Ireland's First Rugby Broadcast, 1927

(c) Weekly Irish Independent, Colourized by IBHOF

I recently read a book on Irish radio history, published to celebrate the centenary of the launch of 2RN in 1926. One paragraph stood out.

‘2RN may have been a little later than their European counterparts in getting up and running, but they were innovative and well ahead of their peers in the sports arena from the very start. The Irish state broadcaster is credited with being the first radio station, in Europe at least, to broadcast live matches and races on air. The BBC were not allowed to do this, to ensure they were not in competition with the newspapers of the day. The first live commentary broadcast on a match was a Five Nations rugby international at the newly built Ravenhill stadium in Belfast, played on 9 January 1926 between Ireland and France. Ireland won, 11-0.’[1]

The sentence that stood for out for me was,

‘The first live commentary broadcast on a match was a Five Nations rugby international at the newly built Ravenhill stadium in Belfast, played on 9 January 1926 between Ireland and France.’

Several significant errors should be addressed so that the pioneers of early Irish radio receive proper recognition for their contributions. Ireland did defeat France 11–0, but the match was played on January 23^rd, 1926—not January 9^th —and no live commentary was broadcast from Ravenhill. The first live commentary of a Five Nations international took place during the 1927 championship. On January 15^th 1927, 2LO (part of the British Broadcasting Company) in London broadcast the England versus Wales match live from Twickenham, making it the first live rugby commentary. The commentary was provided by former Harlequins player Captain Ted Wakelam. ‘A running commentary by an eyewitness’ was how the commentator was described. A special wooden commentary box was built and even a colour commentator was employed, Charles Mapworth. A pitch grid was published in the newspapers and in the Radio Times to assist listeners in identifying where the ball and the action was on the pitch. On February 12^th Ireland played England in London losing 8-6 but the match was broadcast live by 2LO and relayed by powerful Daventry transmitter. 

The match was also relayed by 2RN in Dublin with the Marconi company setting up their loudspeakers in the bandstand in St. Stephens Green for those without wireless sets to listen in to the action. 

The possibility of 2RN relaying the match was raised in the Dail when Major Bryan Cooper TD,

“asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs whether his attention has been called to the fact that the British Broadcasting Corporation propose to broadcast a description of the Rugby Football Match between Ireland and England on Saturday, February 12th, and whether it is possible for him to have this broadcast relayed from the Dublin Broadcasting Station for the information of listeners in the Saorstát.”[2]

The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs replied,

“I have received many requests to relay this broadcast, and arrangements will be made accordingly.”

                           

 On February 26^th 1927, 2RN delivered the Irish broadcaster’s first live rugby international commentary, covering Ireland’s match against Scotland at Lansdowne Road. The commentator employed for this historic broadcast was a former Irish rugby international, Louis Magee. Magee had captained Ireland to the 1899 Triple Crown win. The ground was full, with the opening of the uncovered new East Stand adding to the capacity crowd. The weather however was terrible, lashing rain, low temperatures and wind, the pitch turning to mud field. Magee was set up along the touchline with the microphone inside a wooden box mounted on a stand. A cable ran into the stand, and a telephone line connected the broadcaster with the station headquarters in Little Denmark Street. At one stage the ball hit the microphone knocking it and the stand into the mud.

"We had the microphone out on the sideline at our first rugby broadcast," remembered Mr. William Beatty deputy chief engineer at 2RN. "At the most exciting moment in the match (when every listener must have been hanging on to the commentator's every word) the ball hit the microphone and my staff and I had to get down in the mud and repair the damage as best we could so that the wiring would be connected up with the least possible interruption.”[3]

When Magee came back on air, he told listeners that the ball had knocked the stand, referring to his microphone stand, but listeners erroneously believed that a ball had knocked down the new stand.

One week later Ireland took on Wales at Lansdowne Road in better conditions than the Scottish match. Once again Louis Magee was the commentator. One newspaper reviewer said,

‘Mr. Magee was in excellent form and the intimate naturalness of his remarks made the match as enjoyable for the listeners-in as for the thosands who were present at Lansdowne Road. I liked his adoption of the intriguing word ;melee; and also the substitution of ‘blood and hair’ for ‘vigourous’.

