Cormac Murphy (21 April 2008) "Crackdown on illegal 'dodgy box' decoders" Evening Herald (Dublin)
UPC Ireland, the country's cable TV provider, has hit back at owners of the so-called 'dodgy boxes' by scrambling network codes to block out illegal viewers. The decoders can be bought for a once-off payment of €110 and give owners access to more than 130 channels.
Jan Battles (18 January 2009) One in five cable customers has a ‘dodgy box ’ The Sunday Times (Irish edition):
Almost one in five Irish cable television customers has an illegal decoder to unscramble channels that they are not paying for, according to industry estimates.
Billy Keane (6 April 2015) "The tale of the man who really has it all figured out" Irish Independent ; reprinted as "Meet The Man Who Has It All Figured Out" in The best of Billy Keane (Ballpoint Press, 2016) →ISBN p. 122:
There's a large ear on the gable wall bringing TV in through a dodgy box .
Aoife Dooley (2016) "NETFLIX AND CHILL" HOW TO BE MASSIVE (Dublin: Gill) →ISBN p. 125
IF YE DONT HAVE NETFLIX THEN THE DODGY BOX WILL DO.
2017 April 26, Gordon Hunt "Are dodgy boxes illegal? The EU has its say" Silicon Republic
Earlier this week, eBay announced it was removing pre-loaded dodgy boxes , meaning those with Kodi Android software already on them.
2017 June 30, Ian O'Riordan, "Pat Hickey interview avoids the hard questions" The Irish Times p. 6 Sports
The Untouchables showed up on our dodgy box during the week, right on that scene where Al Capone is attending a performance of the opera Pagliacci .
2018 December 10, Brian O'Connor "When will sport on subscription TV reach a breaking point?" The Irish Times p. 10 Sports
The modern equivalent of the ‘dodgy box’ is illegal streaming.
Lisa McInerney (13 May 2021) "Track 10: Tall Tales" The Rules of Revelation (John Murray) →ISBN
'I got one of them set-top boxes,' her father said, without looking over.
'It's a dodgy box ,' Ryan said.
'It is not. I got it from one of the lads, it's preloaded, that's all, it's not dodgy.'
'That's the definition of dodgy,' Ryan said.
2022 February 22 thread Twitter
@JohnzoHayze: I love the way we Irish as a nation just decided to universally refer to fire sticks as the “dodgy box ”
@EoinDonovan98: There's a difference between a "dodgy box " and a "fire stick".
hail_hail (30 April 2023) "Celtic v Zombies - Live Match Thread || FT: 1-0 (Jota)" (post 87) Kerrydale Street
I paid for Via play to ensure I got a quality reliable stream and the stream on Amazon is awful. I'm getting a better stream on my dodgy box .
Conor Pope (6 October 2023) "Dodgy boxes : Could I end up in court if I own one?" The Irish Times
Then there came the legally questionable dodgy boxes . They plug into a television and if they have certain apps installed users can stream content directly from the internet on to their televisions.