The First Ladies of Irish Radio, Renee Flynn & Victoria Clarke Barry

For hundreds of thousands of viewers, RTE’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’ is a must watch as professional dancers, paired with celebrities attempt to impress the Judges including Lorraine Barry. Her family have had their talents showcased on the Irish broadcasting landscape for longer than you might think.

In a predominately male dominated world, radio in its infancy had two Irish female pioneers and after almost 100 years, it is time to celebrate their contribution to Irish broadcasting history. First up is Renee Flynn, a soprano that has appeared on every radio station to broadcast in Ireland up to the Second World War. In January 1926 Ms. Flynn appeared in 2RN but this was not her first visit in front on the radio microphone. In December 1925 she had sung on the stage of the La Scala Theatre off O’Connell Street which was relayed to the nearby studios of 2RN and aired live as a test broadcast for the new station. 2RN officially became the Irish Free State’s station on January 1^st 1926. But even her December broadcast was not her first as she became one of the first women to appear on Irish radio when she broadcast on 2BP.

2BP was a Marconi organised temporary station that was set up to prove to the new State’s Government the power of radio. (see our blog post on 2BP’s history). It’s studios and transmitter were located in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire and a main listening-in station set up in the RDS during that years annual Horse Show. Renee sang into the microphone shortly after the station had been visited by President William T Cosgrave, who was originally visiting the hotel to meet with New York Supreme Court Judge, Daniel Cohalan.

Renee and her immense talent would enthrall theatre goers and radio audiences alike and she was in high demand. Not content with appearing on the first two licensed stations broadcasting from Dublin 2BP and 2RN, she appeared on the other Irish station 2BE singing with the Belfast Wireless Orchestra in April 1933. Earlier in 1931, she crossed the Irish Sea to London to appear on the London Regional Service before performing and recording with the BBC Symphony orchestra in 1936. Her broadcasting career in Ireland continued as 2RN was transformed into Radio Athlone in 1933 and when Athlone was renamed Radio Eireann in 1937, one of the first singers to appear on the station was Renee Flynn accompanied by the Irish Radio Orchestra.

The composer Vaughan Williams Requesting Renee for his recording

When the experimental 2BP was on air for those three days in August 1923, not only were listeners entertained by the velvet voice of Renee Flynn but also by the piano playing of Victoria Clarke Barry. Miss Clarke was the daughter of the well-known Dublin band leader, John Clarke Barry, who specialised in a new style of music at the time, American jazz. John Clarke Barry was immensely popular at home and abroad. A big family man, he and his wife would go onto have six sons and seven daughters. Victoria at times would step into replace her father as leader of the band when her father was indisposed. Later she would form her own touring band known as ‘The Lady Revellers’ and had a stellar career of her own. She had answered a newspaper advertisement seeking artists to appear on this new medium of radio in 1923 for the Marconi Company. As Victoria played the piano in front of the microphone at the Royal Marine Hotel, her father’s band entertained the visitors to the Horse Show itself in Ballsbridge. It must have been a great sense of pride in her father as he stood at the radio set in the RDS and heard his daughter entertaining over this new medium. Victoria featured in the band’s advertising and also accompanied her father and the band to Belfast to appear on 2BE in October 1923 after her inaugural appearance on radio on 2BP.

Victoria’s younger sister Billie would become the doyen of the Irish stage when in the sixties she set up an acting school to provide trained performers for the many theatre shows in Dublin and will be forever associated with the Gaeity Theatre. Billie’s own daughter Lorraine followed her mother’s passion into the theatre and dancing and was a perfect choice to be a judge on Dancing With the Stars when RTE purchased the rights of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, known outside the UK as DWTS.

The Late Late Toy Show, The Wireless and Wonderful Memories

 

Tomorrow night, a nation stops for one of the strangest nights in Irish television, which is often hard to explain to an outsider. In a year when we spent much of it under restrictions due to the pandemic, the Late Late Toy Show on RTE brings a much-needed respite, for the child in all of us. The cares of our world suspended for a couple of hours of joy and mayhem. We are transported back, willingly to our own innocent childhoods. The hashtag #latelateshowtoyshow will trend internationally, and there will surely at least one moment that will be a YouTube sensation. The ‘Late Late Toy Show’ has become both an institution, from the days of its creator Gay Byrne, to the ratings winner for the national broadcaster it is today.