He did however bemoan the fac that he wasn’t a bookie as Magee offered the odds of 1000-1 on Wales scoring in the first half. Ireland led Wales at halftime 11 points to nil.

In Birr, Offaly according to the Midland Advertiser a large crwod gathered in the Chronicle Hall to listen to the wireless where,

‘the enthuasiasm of the listeners, like that of the spectators, found vent in the cheers as the Irish team added score to score’.

Meanwhile the BBC relayed the commentary from Lansdowne Road creating an even bigger audience for Magee.

 

Apart from being a winning rugby captain and a pioneer broadcaster, Magee was a Vetinerary Sugeon with interests in horse racing, one son, Sean, became well known in racing circles. Magee died in 1945 in Dunboyne where he lived with his wife. When he died his exploits on the rugby pitch playing for Ireland or as the first captain for the London-Irish club, his ventinary work, his appointment as the vet assigned to the new sport of greyhound racing in Ireland or his family’s association with horse racing were all brought to the fore but not a mention that he was a broadcasting pioneer in Ireland.

 

When I attended Marian College for my secondary education, his grandson, also known as Louis, was a teacher at the school and amrugby coach just metres from Landsowne Road where his grandfather was the first to broadcast live from that venue. His grandson would also serve as President of the Irish Rugby Football Union through his assocation with Bective Rangers.

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[1] There may have been some confusion in dates as the powerful BBC station at Rugby opened in January 1926

[2] The Dail Debates

[3] World Radio History

Ireland's First Ever Radio Advertisement Aired A Century Ago

 

‘You, too, listener, can have Archer's Sausages - remember the name – Archer’s Sausages for your breakfast. You can get them from Archer and Son, 12 Talbot Street, Dublin. They are made in a model factory in Dublin. At the same address - 12 Talbot. Street - you can get Irish beef and mutton of the finest quality at lowest city prices.’

 

This advertising message for George Archer’s pork butchers which has a unique place in Irish radio history and has a connection to Sandymount. Listeners to 2RN, the newly inaugurated Dublin radio station, on Wednesday night, April 21^st 1926, had a somewhat novel experience when for the first time in either Great Britain or Ireland, commercial advertisement was broadcast. Advertising was not the snappy ear catching thirty second commercials we hear today on RTE or commercial radio. In those days advertising consisted of short publicity talks or playlets. Archer’s was the very first and while the fledgling station needed finances other than relying on the Government exchequer, reaction to the advert was mixed. The advertisement was broadcast at 10.30pm after a fifteen-minute performance by the station orchestra.

 

George Archer was born about 1873 in England and was the son of Robert Archer, a carpenter.  He moved to Ireland and in 1890 was living at 4 Bath Avenue and working as a butcher’s foreman when he married Emma Kavanagh on 25^th November 1895 at Star of the Sea Church, Sandymount.  Emma lived at 11 Tritonville Road and was the daughter of John Kavanagh, a carpenter.   He worked for H. Williams and Co as a butcher before setting up his own business in 1909 located at 12 Talbot Street.  According to the 1901 census they couple were living in Sandymount before moving northside to live in Clontarf in 1911 and all of their seven children having survived.  George was elected vice president and later president of the Dublin Victuallers Association.  Emma died on 13^th April 1918 at 15 Vernon Avenue.  Her funeral mass was held at John the Baptist church and she was buried at Glasnevin. George died at Roebuck Grove on 19^th  October 1947 and left
39,000 in his personal estate.  He was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery.

The decision on advertising had been taken by the Dublin station on April 12^th. The Irish Independent reported,

It was announced from the Dublin Broadcasting Station last night that arrangements. are being made to set aside five minutes each night for the broadcasting at a small fee of advertisements of Irish products. Sometime ago a hint that such a thing was in contemplation was not received with favour. Listeners-in look to the service to provide entertainment and instruction and it is quite clear that at best it would be a very incomplete and unsatisfactory way for interesting the buying public who desire to see the goods and who wish to get the details in black and white.

