The Irish Half Hour on the BBC 1941 -1943, Wartime Radio Diplomacy

During the so called ‘Emergency’ of World War 2 in Ireland, one of the most popular programmes on the radio saw some of the biggest names in Irish entertainment grace the airwaves but strangely the programme did not emanate from Radio Eireann but from the BBC in London. The BBC and the British information Ministry wanted to produce a programme that would appeal to the many thousands of Irish and Anglo-Irish troops serving on the battlefronts and they also wanted to improve to tense relationship between Britain and Ireland as a result of Ireland’s neutral stance.

Dublin born Jimmy O’Dea had given up his optometry profession to tread the boards of theatres including the Gaiety. In 1928, he had teamed up with writer Harry O’Donovan and they played to packed houses with their successful pantomimes and Summer variety shows. In 1940, O’Dea had starred in a BBC Radio variety show created by Vernon Harris and Eric Spear, titled ‘Melody & Co’ initially recorded at the Bristol studios. When the BBC in London decided on an Irish Show, they contacted Jimmy O’Dea who agreed to initially front the ‘Irish Half Hour’ every second week.

George Marshall who was the regional director of the BBC in Northern Ireland objected to the show’s broadcast on a number of grounds not least the name as it implied that it was including Northern Ireland who was ‘partitioned from Eire’. He also objected to the theme music ‘The Minstrel Boy’ and the fact that some of the introduction was conducted in the Irish language with a simple ‘Cead Mile Failte’. His objections were overruled although when asked later about the show he and the Northern Ireland Regional service referred to it as ‘Eire’s Half Hour’. One of the leading supporters of the show was John Betjeman, the poet and writer later to be knighted, who at the time was an attaché in the British embassy in Dublin.

Betjeman wrote,

‘The Germans at the moment broadcast two progammes a day to Eire, one on a medium wave and a Gaelic programme on Sunday evenings. The BBC would be most effective if broadcast simultaneously with one of the German broadcasts, or Haw Haw, preferably the latter and could thus diminish the Germans’ audience. There is a widespread impression in the country here that of the two BBC programmes, Home Service and Forces, the ‘Forces’ is the one to listen to as it is not the BBC and therefore not propaganda.’

The first show aired at 9.20pm on Tuesday November 11th 1941 and the first featured artist was the great Irish singer Count John McCormack who had been living in London at the time. The first show featured mostly music from McCormack and the BBC Men's Chorus and the BBC Orchestra, conducted by Leslie Woodgate. BBC. The show was compered by future celebrity author Leonard Strong, whose parents were Irish. The Half Hour was produced by Lesley Baily and Ronald Waldman.

The following week November 22nd, it was a different type of show now featuring Jimmy O’Dea as his famous incarnation as Biddy Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe and sketches and skits featuring the fictional rural Irish town of Ballygobackward. In total up to the final episode on December 3rd 1943 which unusually was pre-recorded to accommodate O’Dea’s panto rehearsal at the Gaiety, eighty episodes were aired. The Radio Times advertised

‘The Irish Half Hour with Jimmy O’Dea and Barbara Mullen specially recorded for Irish men and women in the Forces. Compere, Joe Linnane. Singer, Robert Irwin. Writer, Harry O'Donovan. BBC Revue Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Charles Shadwell. Presented by Pat Hillyard and Francis Worsley

The show was aired on the BBC Forces service although some Irish regional newspapers were referring to it was the BBC Alternative Service avoiding the militaristic term of ‘forces’. The show made no mention of anything contentious in Ireland such as its neutrality or the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. Not everyone was happy. One letter writer to the Belfast Telegraph who signed himself ‘Ulster Solider’ said that there no mention of Northern Ireland and that,

‘one would think that Dublin was the home to all the Irish servicemen and women, but actual facts show that there are four from Ulster for every one from Eire’.