 

But the Late Late Show and its broadcast this Friday night brought back memories to me of the first time I fell in love with radio. It was the late sixties and there was a wooden encased Bush radio, sitting on a homemade shelf in the kitchen just out of reach of myself and my younger sister. It was one of those sets that had to warm up before any sound broke through the mesh at the front or the light behind the glass paneled dial shone, coming seemingly from a magical place called ‘Athlone’. I was four or five years old and Christmas Eve was still full of wonderment and excitement.

 We duly wrote our letters to Santa Claus but what I asked for is lost on the fogs of time but I do remember one of the first toys I asked for was a Meccano set. There was an iron bathtub that would be perched on two chairs in the kitchen, filled with water boiled in pots on the range. A bar of yellow sunlight soap used to scrub us daredevils. We would have our baths but it was annually timed to coincide with Radio Eireann’s ‘Lucky Dip, Letters to Santa’, which was broadcast on a Christmas Eve in the late afternoon. The screams of us pleading for the adults to be quiet as we listened hoping against hope that our letter was read out, ensuring that we would be getting our presents and hopefully ’the surprise’.

There was one radio in the house and one 405 line black and white TV but we never had control, until we got that little bit older, until I was able to stand on a chair in the kitchen and reach those tuning knobs and discovered another world, the global world of radio. Radio and Santa helped inject a passion in radio broadcasting that lasted longer than any of the presents Santa left beneath our Christmas tree. Alas never once was our letter read out. (Children look away now. It would have been difficult for our letters to be read out because at times our mam and dad did not send them as perhaps our requests were a little outlandish and probably too expensive. Finding the letters in my grandmothers’ drawers (no not those ones) left me with that crest fallen feeling. I have been lied to, hoodwinked yet I was never left wanting and Santa came every year filling me with happiness. I had been a good boy.)

 

I, as the oldest was bathed first and then I was made sit on a small chair, that my mother had inherited herself (it’s still around the house), in front of a blackened range of the bottom of the kitchen, to warm up and dry off.

 

I remember one year, as Mam and my Gran carried out the tradition of getting us cleaned up for Santa’s visit and off course a visit to Mass the next day, not everything went to a yuletide plan. Here we were listening to a programme that was actually aimed at us chislers and we were heavily invested in listening to it on the wireless but immediately after it ended there was some murmurs of consternation as Radio Eireann dared to broadcast a carol service from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  We were hunted straight away out of the kitchen up to the sitting room, there was no room my grandmother said for ‘those sorts of broadcasts in this house’. A Protestant service, with some beautiful singing, was not for our young Catholic ears. As we scarpered up the stairs, we could hear the dial moving swiftly along the waveband for the dulcet tones of Radio Luxembourg.

 

They were magical times, great memories and I remember the joy of listening to the radio, not fully understanding the magic and ingenuity that brought those broadcasts into our kitchen through the ether. I love radio, listening to it, understanding it, and now writing about it.  

2RN's 1925 Test Broadcasts Makes One Listener Homicidal another requests a 'Silent Night'

 

Following the Irish Free State Government’s decision that an Irish radio station should be State controlled, as the launch date approached the new station was subject to ridicule, speculation, Government inquiries and shocking revelations. From October 1925 until its first official broadcast on January 1^st 1926, the ‘Dublin Broadcasting Station’ created a storm.

Prior to the launch of the state controlled 2RN, the Government of The Irish Free State had considered granting a licence to the Irish Broadcasting Company, the preferred option of J.J. Walsh, the Minister, as he felt a commercial better would better suit his department. The company was to be run along commercial lines without any Government subsidy. The IBC was made up of five partners, The Cork Radio Company, 50 South Mall, Cork City; The International Trading Company Limited, Lapps Quay, Cork City; Irish Developments Limited, 3 Molesworth Street, Dublin 2; Dixon & Hempenstall, Suffolk Street, Dublin 2 and Phillip Sayer Esq., 16 South Andrew Street, Dublin 2.

 

Each of the five companies would invest £30,000 to launch the station with the activities of the station being run by a board of seven directors. The initial licence would be granted for a period of five years. The station was to broadcast every day of the year except Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day although there was some debate in the newspapers as to whether the station should be allowed to broadcast on Sundays. The hours of transmissions were to be from 11a.m. to noon and from 5p.m. to 11p.m. There were to be no news bulletins except those sanctioned by the Government and none of those before seven in the evening. The Government would allow fifteen minutes of advertising per day but no foreign advertisements except if passed by the Government. The Government proposed a radio set licence fee of £1, fifteen schillings of which would be given to the IBC with a hotels licence fee set at £5, four of which would be given to the station. The Government withdrew support and approval for the station when they decided that it would be in the best interest of the nation to have a state-controlled broadcasting service.