 

This showed the fears of the newspapers that the radio service would impact their advertising revenue.

The Irish Independent reported that they were,

‘informed that 2RN (Dublin) will shortly commence broadcasting advertisements of goods manufactured in the Irish Free State, with the joint object local industries and postal revenue. The fee levied for the service to advertisers is £l per minute, and the first firm to sample the innovation was a firm sausage manufacturers.’

The full text of the Archers advertisement was as follows,

 It was a Monday morning. There was a general air of grumpiness about the Murphy household. Father was up in the bathroom wrestling with a new collar and consigning all and sundry laundries to a warmer climate. Mother was down in the kitchen driven nearly to distraction. Only that moment Katie, the maid, had told her that the oatmeal had run out and that there was not a scrap of bacon in the whole house. No porridge and no bacon! And on a Monday morning too. What would Henry say?

Fortunately, there were those sausages that the grocer had induced her to purchase on Saturday. Of course, Henry never did like sausages, but if half the grocer had said about these sausages were true, well things mightn't be so bad. Certainly, they looked nice, so plump and sweet smelling—and the grocer did say that they were the only sausages he himself ever ate.

Soon, a dozen or so round, crisp little sausages were sizzling and spluttering in the pan. Their shiny little skins took on a deeper tinge, their fat little bodies swelled and swelled so you would think any moment they must burst. They curled themselves up as it they revelled in the comforting heat. And they all smelt so delicious—so really appetising. Mrs Murphy began to think that the grocer was right. Certainly, these sausages had a more tempting aroma than any she had ever cooked; and they looked so inviting and so appetising. If only she could induce Henry to try them.

Upstairs, Henry had mastered his collar, but why would that confounded tie persist in slipping round to the wrong place? Katie's diffident knock at the door announcing breakfast made him sniff the air ominously. Sniff. "What was that?" - Sausages! Pooh! Thank goodness they knew better than to offer them to him. "Ah! No porridge—just like women, always leaving things to the last and then forgetting all about them." "Henry" it was Mrs. Murphy who spoke, “I want you to try these sausages; they are Archer's, and the grocer told me he never eats any other himself; he says he has been over Archer's model sausage factory, and now that he knows how these sausages are made and how pure and good they are, he recommends them very strongly."

Mrs. Murphy spoke, rapidly as if seeking to avert the storm that she felt must come. But it never did. Whether it was the very evident delight with which little Jimmy was devouring his share or the tempting aroma of the sausages which she had tactfully placed within easy reach of her husband—which of these things it was that worked the miracle. Mrs. Murphy never knew. All she heard was " Umph! Archer’s, are they?” from her husband, as he cut off and ate with critical deliberation a small piece… For ten minutes not another word was spoken; then when he had finished the fifth, (and last), sausage Henry lay back in his chair, and murmured, "Well, if only all sausages were like those"

‘You, too, listener, can have Archer's Sausages - remember the name – Archer’s Sausages for your breakfast. You can get them from Archer and Son, 12 Talbot Street, Dublin. They are made in a model factory in Dublin. At the same address, - 12 Talbot. Street, - you can get Irish beef and mutton of the finest quality at lowest city prices.’

This very first advertisement was four minutes long and would have cost George Archer £1 or about €85 in today’s terms. Just one thirty second advert on Ireland’s commercial radio station today would set the advertiser back approximately €1,000.  Archer’s advertisement would probably not be a script that could be aired today. It was definitely aimed at those who could afford to listen to the radio and own a wireless set as the family featured could afford to employ a made, it also demonstrated the era of the time where women, especially wives, were almost subservient to the man of the house. It also illustrates the importance in an era before supermarkets of the local butcher and grocer.

The very first commercial, corporate advertisement on Irish radio was broadcast on December 31, 1927. It was for Euthymol toothpaste, and all advertising was to be solely for the use of Irish made and manufactured products.

OUR NEXT POST WILL LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST RUGBY COMMENTARY MADE ON 2RN (RTE) IN 1927