'You may have his body, but we have his soul’’. The Tragic Story of Ireland's First Assistant Director of Broadcasting

 

The Daily Mirror October 1929

Just four years after the foundation of the Irish Free State, Ireland would see the opening of its own radio station, 2RN, broadcasting from Dublin. Although there was no official an anti-Catholic stance by the new station and its management, the lack of religion and religious services was a great source of annoyance for the Church. The Church had been keen to be seen as a supporter of radio when it first went on air in 1926. The hierarchy believed that radio would aid its dominance over a subservient and faithful population. This stance was reinforced when 2RN later Radio Athlone and Radio Eireann ceased all broadcasts on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Easter Week, which continued up to 1936, after then only silent day was Good Friday. It was a further source of frustration for the Church that the national radio station did not carry a weekly broadcast of Mass. This was more difficult when the faithful knew that the station in Belfast, 2BE, broadcast a daily service courtesy of the BBC, and a Sunday service from various Protestant churches across Northern Ireland. 2RN would offer the excuse that they did not have the equipment to properly broadcast Mass from a church, the microphones were clunky and silences during Mass did not suit broadcasting. The BBC had circumvented that obstacle when they built a separate permanent studio to host religious services.

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When 2RN began test transmitting in advance of the official launch on January 1st 1926, one of the test broadcasts was a massed choir singing Handel’s Messiah from the Methodist Church on St Stephens Green[1]. This rang alarm bells across the Irish Catholic church.

 

Under the leadership of 2RN director general Seamus Clandillon, the station tried to avoid politics and religion on the radio. They did however allow religious figures deliver talks on the radio but they very heavily vetted and occasionally censure prior to the live broadcast. It was however causing resentment with the listening in community. In a letter to the Irish Independent in March 1926, one listener wrote,

‘There was an excellent Catholic service with an address from Father Kernan, St James Church, Reading broadcast to millions of listeners through Daventry on Sunday night. It was relayed even to Belfast. Catholic services are frequently broadcast from other British statins. We could profit from an occasional service of the kind’

The following October, the 'Radio Times' announced for Sunday a Catholic religious service from their London Studio, conducted by a, well-known Jesuit. One listener said,

‘I notice that it is being relayed to Daventry, Belfast, Bournemouth, Manchester, and other British stations. Why is Dublin out of the picture?’

 

The Church Hierarchy had supported the Pro Treaty forces and Cosgrave’s Government during the Civil War and De Valera had been excommunicated for his anti-treaty activities but this was quietly ignored after he won the 1932 General Election. Yet the Church authorities viewed De Valera and his Government with suspicion despite the success of the Eucharistic Congress. DeValera’s Department for Posts and Telegraphs never pressured the state broadcaster to broadcast Mass.

 

In March 1927, the Donegal news reported under the headline ‘Two Ex-Belfast men get positions in Broadcasting Department’. Belfast born Sean Neeson and a Queens graduate was appointed to head the new Cork broadcasting station 6CK, while a Queens University lecturer Frederick O’Connell was appointed to the position of Assistant Director of Broadcasting at 2RN.

 

Feardorcha Ó Conaill or Frederick William O'Connell was born on October 22nd 1876 in the Gaeltacht, near Clifden, County Galway to William Morgan O'Connell, a Church of Ireland canon, and his wife Catherine Donnelly. Fluent in Irish He attended Trinity College Dublin from 1891 and was ordained in 1902 as a Church of Ireland clergyman appointed to Newtownforbes, County Longford. Ó Conaill married Helen Young in 1905; they had three sons before she died of tuberculosis in 1925 after the couple moved to Dublin. He later married Marcella Graham, a French Catholic. In 1907 he earned the post of lecturer in Celtic language at Queen’s University Belfast. He began to work as a writer, and as a translator to and from Irish often under the pen name ‘Conall Cearnach’, a after the legenadary hero. He was known especially for editing the work of Peadar Ó Laoghaire. He began appearing on the new Dublin station 2RN, delivering talks in both English and Irish on diverse subjects such as the use of language, the Wren boy tradition and Connaughtmen.

