BBC’s institutional history, Irish historiography, and an assessment of Northern Ireland’s divided education system, this interdisciplinary study traces the Corporation’s evolving response to the challenge of narrating a deeply contested past. The three case studies – one schools radio series and two national television series – reveal a clear transformation in the BBC’s willingness to address Irish history. The BBC collaborated with professional historians to deliver programmes that were both accurate and objective. Impartiality was central to all three projects, as producers and academic advisors worked to construct narratives acceptable to both sides of Northern Ireland’s sectarian divide. This divide was sustained in part by selective and mutually exclusive historical narratives, with each community framing itself as the victim and the other as the aggressor. The BBC aimed to challenge divisive and harmful historical myths by replacing them with measured accounts designed to foster empathy, promote understanding, and contribute meaningfully to resolving the Northern Ireland crisis. Each series responded to a distinct public service need: from bridging the divide between Catholic and Protestant pupils in a segregated school system, to educating a British audience largely unaware of the historical roots of the Troubles. These initiatives complemented the BBC’s news and current affairs coverage and paralleled the Corporation’s broader shift in the 1970s towards a more comprehensive and assertive approach to covering Northern Ireland, despite intensifying political backlash. This thesis argues that the BBC came to embrace its public service responsibility, explaining the difficult historical context underlying the conflict and reporting more confidently on a long-neglected corner of the United Kingdom.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Ph.D.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

PhD thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Westminster

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Roberts, Ella

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Seaton, J.
• Lodhi, A.
• Warner, C.

Identifier

oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:x1y8w

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:x1y8w