To want to be able to watch Irish tv stations when living in the UK?

[HoolyHooly]

Just moved to the UK and I have been looking into getting Irish tv stations...but to no avail. In Ireland you can get most of the British stations, so I am not sure why it is not the same the other way round. Yes I can watch them on the internet, but it's not the same. Maybe it has something to do with sport. Does anyone know of a way around this please? Thank you!

[hedgehogsdontbite]

I have an old laptop connected to my tv so watch tv, except it's via the internet. But you can't tell.

[Kagey]

I think freesat has Irish channels.

[mountainofdreams]

Hoolyhooly Out of interest what shows do you want to watch?
I'm Irish in London and the last indigenous show I watched online was the toy show at Christmas!

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Proxy server?

[HoolyHooly]

Thanks, yep can watch rte etc online, but i can't hook up my tv to the internet unfortunately. Just checked and freesat does have one channel, but it's quite new I think, just want the main ones like RTE, TV3, TnaG etc.
Think it would help with homesickness! :)

[paintedfences]

op. I just watched the whistle episode of Father Ted, and I am suffering my own pang. Why do I live over here again?? With the weird sausages and the horrible butter and the lack of readily available NORMAL popcorn (not that fancy flavoured stuff) in small bags available from all corner shops.

...I love how all of my complaints about England are food-based.

[BabyTuckoo]

Admittedly watching anything involving Ryan Tubridy or Brendan O'Connor would make anyone glad they had left Ireland...

[Purplepoodle]

we have them on sky in Northern Ireland

[Purplepoodle]

Friend brought Google chrome cast to have Internet on tv

[Cocodidit]

Just to let you know, we are all in Ireland watching the English stations I think Brendan has hector on tonight, for the love of god! And that absolute eejit kian on the voice, remember him?

[squoosh]

With the weird sausages and the horrible butter and the lack of readily available NORMAL popcorn (not that fancy flavoured stuff) in small bags available from all corner shops.

I'm fine with the butter but this very day I muttered to myself in the supermarket about popcorn and sausages.

I yearn for Perri cheesy popcorn. These heathens only like sweet popcorn!

[Birdiegirl]

You can get Kerrygold butter in Tescos and Waitrose so that's a start. I'm afraid there's no hope for the auld feckin popcorn though. I love the Manhattan salty popcorn you get at home.

[Andrewofgg]

Is it because the British broadcasters cannot avoiding serving Ireland if they are going to be seen in Northern Ireland (as broadcast signals don't understand frontiers) but the Irish stations have no need to provide a signal here?

[Graceymac]

I am English living in Ireland and only watch English TV! You aren't missing much in the way of TV anyway in my opinion!!

[DramaAlpaca]

My DC were disgusted with the sweet popcorn they got on a trip back to the UK to see the English grandparents.

I think Andrewofgg is right, as the British channels shown in Ireland tend to be the Northern Irish ones - UTV instead of ITV, and BBCNI.

I'm English living in Ireland too Graceymac, but we do watch the Irish channels in our house. Obviously for the news & current affairs stuff, but also DH (who's Irish) watches rugby & GAA and I like RTE2 because it usually shows episodes of the top US shows before, say, Channel 4 does.

[ItStillLooksLikeRainDear]

We brought an old style sky box back with us with an Irish card & it gets the RTE channels etc.

[DramaAlpaca]

Hooly do you have a Sky box? If you do, you should be able to go to the 'add channels' setting and program in the frequencies for RTE & the other Irish channels so you can watch them.

A swift google found these settings for RTE:

Frequency: 10.744
Polarisation: H
Symbol rate: 22
FEC: 5/6

The frequencies sometimes change, but you can search for them online if these aren't up to date - I don't know how current the above info is.

Note you can't record or rewind from channels stored this way.

[gabsdot45]

Maybe the RTE player would work although i dont know why youd bother. There's nothing good on RTE.

[HoolyHooly]

Thanks for the advice. Yeah know there is a lot of rubbish on it, but there is the odd gem, and as I say, very homesick and no links to home here, so just nice to feel close to home a bit.