The appointment in March 1927, just over a year after the opening of the Irish station, of a Protestant clergyman, although widely respected, to a leading post at the national broadcaster was greeted with both surprise and disappointment by the Catholic church. Among his other duties, and because of his linguistic skills, he had charge of correspondence with foreign radio stations. On 1 January 1929 he broadcast New Year greetings in ten languages. Maurice Gorham, a former DG of RTE, in his book ’40 Years of Irish Broadcasting’ said that Seamus Clandillon had got his long promised Assistant Director and ‘an exceptionally good one’

 

His tenure at the station was tragically cut short in October 1929. Having been working earlier in the day filling in for announcer Seamus Hughes, who was on holidays, shortly after 8.30pm on October 19th 1929, as he walked with his wife, Marcella, in Ballsbridge not far from his home on Mount Street, when he was struck by a local bus and killed instantly. They couple had been on their way to dine with Eamon DeValera and his wife Sinead.

The Cork Examiner on October 22nd 1929 reported the inquest into the accident.

‘The tragic death of Dr. Wm. Frederick O'Connell, of 30 Upper Mount St., Dublin, Assistant Director of the Dublin Broadcasting Station, who lost his life when knocked down by a 'bus on Saturday night last, was the subject of an inquest held in the Royal City of Dublin Hospital to-day by the Coroner, Dr. Joseph Brennan, and a jury.

Archdeacon William Morgan O'Connell, of Clifden Rectory, Co. Galway, identified the remains as those of his son, who, he said, was aged 52 years, and whose 53rd birthday was to-day (Monday), he was Assisting Director of the Dublin Broadcasting Station.

Dr. M. Finegan, Royal City of Dublin Hospital, stated that when admitted, life of the deceased man was extinct. The skull, left jaw, and two ribs were fractured. There were several cuts and skin abrasions, both legs and arms being thus injured. Death was due to shock and haemorrhage. At this stage, the Coroner intimated, that the inquest would be adjourned pending the Police Court proceedings against the driver of the bus. They could not, however, allow the occasion to pass without marking their sympathy to the relatives of the deceased. Through the death of Dr. O'Connell the country had lost a great man. His life was devoted to one great ideal, the nationalisation of the language. He stood for all that was good, and for the preservation of national traditions and practices.

Mr. E. H. Byrne, on behalf of the owner and driver of the bus, joined in the expression of sympathy. As well as knowing Archdeacon O'Connell. he had the advantage of being a friend of Dr. O'Connell. Certainly, the country had lost a wonderful son. At the District Court, Charles P. Millar[2] was charged with causing the death of Dr. O'Connell. Formal evidence of arrest was given and the hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.

The injured man had been taken by ambulance the short distance to Baggot Street hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

 

According to the book ‘The Green King’ by Reggie Chamberlain-King he said that

‘His death was not straightforward, with a dispute arising over whether he should have a Protestant or Catholic funeral[3]. When no one would transport the coffin to the Anglican church, it fell to O’Connell’s eldest son, Maurice, to drive the coach. The family stayed with the body, in the church, overnight to prevent it from being stolen and buried elsewhere’

When he died, he was given the last rights by the Catholic priest Reverend McGough from nearby Haddington Road Church. According to the Derry Journal O'Connell had been baptized on November 6th 1924 at the Holy Cross Church on the Ardoyne. According to Paddy Clarke, author of ‘Dublin Calling’ and an RTE Archivist.

‘It is said that when his body was removed by train to Clifden station, an unseemly tussle broke out between his father, the Rector- Archdeacon and the Catholic parish priest Monsignor McAlpine, over who should take custody of the body. The Rector was victorious but went off to the echo of McAlpine’s cry, ‘you may have his body, but we have his soul’’

Clarke also surmised that O’Connell may have been intoxicated at the time of the accident.

Frederick O’Connell was buried at Ballinakill, Moynard, County Galway after a service at the Clifden protestant church. As a mark of respect the Dublin Broadcasting station fell silent on Monday at 1.30pm, the moment O’Connell would have been next due in air.