By its second run that began in May 1942, John McCormack had departed and its was now solely O’Dea’s show. Its growing popularity was demonstrated as it was moved to primetime on a Friday evening and earned itself a midweek repeat for those who may have missed its live transmission. It starred the cream of Irish entertainment and variety who travelled by ship across the dangerous Irish Sea, dodging German U Boats. Others to appear on the bill along with Harry O’Donovan were Joe Linnane who was ‘loaned’ by Radio Eireann to the BBC as Linnane had been hosting the very popular ‘Question Time’ but left early to be replaced by Joe O’Neill. The Irish Times reported the departure but significantly did not mention the name of the BBC show despite it having first aired a year earlier. It wrote,

‘Listeners to Radio Eireann will regret, with me, that our old friend, Joseph Linnane, the   popular Irish Question Time Compere is to leave Ireland shortly to fulfil a contract with the B.B.C.

"Joe." as he is known to thousands of, Irish people, is certainly the best compere we have here, I am inclined to think, indeed, in these islands and the pep which he manages to infuse into his control of a studio full of people each Sunday night is remarkable.

Joe's B.B.C broadcasts will include a series of Irish programmes in which he will be associated with Jimmy O'Dea, Harry O'Donovan. and in which he will have vocal assistance from Robert Irwin and Barbara Mullen, the young Irish stage and film star, who will sing old Irish songs and maybe some new ones as well. The programme will alternate every Saturday with another Irish orgy of melody and mirth, in which Count John McCormack will star. This latter programme will be fathered by L. A. G Strong, who appears to be devoting most of his time these days to broadcasting instead of writing.’

Sean Ryan was a Clare born tenor who appeared from 1942 onwards and it provided a springboard for a tour around Ireland, with his shows being advertised for many years after as ‘coming directly from The Irish Half Hour’. Cyril Cusack, Noel Purcell, Peggy Dell and Cavan O’Connor were also regulars. A variety magazine at the time said that,

‘Cavan O'Connor, well known to listeners for his singing in 'Irish Half-Hour', is every bit as Irish as his name, although he has lived for many years in England. He started to sing at the age of nine, studied under Sir Hugh Allen at the Royal College of Music, since when he has appeared in opera and sung with choral societies and concert parties. He was a popular entertainer on the Western Front during the last war. O'Connor sings not only in English, but in French, German, and Spanish, and many will remember his contributions to the popular 'Cafe Colette' broadcasts.’

Barbara Mullen was another stalwart. Mullen, born in Boston, spent much of her teenage years back with her father on his native Aran Islands where he had starred in the popular film ‘The Man of Aran’. Mullen moved to London to study acting and found herself on the airwaves. She went onto a stellar career on the big screen and on the small screen as the popular Janet McPherson, the housekeeper on BBC Dr. Finlay’s Casebook TV show. Mullen was the star of Eamon Andrews This is Your Life in 1964.

Maye Tipple, who passed away in November 1993, played Biddy’s (O’Dea’s) on air daughter Bridget. She had been O’Dea’s leading lady at the Gaiety and when she departed for London, her role was taken by Maureen Potter who would have a long and successful career on stage and television. Tipple would marry Jack Fennell who worked at Pinewood Studios.

The popularity of the show on both sides of the Irish Sea cannot be underestimated and was a source of concern for Radio Eireann. When it finished in December 1943 a BBC Gallup poll put ‘Irish Half Hour’ as the second most listened to programme on BBC Radio. The show was available on medium wave and more importantly for overseas troops on short wave.

To capitalise on the goodwill created by the BBC’s Irish Half Hour during the war, just after the end of the war a rejuvenated Radio Luxembourg began a request show titled the Irish Half Hour from 1948.