 

But the Wireless Committee set up by the Dail to investigate the route to air, itself would be mired in controversy and scandal when letters written by one of its members Darrell Figgis TD were leaked and there were claims of bribery and fraud just as the fledging Irish Free State was getting to its feet after a War of Independence and a Civil War. One of the businessmen behind The IBC was Andrew Belton and he leaked letters to the newspapers impugning the integrity of committee member Darrell Figgis but Figgis suspected the intentions of Belton and exposed him as a ‘crook’. Figgis demanded in the Dáil that a public inquiry should be held which took place but it backfired on Figgis as it emerged he had earlier taken financial contributions for his election campaign from Belton.

 

Seamus Clandillon

In a Dáil debate after his resignation from the committee on January 25^th 1924 Figgis declared,

‘I was very greatly surprised at an early stage of the proceedings of the Committee when a document was handed in by the gentleman named Andrew Belton, containing very serious reflections upon me, and marked by a spirit of very acute hostility. I was still more surprised when that document was handed in, not by Mr. Belton, but by the Postmaster-General. I desire to say exactly how I stand in that matter. The Committee has, after mature consideration, touched upon the charges that Mr. Belton has made against me. I have repudiated those charges hotly and with indignation. The Committee have not stated in their ad interim Report what I consider is a material matter, and that is that within three weeks of the formation of Irish Developments Ltd., I severed my connection with it with equal indignation, with considerable firmness, and in interviews of some storm. I have not had, since then, any connection with the company or with persons connected with it, and, further, I have no desire to have connection with the company or with the persons who are running it. My connection with it ceased in October 1922. The company was formed on the 1st August, 1922, and my actions in connection with the company were quite clear and quite public, because immediately after it was formed, I myself caused an announcement to be made in the Press of its formation and my connection with it, which will be found in the Irish Press of August 2nd, 1922, in which I am named as Director. I severed my connection with it and caused a public statement to be made in the Press that I had severed my connection. Since then I had nothing to do with it, and I have no desire to have anything to do with it. I think that will deal with the matter of these charges that have been made by this gentleman, through the agency of the Postmaster-General, against my honour.’

In the same debate the responsible Minister also spoke on the subject,

‘I wish to say, at the outset, that I have the fullest possible confidence in the remaining members of this Committee to do justice, in the first place to the nation, and in the second place to myself, in this all-important subject. The Dáil will appreciate that since the outset of the sittings of the Committee, numerous unfair and unscrupulous attacks have been made on my honour, and the motives which led me and my advisers in my department to come to certain conclusions in regard to broadcasting. Because of the peculiar position I occupy, my hands were tied, and they are still tied, and it is very good of you, Sir, and the Committee, to give me just one brief moment to touch on a point or two which may form the subject of misconception, not so much here at home, where matters are better understood and where one can fairly believe in the justice of his fellow man, but in places beyond. The main principle which I contended for in the long and serious discussions leading up to this White Paper was the establishment of an Irish Broadcasting Station, with no connection whatever with anything outside the country. I should like to make it clear, because of these attacks of the last week or two, that in this respect, at any rate, my judgement has been vindicated. There are other matters which will form the subject of discussion when we come to deal with this subject, and that is the evidence submitted by me in relation to private versus State control. If the evidence of this Committee were made public, as I must say I would have very much favoured, it would remove any misconception on this point. My reasons for State control have been fully explained to the Committee, and it is, perhaps, a bit unfortunate that these reasons are not before the Dáil. They are very fully set out and they speak for themselves.

 

In regard to the controversy between Mr. Belton and Deputy Figgis, my name has been mentioned by Deputy Figgis here, and I think in justice to everybody, in justice to a man who is not here, as well as to one who is here, the matter ought not to be gone into without having all the evidence. I am sure that everybody desires a fair show for all the people concerned in this matter. The question of my right to issue licences prior to the erection of a Broadcasting Station has also been brought into play, and my view-point was fully dealt with before the Committee. I think when the public examine those reasons, they will find that there was some justice in the case which I advanced. This is merely a personal explanation, and I only want to say that this subject of broadcasting which has occupied the attention of the Committee for nineteen sittings, and which will continue to occupy its attention for many others, is a subject which occupied my attention and that of the heads of my Department for a period of six months, and has formed a bone of contention in other countries. It is a subject upon which one cannot lightly formulate a judgment. It is necessary to have all the evidence for and against and to weigh that evidence very carefully. All I have to say is, that it would be unreasonable for anybody to come to a conclusion without that evidence, and I believe that for that reason sooner or later the Dáil will find itself compelled—it may do it without either force or compulsion— to publish the entire evidence bearing on broadcasting.’^[1]