 

By 1934 despite the success of the Eucharistic Congress broadcasts in 1933 and the opening of the powerful Athlone transmitter allowing the whole nation to hear the radio, the New South Wales Press reported

‘Many readers may be surprised to learn that there is not a Catholic radio station in Ireland. No doubt the reason is that because the country is so overwhelmingly Catholic, people believed that when the DeValera Government founded the powerful Athlone station it would be a Catholic station. Perhaps it is in a sense, but as it is a Government service most of its work is civic. The announcement is now made that an exclusive Catholic radio station may be opened in Ireland. There is no official confirmation of the news, which appeared in a Dublin newspaper, but on the other hand it has not been denied. Negotiations are said to be proceeding with the Government, and Mr. DeValera is known to be favourable to the project, which, if it succeeds, would enable an effective relay of the Vatican station. Wireless experts have been busy with suggestions since the project was announced, and these include the provision of a shortwave station and the establishment of a landline from Italy.’

---

[1] Evening Herald December 21^st 1925

[2] Known as Percy, he drove a bus belonging to The St Hever Bus Company that operated a route from Dalkey to Dublin City Centre. The company was owned by Mr McMahon

[3] It is believed that when he married Marcella he converted to Catholicism.

Available in Paperback & on Kindle

 

Waterford's Pirate Radio History 1934 - 1942.

 

Throughout the Second World War a number of illegal transmitters operated in Dublin rebroadcasting the speeches of William Joyce better known as Lord Haw Haw. Joyce, who had been born in the United States but raised in Ireland, became a committed fascist following his hasty departure from Ireland where he had assisted the Black and Tans in their fight during the Irish War of Independence. He ended up in Germany where he broadcast Nazi propaganda in English on transmitters seized from Radio Luxembourg. Beginning his broadcasts with ‘Germany Calling Germany Calling’ he continued broadcasting right up until the Allies arrived in Berlin where he was arrested. He was taken to Britain and tried for treason. He was convicted and hanged at Wandsworth Prison on January 3^rd 1946. But other pirates, based in Ireland, were far less political in nature.

 

‘Where is Waterford’s ‘pirate’ broadcasting station?’ may have been a newspaper headline from the heyday of pirate radio in the eighties but it comes from the Irish Independent in 1942. Reports of the pirate broadcasts were initially made in early March to the Gardai in Waterford who passed the information onto the Post Office’s Chief Telegraph Censor[1] who in turn informed Irish Military Intelligence known as G2[2]. G2 were the protectors of the nation’s security during the Emergency. The man behind this brazen operation was twenty-four years old Francis Colbert.

 

Waterford had already seen a number of pirate radio broadcasts in the run up to the outbreak of the war. The Cork Examiner reported on July 9^th 1934 under the headline ‘Mystery Broadcasts’,

 

‘Waterford has a mystery radio station. It was discovered to be on the ‘air; during the week broadcasting programmes of up-to-date gramophone records. No intimation was given, however, regarding its whereabouts.’

 

The station had gone on air at 1pm before Radio Eireann’s broadcasts had begun and was broadcasting on 280m medium wave. The frequency was easy to find for many listeners as it was between Radio Eireann’s 242m and the 342m of the BBC. The station closed at 2pm when Radio Eireann came on air but then returned at 11.30pm after the national broadcaster closed, staying on air until 2am when all the other broadcasters in the British Isles were closed. The night-time broadcasts significantly improved both the reach of the station and its listenership. For some weeks after, the station was occasionally heard announcing that they were testing only. Then there was silence, but in April the following year, 1935, the Irish Independent reported under the headline ‘New Mystery Radio Broadcast from Waterford’, the paper reported that the station had gone on air at 11.15pm on a Tuesday night once again after Radio Eireann had closed down. The transmitter was again broadcasting on 280m medium wave. In what was described as an ‘enjoyable broadcast’ a selection of orchestral and modern gramophone records were played before the station operator made a statement in a clear voice. The pirate transmitter was obviously well constructed as the modulation made for clear reception by the locals tuned in, in Waterford.

