I feel that this is probably rather specific to Ireland. I'm not sure of any other examples of television having as large a societal impact as toppling the Catholic Church's influence over the country. So, I'm surprised to see it on HN. That said, I haven't exactly looked, either.<p>I can't see television ever having that large an influence again, anywhere. While Gay Byrne and the Late Late Show made a very significant influence on the time period in the modern history section I had to study in the Leaving Cert (Irish exam at the end if secondary school), people nowadays are too skeptical of anything televised.<p>Once the number of channels people have available to them is taken into consideration, plus the fact that the only shows to gain widespread popularity are fiction shows like 24, news shows, or lighter non-fiction shows (like Mythbusters), anything trying to make a serious impact just won't get watched by enough people to get a large response.<p>Then of course there is the fact that the people in power are a lot more conscious of how all media affects them. Politicians aiming for soundbites, and companies having PR teams trying to influence media also reduce how seriously media is taken. (This particular point also applies to the internet, even if many politicians haven't quite figured that one out.<p>One of the reasons it had so much influence at the time is that, at least here in Ireland, there is a certain older generation who used to take "what the man on the telly said" as an authoritative source. Even talking to my own grandmother reveals a certain amount of this attitude, at least for RTE or BBC.