 It was headline news but finally,

Broadcasting should be a State service purely—the installation and the working of it to be solely in the hands of the Postal Ministry. (Final Report of the Special Committee to consider the Wireless Broadcasting)

The final report was delivered to the Dáil on March 28^th 1924.

 

Darrell Figgis was at the heart of the Irish broadcasting debate in the 1920’s but he became a tragic figure in Irish history. Born in Rathmines, Dublin in 1882 he spent many of his early years in India where his father was a tea merchant. He returned to Ireland where he became a journalist and a poet. In 1913 he joined the newly formed Irish Volunteers and with Erskine Childers was one of the chief organisers of the Howth Gunning running exercise in 1914 with the importation of arms from Germany in response to the Ulster Volunteers landing of weapons[2].

 

During the 1916 Rising, Figgis was in Achill with his wife and although he took no part in the rebellion he was interned by the British. When he was released, he was made Secretary of Sinn Fein and during the War of Independence was jailed yet again. He was drafted in by the first Dáil to join the committee to write the nation’s first constitution. During this time relations between Michael Collins, the then Minister for Finance and Figgis deteriorated. In 1922 he was elected to Dáil Eireann in the new Irish Free State as an independent TD for Dublin County. In June of that year Harry Boland ordered four men to attack Figgis’s home on Fitzwilliam Street. One of those four was future Lord Mayor and stalwart of Dublin’s Jewish community Ben Briscoe. The newspaper headlines screamed ‘Shorn Samson, Unbearding the Lion’ when the attackers cut off half of Figgis’s famous red beard.  In his memoirs Briscoe wrote

"Never a time went by without a bit of fun. Such an occasion was the degrading of Darrell Figgis...You should see him strolling down O'Connell Street in smartly cut clothes, with his red hair gleaming like newly polished boots, and a fine, red, square-cut beard that was his special pride. Now Figgis started making some very detrimental remarks about the IRA. We did not consider him a menace, he was too much the lightweight but he annoyed us with his waspish stings...Some of us held him tipped back on his swivel chair while one man produced a glittering razor. Figgis squealed like a pig ...I think he would have been happier had we just cut his throat.

Even Collins’s fiancée Longford born Kitty O’Shea took delight in the attack

"Poor Darrell Figgis lost his nice red beard. When I read about it, I could imagine you laughing and enjoying it very much. But it was a mean thing for Harry's cronies to do He was lucky it was only his beard."

 

During the attack Millie Figgis attempted to stop the attack and was thrown to the floor. It left her in a fragile state. The couple separated in 1923 and on November 24^th 1924 she ordered a taxi from her home on Fitzwilliam Street and went up to the foothills of the Dublin Mountains. Once the cab driver had moved away, she pulled out a Wembley revolver given to her by Michael Collins for her protection in the aftermath of the attack on her home and killed herself.

 

By now Figgis was secretly courting an eighteen years old Irish dancer Rita North from Thomas Street. In early October 1925, Rita revealed she was pregnant. The couple crossed the Irish Sea to London. A London doctor Dr Smerke Zarchi performed an abortion on Rita but after complications from internal bleeding, Rita died. There was an inquest into the young girls’ death and a few nights after the verdict, on October 26^th 1925, Figgis booked in to the boarding house of Jane Griffiths in Bloomsbury, London and gassed himself to death. He left ten pounds with his suicide note for the landlady apologising for the inconvenience his death would cause her.

 

Once the Government committee had recommended that the State run a broadcasting station rather than the initially preferred commercial option, the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, J. J. Walsh, set about the practical work of setting up a radio station. The Marconi company was contracted to build and provide the transmitter. To secure the safety of this powerful medium, it was announced in June that the transmitter would be located in the grounds of McKee Barracks (formerly known as Malborough Barracks) near the Phoenix Park. Studios were being built on the upper floors of a former warehouse on Little Denmark Street off Henry Street in the centre of the city, linked to the transmitter by a telephone land line.