‘My dear listeners I will interrupt this programme to make an announcement. The majority of listeners have probably heard of the Limerick amateur station but for the benefit of those who have not I would like to explain that an amateur in Limerick has broadcast programmes which have been both injurious and objectionable.’  

He added,

‘I would like listeners to understand that I disapprove wholeheartedly and condemn abuses by this amateur of the powers his transmission station gives him’.

The spat over the airwaves reached the newspapers the following day when the Irish Press on their front page headlined ‘Another Mystery Station, Radio Rivals’. For many, the great pirate radio rivalries in Ireland were ERI and South Coast in Cork, Nova and Sunshine in Dublin in the 1980’s or the Radio Dublin and Alternative Radio Dublin’s battles from the seventies but a pirate radio rivalry had erupted on the airwaves in the 1930’s between stations in Limerick and Waterford.

The 1926 Wireless Telegraphy Act was introduced in November 1926, nine months after the official launch of 2RN. The Act would regulate the airwaves, write the rules on license fees and deem what should and should not be broadcast. The Act was supposed to be a deterrent to illegal broadcasting but that did not stop illegal stations broadcasting taking to the airwaves. One man in Limerick would break all the rules. Jim O’Carroll attended the Technical Institute on O’Connell Avenue in the city and developed a keen interest in electronics. As a result, while experimenting, he built a crystal receiving set that allowed him to listen to 2RN, the BBC and with improvements he began to listen to Short Wave broadcasts from America and Australia.

 

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

In early 1935, O’Carroll added an oscillator to his receiving set and turned it into a crude transmitter that was powerful enough to be heard all over the city. After testing its limitations, O’Carroll had to find a home for his new station, as living with his sister was not an ideal location for secrecy. He eventually found a location on the third floor at the home of his friend Charlie O’Connor at 84 Henry Street. The station began broadcasting in February 1935 on 360m, very close to the powerful transmitter in Berlin, Germany broadcasting on its allotted frequency of 356.7m, which meant that both signals interfered with each other and often the Limerick station had to wait until the Berlin transmitter was turned off to get a good signal out across Limerick City. By April, reports of a Limerick ‘Mystery Station’ was reaching the national newspaper headlines.

 

The station was now named The City Broadcasting Station (CBS) as O’Carroll had been listening to CBS broadcasts from across the Atlantic and liked the sound of the name. He went on the air playing whatever gramophone records he could lay his hands on. On the air most nights from 7.30 – 10.30pm, the station continued with Billy Dynamite (O’Carroll) and Al Dubbin (O’Connor) at the controls broadcasting a mixture of speech, gramophone records, and relayed programmes from American radio, including the news and even swimming lessons on the radio.

 

The Limerick Leader reported on April 6^th,

‘The operation of a mysterious broadcasting station in Limerick for some past time had the citizens and officials agog. Listeners-in are occasionally startled when they hear an unofficial announcer make reference to local matters and some well-known personalities.’

The Liberator newspaper in Tralee on the same day reported,

            ‘The annoyance caused by this is distinctly perturbing to owners of sets.’

 

The appearance of CBS on the airwaves of Limerick was greeted by a variety of different headlines. The Irish Examiner (6/4/1935) headlined their article ‘Wireless Nuisance’, The Kerryman (13/4/1935) spoke of a ‘Secret Radio Station’ while the Irish Independent described them as the ‘Mystery Station’. The station continued from February to October with the only change being its location, when the station moved to the home of Michael Madden at 25 Wolfe Tone Street who had been providing the batteries for the station’s transmitter. The station went from strength to strength and became the first station in Ireland to carry a paid commercial rather than the sponsored programming aired on the national station, when the Wolfe Tone Dairy began to advertise its products. The owner of the dairy was John Toomey, who ran a successful grocer/dairy/vegetable shop and was the proud owner of an ice cream machine, selling homemade ice cream cones. Summer was coming and ice creams would be a popular seller. O’Carroll said after,

‘As I began to get a little bolder, I discreetly canvassed for commercials. My first contact was the owner of the Wolfe Tone Dairy, Mr. Toomey. He had a fine grocer's shop but, in addition, he made delicious ice cream on the premises. I told Mr. Twomey that I knew a man who could contact the elusive Pirate and arrange to have his delicious ice cream mentioned on the air. He was to make no payment until he heard the broadcast. He offered the incredible sum of £10 if I arranged this transaction. Ten pounds was about a month's wages at the time. For a schoolboy one could almost retire! Needless to remark, as far as I know, that was the first radio commercial in Ireland.’^[3]

There were queues down the street for the ice cream encouraging John Toomey to invest in a second machine to keep up with the demand.