Radio Tralee 1939 - 1990, the legacy of Michael Donovan

Tralee has a long radio history in one guise or another. The first mention of a ‘Radio Tralee’ was in June 1939 when a loudspeaker system was installed in the town for the Tralee Summer Show and Carnival. The ‘station’ studios were installed on Castle Street to entertain those who attended the festival which included a major horse race meeting. According to the 'Kerryman' newspaper on June 17th when reporting the official opening of the Tralee Industrial Fair,

‘Mr. Thomas Lynch, Chairman of the Tralee Urban Council, opened the Tralee Industrial Show and Exhibitions on Wednesday night. Speaking from the studio of "Radio Tralee," he appealed to the people to support the manufacturers who had come to Tralee to show what can be done by Irishmen in their own country.’

The moniker Radio Tralee then reappeared in the sixties and the early seventies, initially during the Rose of Tralee festival when studios were first located in 'Arthurs' music and radio shop on the Square. By 1973, Radio Tralee was on every weekend from the Rose weekend in July until after Christmas providing entertainment and an advertising outlet for the traders in the town. The manager of the shop Declan Moriarty was one of the main presenters on Radio Tralee at the time. In 1974 the station would be moved to Barrack Lane behind the Munster Warehouse and the star presenter was now Sean Hurley.

He would be replaced by a man who would have a lasting impression on the listening public in Tralee, the late Michael Donovan. Donovan would take the name from the towns speaker system and put in on the airwaves properly as Radio Tralee in 1978 when it burst onto the medium wave. Sometimes known as Community Radio Tralee and Downtown Radio Tralee, it closed briefly in December 1979 citing financial problems. In its various guises Donovan would keep a Radio Tralee on the air until December 1988 when new legislation forced the closure of over 100 pirate radio stations across Ireland that ultimately made way for legal independent commercial radio and Radio Kerry. But having been overlooked for a franchise, Radio Tralee came back on the air in late 1989 but was eventually closed by the authorities in July 1990 putting an end to Radio Tralee, or did it?

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 Irish Presidency & Radio - Episode One Douglas Hyde

To commemorate the anniversary of the inauguration of our first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, we begin a series of articles looking at the role that radio has played in the life and times of Irish Presidents.

Episode One – President Douglas Hyde (1860 – 1949)

                        Uachtarán na hÉireann (President of Ireland) 1938 - 1945

Douglas Hyde was the first voice heard on the opening night of Ireland’s broadcasting service 2RN in 1926. In 1938, the defender of the Irish language was elected unanimously as the first President of Ireland, taking up residence in Aras An Uachtarain. The medium of radio was still in its infancy but it proved a unique form of communication to not only unite an island nation but to reach those who had left our shores to forge new lives in far off places like the United States and Australia. To celebrate his inauguration as the Irish President in June 1938, NBC in the United States presented Hyde’s one act play ‘The Twisting Rope’ which had been translated into English by Lady Gregory. The play had first been performed in Irish in October 1901.

On December 22nd 1938 President Hyde made his first broadcast since his election night and rather than it being aimed at those in Ireland, who had not voted him in, he was elected unopposed, the broadcast was aimed at the Irish diaspora in the United States. At 11.45pm Irish time, with equipment set up by Radio Eireann in his private residence at Ratra, Frenchpark Co. Roscommon, the President spoke to America. The operation was co-ordinated by Radio Eireann and the NBC networks office in London. A land line connected his home with the studios in Henry Street, Dublin and by cable to Rugby in England while a trans-Atlantic telephone line linked the broadcast with NBC headquarters at Radio City in New York.  The broadcast was aired in radio primetime at 6.45pm on the NBC network across the United States. The then 78 year-old President spoke in both Irish and English. He said,