 

On September 17^th, advertisements appeared in the newspapers seeking staff for the new venture.

From November 11^th – 14^th, the Wireless Exhibition was held at the Round Room in the Mansion House on Dawson Street. It opened at 11am and stayed open to visitors until 10.30pm. There had been Wireless exhibitions in the years previous but with a Dublin station about to come on air, this one was important. The newspapers especially the Evening Herald extensively covered the exhibition. On November 11^th  there was a 4 page spread in Evening Herald titled ‘Broadcasting in Ireland’. It reported that there would be broadcasts from the Exhibition, but rather than full radio transmissions, this was conducted via a ‘Marconiphone’ loudspeaker system which aimed primarily at the people on Dawson Street queuing to gain access but it was reportedly heard six miles away[3].

The Schedule of the Broadcasts from the Exhibition

The exhibition was opened by J.J. Walsh who was the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs formerly known as the Postmaster General, a term inherited from the former British occupiers. The exhibition consisted of thirty stands, mostly radio set manufacturers selling their equipment to an expectant public. Walsh said at the opening that in the,

‘formidable list of recent scientific inventions and was likely to become one the most potent and most widespread of all. He hoped that at the next exhibition there would be exhibits from Irish manufacturers of wireless apparatus.’ He added that he hoped ‘within the next month they were opening their own wireless station in the free state and embarking on what was as yet only the partially explored field of wireless in this country’.

He urged Irish citizens the exercise common sense to make the new station a success and not subject it to destructive criticism. National prestige he said was at stake.

J.J. Walsh's Address for the Opening of the Exhibition plus local advertisements

The Evening Herald was a keen supporter of the new medium even publishing scematics that showed its readers how to build their own crysal sets.

 6.45pm Saturday November 14^th first test transmissions

‘hallo hallo hallo, aye aye aye, hallo hallo hallo’ were the first words spoken by Seamus O’hAodha. This was followed by

‘Se seo staisiun 2RN Baile Atha Cliath ag triail’ (This is 2RN Dublin Testing)

Seamus Hughes as he was known in English had already survived scrutiny of a Dail Committee as to his credentials to be appointed to the position of station announcer. With accusations of ‘jobbery’ levelled against Walsh, he defended the appointment of Hughes which was begrudgingly accepted by some but not all. [4] The Mansion House was packed as the test transmissions coincided with the final hours of the exhibition, boosting the publicity for the manufacturers and set sellers. There was a sense of wonderment, pride and curiosity in those who heard those first words.

The following Saturday night there were further tests transmissions and Minister Walsh became the first Government Minister and politician to appear on the station. The British ‘Daily Mail’ newspaper reported that the station tests being picked up in Britain. They said that a Kent listener initially believed he had picked up a new frequency for Hamburg Radio but then following a musical item came,

‘This is 2RN, the Dublin broadcasting station. That was good wasn’t it? But we have more treats in store for you, only remember, no licenses, no programme. Further treats followed, an appeal to pay for licenses being sandwiched between each item. The announcer alone is worth the money, for there is none of the almost Civil service restraint which marks his opposite numbers of the BBC.’

The appeal to purchase a licence to ‘listen-in’ can be seen as the first advertisement on 2RN and a sense of desperation that the success of the station depended on the financial resources the Government would provide depending on the number of licenses purchased. A license cost was set at an expensive £1 per year.

 

The following Monday, Walsh officially announced the Civil service appointments to run the station. Seamus Clandillon who for many years had been an Inspector at the National Health Insurance Commission was appointed as a station director. His knowledge of Irish traditional and folk music was a bonus with his abilities widely respected throughout Ireland. He was also a traditional Irish speaker and this was important in the hope that the new station would help in the revival of the Irish native language. Seamus O’hAodha was appointed as the official station announcer. At the time he was the secretary of Cumman NaGaedhael, the Irish language promoters. He was fluent in Irish and French and was respected as a music composer and singer. Vincent O’Brien was appointed the musical director and during tests broadcasts O’Brien and Clandillon performed together and solos to entertain the listeners.

 

The arrival of the new radio station provided a welcome boast to the fledgling radio set sellers especially in Dublin. Hogan's on Henry Street was one of the main dealers and was at the forefront of the publicity. Whenever there was a new developments in wireless broadcasting, Hogan's always was to the fore in newspaper articles. Even when photographs were taken for the newspapers of the new transmitter at McKee barracks, it was Hogan's who were credited with the photograph. 