‘An enduring sight in my mind's eye is a very long line of people reaching in the direction of what was then Gleeson's public house waiting to purchase cones and wafers from a delighted Mr. Toomey^[4]’ said O’Carroll

The station began carrying ads for Clohesy’s Pub on Charlotte Quay, one of the most popular pubs in Limerick at the time. O’Carroll also added in an interview with the Limerick Leader in 1976, that

‘a committee running a sports outing in Castleconnell asked us to advertise their sports meeting, we had a ‘What’s On Guide’ in Limerick cinemas’.

 The advertising revenue was beginning to pay off for the radio entrepreneurs. The station would carry local news bulletins and because they broadcast late at night, they would collect the following morning’s national newspapers arriving in Limerick railway station at nine o’clock and broadcast the headlines for their listeners much to the displeasure of the Irish dailys, and this was replected in their coverage of the station.

 

In Limerick on October 31st, Halloween, while Michael Madden was on the air, the station had been tracked down and was raided by the police and an engineer from the Post Office Walter Dain. Madden was arrested and the equipment confiscated. O’Carroll partly blamed the raid on Madden himself, who had been drinking in local pubs boasting the fact that he was ‘the radio pirate’ and that information was relayed to the Gardai in Limerick. O’Carroll was in Dublin on the day of the raid visiting his mother and the day after the Limerick raid his mother’s house in Milltown was ‘ransacked’ according to O’Carroll as Gardai searched for links to a suspected IRA transmitter that was also broadcasting in Limerick.

 

Even before the court case following the 1935 raid had reached the courts, a radio station was reported on the Limerick airwaves in early February 1936. The station was advertising a local dance and encouraged listeners to support the event. Following a court case on February 28th 1936 Madden was convicted and fined £1 and 2 guineas costs. During the case Garda Lenihan said that,

‘during the illegal broadcasts names were mentioned and scandalous remarks used’.

It would be the first conviction under the 1926 Wireless Telegraphy Act.

 

In June 1936 another station was reported by the Irish Independent as being on the air, calling itself ‘The Curraghrock Station’. The newspaper reported two females were heard on air followed by a gramophone record programme. By July 1936, the tone of the station was causing problems for the authorities in the Limerick area and in Government circles in Dublin. The issue for the authorities this time was more urgent as the broadcaster was now broadcasting IRA propaganda. The announcer was reported as telling listeners that the station was set up ‘to disseminate Irish republican Army propaganda’.  This time the station used a frequency used by the Munich station and again like the station the previous year would have a better range once the Munich transmitter fell silent. The station was probably located in the Barrack Road area hence the confusion in the name as there is no ‘Curraghrock’ in Limerick.

 

This station was seized on September 4^th 1936, when a house on Newnham Street was raided by Post Office Engineer William Carroll and Garda Lenihan. Despite this raid, another Limerick pirate transmitter was back on the air by September 16^th, on the 360m frequency ‘treating listeners to a programme of gramophone records’ but while there were announcements, there was nothing of a political nature.

