Editing Soap opera (section)

====Television====
In the early years of [[RTÉ]], the network produced several dramas but had not come close to launching a long-running serial. RTÉ's first television soap was ''[[Tolka Row]]'', which was set in urban [[Dublin]]. For several years, both ''Tolka Row'' and ''[[The Riordans]]'' were produced by RTÉ; however, the urban soap was soon dropped in favor of the more popular rural soap opera ''[[The Riordans]]'', which premiered in 1965.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.rte.ie/laweb/brc/brc_1960s.html |title=rte.ie |publisher=rte.ie |access-date=2012-04-27}}</ref> Executives from [[ITV Yorkshire|Yorkshire Television]] visited during on-location shoots for ''The Riordans'' in the early 1970s and in 1972, debuted ''Emmerdale Farm'' (now ''[[Emmerdale]]''), based on the successful format of the Irish soap opera. In the late 1970s, ''The Riordans'' was controversially dropped. The creator of that series would then go on to produce the second of his "Agri-soap" [[trilogy]] ''[[Bracken (TV series)|Bracken]]'', starring [[Gabriel Byrne]], whose character had appeared in the last few seasons of ''The Riordans''. Bracken was soon replaced by the third "Agri-soap" ''[[Glenroe]]'', which ran until 2001. 

In 1989, RTÉ decided to produce its first Dublin-based soap opera since the 1960s. ''[[Fair City]]'', which is set in the fictional city of Carrickstown, initially aired one night a week during the 1989–90 season, and similar to its rural soaps, much of the footage was filmed on location – in a suburb of Dublin City. In 1992, RTÉ made a major investment into the series by copying the houses used in the on-location shoots for an on-site set in RTÉ's Headquarters in Dublin 4. By the early 1990s, it was airing two nights a week for 35 weeks a year. With competition from the UK soap operas, RTÉ expanded ''Fair City'' to three nights a week for most of the year and one night a week during the summer in 1996, later expanding to four nights a week and two nights during the summer. From the early 2000s, the series went through periods of airing three or four episodes a week, airing all 52 weeks of the year. ''Fair City'' currently airs Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays on [[RTÉ One]].

[[TG4]] produce the Irish language soap ''[[Ros na Rún]]'' ("Headland of the Secrets" or "Headland of the Sweethearts"); set in the fictional village of ''Ros Na Rún'', located outside [[Galway]] and near [[Spiddal]], it centres on the domestic and professional lives of the town's residents. It is modeled on an average village in the West of Ireland, but with its own distinct personality – with a diverse population that share secrets, romances and friendships among other things. While the core community has remained the same, the look and feel of ''Ros Na Rún'' has changed and evolved over the years to incorporate the changing face of rural Ireland. It has an established a place not only in the hearts and minds of the Irish speaking public, but also the wider Irish audience. The program has dealt with many topics, including [[domestic violence]], [[infidelity]], [[theft]], [[arson]], [[abortion]], homosexuality, adoption, murder, rape, drugs, [[teen pregnancy]] and [[paedophilia]]. It runs twice a week for 35 weeks of the year, currently airing Tuesday and Thursday nights. ''Ros na Rún'' is the single largest independent production commissioned in the history of Irish broadcasting. Prior to TG4's launch, it originally aired on RTÉ One in the early 1990s.

The first Soap to air outside RTE/TG4 was  ''[[Red Rock (TV series)|Red Rock]] which was broadcast on [[Virgin Media Ireland]] from January 2015 to 2020 . Red Rock aired twice a week on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Focusing on the activities of the detectives of the local [[Garda Síochána]] station and townsfolk, three series of the programme were broadcast, concluding just over five years from the date of its debut.