When tests began, they were not met with universal approval. Letter writers to newspaper complained that the new transmissions were blotting out their enjoyment of broadcasts from England especially the Daventry transmitter. They suggested that the 2RN frequency be moved. One writer in the Irish Independent who signed themselves ‘polyglot’ wrote,

‘I, for one, shall not renew my licence if the Dublin wavelength crowds out the English and foreign stations as it did during recent tests’[5]

Another letter writer offered a solution,

‘I would suggest a "silent night" once a week in order to give valve users an opportunity to receive other stations. If the Dublin station can relay the English concerts now and then we cannot grumble.’

Another letter writer who signed themselves ‘cats whisker’,

‘I regret that I cannot join in the grand chorus of praise of our new broadcasting station. On Saturday night the reception was, no doubt, clear but the matter broadcasted was of the most trumpery description even for a test performance. Selections from ‘Muritania’ no matter by whom played, fill me with homicidal thoughts and to the ultra-refined lady vocalist pronouncing the word ‘vale’ as if it meant the flesh of the calf made me weep aloud’

 

In an editorial in the Irish Independent, as the pace of tests intensified, it commented,

‘The Dublin Broadcasting Station will be formally opened within a few weeks, and we believe, and hope, that its influence will be the seeds of a welcome revolution in the social life of Ireland, more especially of rural Ireland. The new science, although still in its infancy has immense possibilities as a powerful factor for entertainment and instruction.’

‘If the young people in the rural parts have too often drifted into the ways of intemperance, have taken their politics too seriously and too narrowly, or have succumbed to the temptations of the dance hall, it was sometimes because they saw no other attractions, no other relaxation for the hours they called their own. Fortunately, the evil of intemperance Is being steadily wiped out; the Bishops and the priests have done much to check the craze for the foreign dances; and the obsession of politics is slowly giving way to saner thoughts on economic questions. A widespread favour for wireless and be it noted that no technical knowledge is necessary for anybody installing a receiver will, we are convinced, go a long way towards completing our social regeneration, and towards making life in the country districts so much brighter that the eyes of youth will not be dazzled by the lights that call them to the great cities or to the emigrant ship.’

Throughout December the number of tests and their length increased including the relay of 2LO from London using landlines from Wales and from Belfast. As the interest built up to the big launch, Ireland was now about to take to the airwaves. Their first outside broadcast was of a concert held at the nearby La Scala Theatre with listeners enjoying the fact that they were able to hear the applause of the audience. The station was originally planned to begin officially broadcasting in time for Christmas on December 20^th but delays in completing the renovation work at the studios on Little Denmark Street put the officially opening back until January 1^st 1926.

The sensational story of the first day’s broadcast from 2RN to come shortly.

---

[1] Historical Dáil Eireann Debates

[2] A Century of Irish Radio 1900 - 2000

[3] Evening Herald November 11^th 1923

[4] Historical Dail debates

[5] November 27^th 1925

SOURCES

Wireless World Magazine

Practical Wireless Magazine

The Irish Newspaper Achives

The British Newspaper Archives

The Welsh Newspaper Archives

The Dail Historical Debates

American Radio History Website

2BP, Ireland's First Licensed Radio Station in 1923, 'A New Terror of Existence'

Just three months after the end of a bitter Civil War that itself had followed on from a prolonged War of Independence, the first licensed radio station took to the airwaves in Dublin. History shows that 2RN, the original RTE Radio, officially went on the air on January 1^st 1926 but in August 1923, the first Irish radio station, 2BP, was entertaining Dubliners until the new Irish Government suddenly intervened and shut it down without warning or explanation.

On August 15^th 1923 an advertisement appeared in the Freemans Journal newspaper stating,

‘The Postmaster General invites applications from Irish persons or firms who are prepared under license from him to undertake the establishment and operation of a ‘Broadcasting’ station in Dublin for the supply to the public by means of Wireless Telephony of concerts, lectures, theatrical entertainments, speeches, weather reports etc, No applications will be considered which has not been received on or before the 20^th August.’

On the same day in the Irish Independent one of the first advertisements of its kind appeared in the newspaper,

The newspapers were daily talking about ‘wireless’ and speculation was mounting as to how a station would be opened by the new Free State. Newspaper adverts by wireless set dealers were announcing that, ‘we can give immediate delivery of the cosmos’.