 

At the subsequent court case on December 4^th, Edward Quin of Clancy Strand was prosecuted for maintaining illegal transmitting apparatus contrary of the 1926 Wireless Telegraphy Act. The State prosecutor stated that the items seized were,

‘one medium wave oscillator, one low frequency amplifier, one carbon type microphone, and one short wave oscillator’

Garda Lenihan stated in evidence that Quin tried to pocket a value from the transmitter which he later claimed he took because he had it sold and didn’t want to lose it. Lenihan disclosed that he had spoken to Quin on a number of previous occasions about the need to stop illegal broadcasting. All the wireless articles found in the house were produced to the Court and the GPO engineer Thomas Carroll then described what had to be done to test the-apparatus. The test broadcast worked ‘quite satisfactorily’. According to a GPO Inspector he had received a test message from the transmitter and the ‘message was quite distinct’. His finding was corroborated by another engineer Mr. T. White. The prosecution was determined to achieve a conviction and were willing to call several experts to ensure the result. They wanted to send out a message to propagandists who wished to use the radio waves to propagate their messages that they would close them and that the only broadcaster allowed to broadcast in the Free State was Radio Eireann.

 

While Madden and O’Carroll in Limerick were pirate broadcasting for entertainment purposes, a more sinister type of broadcasts had appeared on the airwaves in Dublin. On Friday October 25^th 1935 at 2.30pm listeners on medium wave reported hearing a ‘mystery transmitter’ announcing that it was

            ‘Radio Phoblacht na hEireann, The IRA broadcasting studio.’

The station’s announcer gave a lengthy statement on the Irish Sweepstakes and announced a list of winners. The station then played some gramophone records including those of the famous Irish born tenor Count John McCormack.  The broadcast lasted about forty minutes. But the illegal broadcasting of entertainment programmes or occasional broadcasts from subversive organisations would become the least of DeValera’s problems as the nation faced into neutrality during the Second World War.

 

Further broadcasts from the Waterford station were noted on July 28^th at 2pm, when a thirty -minute broadcast of music was interspersed with announcements in Irish that there would be further broadcasts to follow. But the airwaves of Waterford fell silent until September 1938 when the Irish Independent reported ‘Waterford Hears Radio Pirate’. They reported,

‘For several nights past, listeners who had sets tuned to a wavelength of 400metres were surprised to hear a man announcing that he played a number of gramophone records for an unseen audience. The announcer made no secret of the fact that he intends to continue broadcasting between 7.15pm and 7.45 pm during the week provided conditions were favourable.’

The Cork Examiner reported that the announcer had ‘a refined and well educated voice’. After its first broadcast on Tuesday September 27^th, the Waterford pirate made three further broadcasts before disappearing once again from the airwaves.

To cement Ireland’s neutrality during the Second World War, the Government implemented the Emergency Powers Act 1939 to maintain control and to stifle the activities of the IRA. As part of the Act, amateur wireless operators and experimenters were required to hand in their equipment to the military authorities for the duration of the Emergency. Most of them did but some stayed below the radar.

 

To assist with the defence of the nation against which ever army decided to invade, the Government augmented the Army strength with a volunteer army known as The Local Defence Force (LDF). In January 1942 the commander of the L.D.F. in Waterford set up a communications section and he informed the Divisional Commanding Officer Batt O’Mahony to either procure a radio transmitter or to have one built.

 

The L.D.F. wanted the transmitter in order to contact Army HQ at the Curragh over one hundred miles away but the Government and the Army were hesitant about issuing transmitter licenses to the L.D.F. for fear they fell into the wrong hands especially subversives. There was a certain amount of paranoia in the country about the IRA and that organisations association with Nazi Germany. Francis Colbert was a radio repairman and a member of the L.D.F. and he accepted the task of building a transmitter but was told not to broadcast as no license had yet been granted. Colbert completed the build but instead of testing the transmitter as he claimed he was doing after his arrest on the Army frequency of 120m he began broadcasting on 230m medium wave, a commercial frequency. The transmitter was never going achieve its objective to make contact with The Curragh as its power effectively limited its radius to six miles.

 

The first broadcast of ‘The Irish Broadcasting Station’^[5] was at 7pm on March 1^st 1942. Colbert identified the station and played a selection of gramophone records for the listener’s pleasure. There were further broadcasts on March 5^th, 8^th, 9^th 10^th, 11^th, 12^th and 15^th but his station’s location had been discovered. The station had been heard on various frequencies including 230m, 213m, 238m and 222m medium wave.

