It may prove useful to state what this project is not, before introducing what exactly I have set out to look at. It is not a history of Irish broadcasting, nor a social history of Irish sport; both projects remain tasks for another day. What I will attempt is to examine some of the impulses that have helped shape the contours of modem sport What will be argued throughout, is that any examination of sport is incomplete without an accompanying, and intergrated, study of its relationship with the media. The main thrust of my argument is that sport has been transformed as a cultural form through its interrelationship with the media. In turn both the media and sport are constrained by wider political and economic forces which set up the parameters within which this relationship can evolve. Mediated sport is an important arena in which ideas and representations of the social order can be displayed. The perception that this area of cultural activity is apolitical, or neutral, is of central concern. It is this pretence of neutrality that makes mediated sport such a key ideological arena. It is the validity of this neutrality that is challenged in this thesis.