In part two of our salute to the men who brought 2RN to the airwaves in January 1926, we look at the engineers who bought the Marconi transmitter in the UK, had it shipped to Ireland, renovated the wooden hut in the grounds of McKee Barracks and installed the framework for broadcasting at new studios on Little Denmark Street. These men were integral to the early success of radio in Ireland and their key roles have almost vanished from history...until today.
William Arnold Beatty was
born in Cork to parents from Bangor County Down. As soon as the young Beatty
could access a place in the School of Wireless Telegraphy on the Mardyke in the
city centre, he enrolled. Once qualified in the new profession as a Wireless
Operator of Marconi equipment he found himself travelling the high seas of the
world in ships wireless rooms despatching morse messages for his employer Gugielmo
Marconi.
He was on board merchant
ships crossing the Atlantic as the First World War raged and shipping encountered
a new deadly threat, being torpedoed by German submarines. In 1917, off the
coast of Tory Island, his vessel was torpedoed and sunk. He was saved by being
prepared and engaging with all the safety measures at the time. A year later he
watched from the deck of the SS Highland Pride as a British cruiser was sunk as
it protected a convoy of ships crossing the Atlantic from South America.
In 1922, as the new Irish
Free State Government took control of the affairs of a devastated and war torn
country, Beatty returned to land and joined the new National Army of the Free
State. With his skills he was immediately attached to the Signal Corps. Many of
his colleagues in the Signals Corps were fellow former Marine wireless
operators who were renowned as being face with the Morse codes key. He was in
charge in the Wireless Room at Portobello Barracks on August 22nd
1922 when the first news of the assassination of Michael Collins at Beal na
Blath reached the capital.
In 1924 Beatty left the
Army and in October the following year he was hired as the Assistant Engineer
for 2RN with an annual salary of three hundred pounds per annum but
interestingly with no pension. He worked under TJ Monaghan, who had been
seconded from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs to overseas the opening of
the Free State’s first radio station. He was at the heart of the McKee barracks
hut transmitter location and the nearby aerial array. The transmitter was a
1.5kw Marconi transmitter and his engineering knowledge, training and expertise
was invaluable in getting the signal on the air.
SEE WILLIAM BEATTY & THE 2RN TRANSMITTER HUT IN BRITISH PATHE NEWS
He was in charge of many
of the first outside broadcasts carried out by the station. This included its
very first when 2RN was still in the test transmission phase in December 1925
before the official launch on January 1st 1926. The first outside
broadcast came from the La Scala Theatre on Princess Street, beside the GPO on
O’Connell Street. In March 1926, he operated outside broadcasts from various
locations around Dublin but with limited equipment, it meant that Beatty would
have to load and unload the equipment from taxis as he moved from location to
location. In May 1926, the first OB from Cork took place and Beatty was on hand
to ensure the broadcast went smoothly. The variety show took place in the Cork
Municipal School of Music located on Union Quay. He would make several trips to
Cork through the following year as the second Irish station 6CK was readied to
open from the old Women’s Gaol overlooking the Southern city. A similar
broadcast came from the Town Hall in Sligo on June 15th 1926 with
Beatty once again in charge of the OB. The system operated meant that the
microphone Beatty transported west was attached to the telephone line in the
Mayor’s office which in turn was linked to the telephone exchange in the GPO
and then by telephone line to the studios in Little Denmark Street and
according to newspaper reports it worked perfectly. [1]
It was Beatty who set up
the heavy cumbersome microphone on the side-line at Croke Park for 2RN to
become the first station in Europe to broadcast a live commentary of a field
sport. So primitive was the ‘Press’ facilities at Croke Park at the time, a 2RN
employee had to spend the entire game standing with an umbrella over the
microphone to protect the expensive equipment. On another occasion when
covering a rugby game at Lansdowne Road, the ball hit and damaged the
microphone, the game being held up until temporary repairs were made and the
link to the city centre studios restored. In November 1927[2], Beatty was in charge of
the technical infrastructure for an OB from the Empire Theatre, Galway. Not
only did Beatty set up the broadcast equipment but he acted as the announcer
from Galway on the night linking to Dublin.
In September 1928, the
Irish Independent reported that,
‘Major
Bell, lessee of the Capitol Theatre in his review of the position of the cinema
trade before a party of Pressmen on Thursday, mentioned that the Capitol was
installing such a system and mentioned the fact that useful ideas on the
subject had been put forward by Mr. W. Beatty, engineer, Dublin Broadcasting
Station.
Yesterday
and Irish Independent representative saw Mr. Beatty and got from him some views
on the subject. Mr Beatty is at present seeking protection for an invention of
his dealing with the phono-film.’
Beatty left the station
in 1930 and moved to the United Kingdom where he initially took up a role with the
International Maritime Radio Corporation who were installing powerful equipment
on ocean going liners including those of Cunard and White Star. His fascination
with sound and the moving picture led him to Alexander Palace outside London
and working with someone who is considered by many as the Father of Television,
John Logie Baird. He was one of the main engineers on Baird’s mechanical system
of television broadcasts who was competing with EMI/Marconi’s electrical
system, which ultimately won the battle to be the main system used by the BBC. In
1936 he was the Production Manager at Baird. [3]
After losing to
EMI/Marconi, the Baird company went into a slump and eventually receivers were
called in. Beatty moved on to HMV overseeing the production of new wireless
receiving sets and later to Philco. With each company he worked for including
the International Standard Electric Company and the Anglo- American company Kolster-Brandes
Limited, he was refining equipment being used in both transmitting and
receiving radio and television signals. He applied for and was granted numerous
patents[4] for these improvements.
Part of William Beatty’s engineering team at 2RN were Andrew Kettle. Kettle would later work for the ESB and serve as the Honorary Secretary of Bohemian Football club and represented the north Dublin club on the FAI Council. James Nolan from Walsh Island Offaly, involved in attacks by the IRA on Black and Tans including ambush at Mount Lucas near Edenderry in February 1921. Joined the national army and was attached to the signal corps where he discovered that he was a competent wireless engineer and finally Michael Nugent. Without the hard work, ingenuity, professionalism and dedication of these men, 2RN would not have joined the world’s cavalcade of radio stations on January 1st 1926 and Radio Eireann would not have been so quickly embraced by the Irish listening public. Thanks lads.
[1]
The Sligo Independent June 19th 1926
[2] The
Connaught Sentinel November 22nd 1927
[3] The
Sunday Independent 31st May 1936
[4]
The US & UK Patents Office
[5] Northern
Whig Newspaper
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