 

 In advance of the Dáil tackling radio broadcasting, in August 1923 the Marconi company, who had hoped that they would be chosen to run a commercial broadcasting service in Ireland, applied to the Post Master General J.J. Walsh, for a temporary license to broadcast programmes for the during of the famous RDS Horse Show. The plan required a studio, transmitter and an aerial to be erected at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire and receivers set up in the RDS for visitors to ‘listen-in’ to this novel attraction.

If you want to support my work in preserving and presenting the history of Irish radio and archive as much broadcasting history as I can, then for the price of a cup of coffee (takeaway these days) you can financially support the work at -            

https://ko-fi.com/irishbroadcastinghistory

The annual RDS Horse Show was a major showcase event in the capital and in 1923 it took on added significance as this was the first show held since the creation of the new Irish Free State. The show would be held from August 14^th – 17^th and while the sale of horses and the show-jumping events took centre stage, the Irish Art Industries Exhibition would be held alongside the main events. This was a showcase for producers and manufacturers to sell to the thousands that would attend.

Some of the stands from the 1923 RDS Exhibition

Once permission had been received, the Marconi Company dispatched Louis Wilson to the city to set up the operation. A studio with a piano forte was established on the ground floor of the hotel, a transmitter was imported from the UK, where it had been successfully used in London and Glasgow and an aerial erected in the bell tower of the hotel. The receivers were originally placed in the West Hall of the RDS in Ballsbridge but when test broadcasts were carried out, nearby telegraph lines were causing severe interference and the receivers were moved outdoors to the Industrial Fairs exhibition area.

(c) The RDS Archives 

With the exhibition officially declared open, on Tuesday August 14^th 1923 it was time for the radio station to begin broadcasting. Just after 11a.m., a voice, ‘clear and distinct’ greeted listeners,

‘2BP speaking.’

 

2BP was a call sign that the Marconi company had previously used when carrying out radio broadcast experiments. 2BP was first used in London at a Motor Show. According to Jonathan Hill in his book ‘Radio Radio’

 

‘In November at the Olympia Motor Show, Marconi’s and Daimler carried out experiments intending to exploit the commercial possibilities of car radio. An experimental receiver was mounted adjacent to the back seat of a limousine to pick up programmes sent from a temporary Marconi transmitter (call-sign 2BP) set up in Olympia for the duration of the show’

 

The broadcasting station, proving its mobility, was then transported to Glasgow, where on 415m medium wave on January 23^rd 1923, the next 2BP went on the air. The station continued to broadcast until February 3^rd 1923. The studios were located at a Daimler garage on Hughenden Road, Kelvinside. According to Scottish radio archives,

‘2BP was the call-sign of Scotland's first broadcast radio service, a temporary station established in Glasgow in January 1923 by the Marconi Company and the Daimler Motor Company. It was necessary for the purposes of promoting Daimler-Marconiphone car radios at the Scottish Motor Show of January 1923, given that the British Broadcasting Company's own station in the city, 5SC, would not be launched until March of that year. Recognising the pent-up local demand for a regular broadcasting service, 2BP's sponsors decided to extend the programme for the benefit of those who had invested in domestic receiving sets. With a regular, published programme schedule, it qualifies as Scotland's first radio station.’[1]

1923

According to Tim Wander’s book ‘2MT, Writtle, The Birth of British Broadcasting’ some of the radio callsigns assigned to the Marconi company included 2BN used for general testing. 2B0 Writtle later to be changed to 2MT, 2BP was assigned to Marconi publicity broadcasts and 2BQ also used for general testing. Their 2BP transmitter broadcast in Dublin was to be found on 390m medium wave.

 

The Marconi company had proved their abilities to set up and exhibit the new modern technology of radio broadcasting and it was a coup that Dublin would be their next location.

Once the announcer had greeted listeners ‘2BP speaking’, he introduced the first act.

‘The next item on the programme will be a piano forte solo by Miss Clarke Barry’.

Miss Clarke Barry was the daughter of a well-known Dublin orchestra leader John Clarke Barry, who happened to be performing on the grounds of the RDS as his daughter mastered the new medium. Another daughter, Billie, would go onto found the Billie Barry Acting School which was for many decades associated with a variety of shows staged at the Gaeity Theatre.