 

Post Office engineer Kevin McNeill[6] and Garda Michael Shaughnessey arrived at the home of Colbert at 2 Mendicity Lane, Waterford on April 21^st 1942 following a tip off. The lane connected Railway Square with Johnstown. Colbert let the men in and on the second floor in a back room they discovered the pirate radio station. There was a large selection of gramophone records on the floor including the twenty-two identified by listeners and reported to the authorities.

Mendicity Lane to the Left of the photograph courtesy of the Waterford Historical Society

The raiding party seized the following

1          ‘Radiothon’ valve U 250

1          ‘Marconi’ valve U 10

1          ‘Philco’ valve 3E 42

1          ‘Magestic’ valve G 80 (in poor condition)

1          ‘Radiothon’ G Q 7

1          Variable condenser

1          Inductance

1          Rewound mains transformer

1          Valve holder

2          Plug in tuning coils

1          Morse Key

1          Power Pack

1          Part receiving set

1          2 ½ m send/receiving set

1          Valve Arcturus

A series of correspondence between the L.D.F., Gardai and the Military seemed to reduce the pressure on the need to have Colbert charged. He had been asked by the L.D.F. to build a transmitter and he claimed the broadcasts were only tests to make sure the transmitter was working and that the cost of the build came from his own pocket.

 

The urgency to close the station was dictated by two key factors. Firstly, the authorities were afraid that the Waterford station was another propaganda vehicle for the IRA similar to a station that had operated and had been raided in Dublin in 1939. Secondly the military were conscious of the fact that German bombers made use of radio transmitters to locate targets and while Ireland was neutral, the Waterford signal could have been used to direct attacks against British targets.

 

The matter was quietly dropped by the authorities although the case led to a more rigorous enforcement of the Emergency Powers Act with regards to radio transmitters rather than the lax attitude with regard to L.D.F. companies operating ‘illegal’ transmitter sets. The L.D.F. were eventually granted limited licenses to broadcasting on the Irish Army frequencies of 168m – 176m with a limited power output of thirty watts.

 

The Local Defense Force parading in County Waterford

Pirate radio in the 1970’s and 1980’s would pave the way for the legal independent commercial broadcasters of today.

 

Sources

The Military Archives Rathmines

An Cosantoir Magazine

The Irish Newspaper Archives

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[1] Government Papers at the National Archives

[2] Military Archives

[3] From an article by Jim O’Carroll on Limerickcity.ie

[4] In O’Carroll’s story John Toomey was written as ‘Twomey’ but his death notice in 1951 denoted Toomey as the proper spelling.

[5] The name was also used by the IRA for a number of their pirate radio stations

[6] In May 1947 McNeill was transferred from Waterford to Cork and replaced by Dubliner J.J. Kyne (Munster Express May 30^th 1947)

Win A Million In A Minute !!!!

 

On St. Patrick’s Day 1997, Radio Ireland came on the air having won the franchise to become the national independent radio station. The franchise had been re-advertised by the IRTC[1] following the spectacular failure of Century Radio in 1991, after just two years on air. It was a massive exercise to attempt to challenge the dominance of RTE’s Radio 1 & 2 and after just six months on air Radio Ireland was struggling. It had reportedly lost £2m in the first six months on air.[2]

 

The station owners decided to seek outside help and following consultations with promotion and marketing companies like Ginger Productions, the Chris Evans vehicle, it was decided to rebrand the station and adjust, with IRTC approval, the format of the station. The authorities did not want another failure and seemed to make every effort to accommodate the struggling national station.

 

Radio Ireland was rebranded as Today FM in January 1998. The success of on-air competitions had been proven previously with the pirates through significant cash giveaways, something that the state-controlled stations could not compete with. Allied with the rebranding, the station needed ‘an event’ to kick start Today FM, to improve its profile throughout the country and to begin to increase rating which would ultimately lead to an increase in advertising revenue.

