'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.’

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[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.