 

Other acts to appear included Lionel Cranfield leader of the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society whose lead soprano May Doyle also entertained and music discs were provided by Pigott and Co, Dublin. According to the Irish Independent journalist who was amongst the reporters given a sneak preview of station studios in Dun Laoghaire,

‘These demonstrations were for the purpose of bringing home to the Irish people the wonderful strides made in England in this branch of scientific invention and giving them an insight into the methods adopted by the British Government, which controlled broadcasting and prevented the state of chaos which prevailed in America by reason the fact that everybody there is allowed to transmit.

He (Louis Wilson) explained the powers of the instrument being used and said thousands of people with 30 miles of the broadcasting station could listen in by means of a crystal machine at the cost of a few pounds.’

The radius of 2BP from their transmitter site in Dun Laoghaire

While the broadcasts from Dun Laoghaire entertained during the morning for anyone who could listen between 11am and noon, visitors to the RDS in the afternoons were treated to the broadcasts from the stations in Manchester and Newcastle between 2.30pm and 5pm. While Wilson looked after the transmissions from Dun Laoghaire, Frank Clark, also from the Marconi headquarters in London, looked after the reception at the RDS.

The broadcasts proved extremely popular not only in the RDS grounds but around the city. Listeners at Dixon and Hempenstall’s shop on Suffolk Street and Hogan’s Wireless store on Henry Street gathered in large numbers and were also able to tune into the 2BP broadcasts. The novelty of hearing performances through the ether was causing quite a stir. As artists performed in front of the Royal Marine Hotel microphones, the Government of the new Irish Free State were suddenly getting cold feet after allowing a commercial company access to the Irish airwaves. This came at a time when the Dail’s appointed ‘Wireless Committee’ were discussing the merits of whether an Irish station should be State controlled or in the hands of commercial companies.

 

According to Louis Wilson, the Marconi engineer he said in a letter to the Irish Independent published on the 17^th under the heading ‘Abandoned by Order’ referring to the previous day,

‘Owing to a request we received from the Postmaster General we were obliged today suddenly to abandon the wireless demonstrations we were giving on behalf of the Dublin Horse Show. The request took us completely by surprise and through of course we had to accede to it, I regret that the suddenness should have resulted in any disappointment to visitors to Ballsbridge. Equally I do regret that several ladies and gentlemen who so kindly came, as arranged, to Dun Laoghaire to assist us in our efforts to demonstrate to the Irish public the possibilities of broadcasting should have been inconvenienced.

 

Your Dublin artistes, amateur and professional have placed us under a deep debt of gratitude. Indeed since our arrival, we have received on all sides nothing but kindness and willingness, perhaps I should call it eagerness, of all of whom we called to assist us will be forever remembered by my colleagues and myself. It was for most of us our first experience of Irish hospitality, we shall never forget it.

 

It may interest your readers to know that amongst the artistes who have assisted us we have discovered several who possess ideal voices for wireless transmission and this fact it will give me great satisfaction to report to the broadcasting authorities in London. I feel that if such a programme as we gave for instance this morning could be transmitted from London, it would be enthusiastically received by our listeners.’ [2]

 

Wilson seemed to suggest that if the Marconi company could not gain permission to broadcast in Ireland, that Irish artists could travel across the Irish Sea and perhaps transmitters based in the UK could broadcast back into Ireland similar to how the offshore pirate ships did in the 1960’s.

2BP only broadcast for two days but it’s power and the power of radio had demonstrated to the Government that careful consideration would have to be given as to how and who should run an Irish broadcasting service. One newspaper commentator at the time wrote,

 

‘There is least one benefit of science from which we in the Saorstat are at present immune, and that is broadcasting. Broadcasting in England has added a new terror of existence. You cannot escape it from it anywhere, If you call into a café in the morning for a cup of coffee, you will hear it, harsh, metallic, worse than the worst gramophone, worse even than the tinniest orchestra, At lunch you cannot escape it, not at dinner. In the barber’s shop or the Turkish Baths (once a haven of rest) it will grate on you.’[3]

SOURCES

The RDS Library and Archives

The National Archives Ireland

The Marconi Company Archives

The Irish Independent

The Freeman’s Journal

“MT Writtle by Tim Wander

The Irish Newspaper Archives

The British Newspaper Archives

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[1] 'Scotland's first broadcasting station', The Courier, 25 January 1923, 

 

[2] Irish Independent Letters Friday August 17^th 1923

 

[3] Freeman’s Journal correspondent September 1^st 1923

LISTEN TO THE STORY OF 2BP HERE, INCLUDING AN INTERVIEW WITH ONE OF THOSE WHO APPEARED ON THE STATION

2BP