 

It was billed as the ‘biggest ever cash giveaway on Irish radio’ when Today FM launched ‘A Minute with a Million’. A possible one million pounds was on offer for one lucky listener. Throughout January, Today FM relentlessly plugged their giveaway. The mechanism was simple, according to their full-page national newspaper advertisements,

‘Imagine, you in a glass vault with one million pounds and one minute to catch all you can. All you have to do is listen every hour 7am – 5pm and call us when you hear the key songs listed below. And to make it even easier we’ll also name them each hour on air. Be the tenth caller and win £100. Your name automatically goes through to the draw for ‘A Minute with a Million’ which takes place Sunday February 8th in the Jervis Street Centre.’

 

There were 90 songs listed and therefore 90 chances to win and when the initially competition ended, which ran from weekdays from January 19th to the 30th, the station had already paid out £9,000 to successful callers. The success of the promotion is illustrated by the coverage winners received in local and regional newspapers. This is from February 1998 in the Leinster Express,

‘Two Laois men have qualified for the final of Today FM's "Minute with a Million" competition. Freddy Mitten, Portarlington, and Michael Lynch, Mountmellick, will be among the 90 finalists assembled at the Jervis Street Shopping Centre in Dublin on February 8. They'll all be entered in a draw and the winner will get a minute in a vault containing, a million pounds, and will be allowed to keep what he or she grabs in that time.’

The Donegal Democrat reported,

A Donegal man is among 90 lucky finalists who have been chosen to go into a draw to win a 'Minute with a Million’ on Ireland's newest national radio station, 100-102 Today FM.

Neil Green, Letterkenny will go forward to the final of the competition which lakes place in the Jervis Street Shopping Centre, Dublin on 8th February.

The Kerryman reported,

‘Kathleen O'Connor, Ballymanagh, Valentia, is one, of 90 finalists who have been chosen to go into a draw to win a 'Minute with a Million'.  This competition was run daily during January, from, Monday to Friday, between 7am and 5pm on Today FM. At the start of each hour, a, key song was played, and the tenth caller to phone the station on recognising the song won £100. Kathleen has already won £100, but as part of her prize she was also automatically entered into the draw to win a minute in a bank vault with one million pounds. She is due to travel to Dublin on, this Sunday, February 8 and will meet with the other finalists at the Jervis Street Shopping Centre, where the draw will be made. Should she be selected to enter the vault, Kathleen will, be allowed to keep as much money as she can grab 'within one minute.’

The Drogheda Independent Reported on February 6th in an article written by Vivienne Traynor, who would later go onto a stellar career in the news department at RTE,

‘A Drogheda woman has much more than a one in a million chance to get rich this weekend. Susan Clarke from Platin will be among 90 finalists in a promotion by radio station ‘Today FM’. The 23 year-old has a one in 90 chance of being picked to enter a vault containing £1 million and keep whatever she can grab in 60 seconds. And her action plan for next Sunday is ‘I am just going to wear a huge shirt so I can stuff all the money in if I’m picked to go into the vault’ she joked.’

The Kilkenny People reported,

‘Next Sunday, a speedy Kilkenny woman will be hoping she is part of a bank raid in Dublin. Mary O'Shea, Bennettsbridge is a finalist in a radio station promotion that could net her up to £1 million. She and 89 others will wait at the Jervis Street Shopping Centre in Dublin hoping that one of them will be chosen to enter a bank vault and gather as much cash as possible within one minute as part of a campaign to highlight "Today FM " Mary is a well-known long-distance runner and she is preparing for her 17th marathon. The New York Marathon will be held on October 31^st.’

There were finalists from 22 different counties and in the end, it was Dungarvan, Co Waterford man Joe Dalton who was randomly selected from the 90 finalists to enter the glass vault with the million. The married man with two children entered the vault and in the sixty seconds he was given, managed to collect £35,568 in front of a packed Jervis Street Centre. The losing 89 contestants received a ‘goodie bag’ containing £200 worth of prizes and vouchers mainly for shops within the centre.

While Joe Dalton won the competition to enter the vault, the ultimate winner was Today FM as almost immediately its listenership began to rise dramatically and created the foundation that the stations success exists today.

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[1] Independent Radio and Television Commission

[2] Irish Independent January 6^th 1998