Time flies: RTÉ Fair City celebrates its 25th birthday

Fair City has never been afraid to tackle controversial topics through the years, bringing us Ireland’s first on screen gay kiss, a priest falling in love with a woman, abortion, domestic abuse and drug storylines.

The cast and crew of Ireland’s longest running soap, based in the fictional Dublin suburb of Carrigstown, are celebrating 25 years on air today.

The first episode hit our screens on September 1989, with one episode a week for a limited run.

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The show tackles a domestic abuse storyline. Actors Helen Norton and Andrew Connolly on set. Photograph: RTE

Critics were hard on the RTÉ show but it endured, creating more than 3,600 episodes and attracting almost half a million viewers an episode. It now runs four nights a week.

Brigie deCourcy, executive producer of the show, said the cast and crew had worked incredibly hard on storylines to mark the anniversary.

“We’re already busy plotting and planning for the next 25,” she said.

Through the years, celebrity appearances have included broadcaster Gay Byrne, singer Shane McGowan, author Maeve Binchy and her husband Gordon Snell, and presenter Marty Whelan.