“I feel that am bridging not, only space, but time, as am now renewing a contact which I made person some 30 years ago. When I was amongst you over 30 years ago speaking on behalf the Irish people was only humble worker in the cause for the restoration of our own language. “To-night again speak to you as my country’s representative, but this time I speak with a title, President of Eire. For myself, I still feel humble, but for country I feel proud. When visited your country more than a generation ago our native language was almost extinct as living tongue. Barely was heard outside the homes the poorer parts the country, and even there it was rapidly dying out, the State services, the professions, in business circles, among the traders the towns, had practically ceased to exist, except possibly as academic subject. The task before us who realised the rich heritage which we were in danger losing forever, seemed nearly hopeless. But, fortified by the determination of our nationalists at home and the generous aid of our friends abroad, we fought tenaciously to save our ancient language from further decay and to restore it to new life. To-day the Irish language, although not widely spoken yet, is recognised our Constitution to the national language of Ireland. Although the struggle for national self-expression has been long and intense the people Ireland have never become embittered They have all times sought to friendly with other nations, and more especially with your great nation, which her own children helped to found and develop and under whose friendly flag so many of them have found second home. In the name of Ireland, therefore, I wish to all citizens of the United States, and in particular to all of American and Irish descent combined, a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year’.

The message was recorded by Radio Eireann and rebroadcast for domestic consumption at 1.30pm on Christmas Day. His new status as President even afforded him the pleasure of listening to one of his plays being performed and broadcast by Radio Eireann that Christmas. On December 23^rd ‘Beith Chriost’, a nativity play was produced by Sighle Ni Dhonnachada for the station.

Weeks later in January 1939, President Hyde was once again due to broadcast on behalf of Ireland to the United States and further afield. As part of the New York World’s Fair a series of programmes from around the world title ‘Salute of The Nations’ would be broadcast across the US and globally by short wave. Ireland’s contribution would feature Hyde, Eamon DeValera and a host of Irish entertainers. Hyde’s broadcast in December from his home was a tortuous experience for the veteran Statesman. Despite the honour of being elected the first Irish president, Douglas Hyde was suffering the pain of loss. Just months before he was sworn in at Dublin Castle in June 1938, his wife Lucy (nee Kurtz) died on December 31st 1937. The efforts to broadcast from Roscommon as the first anniversary of his wife’s death approached. Weighed heavily on the President.

As each day from January 1st to April, a different nation would offer a glimpse of their nation. January 8th was Ireland’s turn and the programme would be introduced by Hyde, just as he had introduced radio to Ireland in 1926. On the day before the broadcast, Hyde sent word to the Radio Eireann director T J Kiernan, that ‘owing to the bereavement he would not be taking part in the broadcast. Kiernan told the Evening Herald that ‘no alternative arrangements will be made’.

He went onto to say that,

‘Mr. de Valera will broadcast for ten minutes, and Ireland's contribution will also include a selection by the Dublin Garda Ceilidhe Band and a group of songs. Mr. de Valera. he said, would probably speak a little longer, and, if necessary, the musical programme would be extended.’

The importance attached to the ‘Salute to The Nations’ was illustrated as Robert Wood, Assistant Director of Broadcasting and Television at the New York World's Fair, travelled to Dublin to make final arrangements for the broadcast. Wood told the Irish Press reporter that he believed that because of the large Irish-American listenership across America, the Irish programme would be extremely popular with audiences.

It will take place from 6.30 to 7 p.m., and will open with a greeting to America, to be followed by the playing of the National Anthem by the Station orchestra. Music by the Dublin composer, Victor Herbert, who won fame, in America, where he was very popular, was be played. A piece from his " Irish Rhapsody" entitled "St. Patrick's Day " was chosen. The Dublin Metropolitan Garda Ceilidhe Band provided a medley of hornpipe and reels, and Maire Ni Scully from Galway, and Michael Higgins sang in both Irish and English. The programme was carried by 342 U.S. radio stations on all the major networks and 45 stations in Canada, while the International Short Wave Stations at Schenectady and East Pittsburgh relayed the programme to Central America, Australia, Africa, and all over Europe.

The Inauguration of President Hyde at Dublin Castle in June 1938

Edgar Twamley, The Irish born American Radio Hero

Ireland has produced a huge number of radio personalities who have departed the island and entertained millions across the world.  The lives of Eamonn Andrews or Terry Wogan have been extensively written about by both themselves and biographers. One broadcaster you may not have heard of, was Edgar Harold Twamley who made his name on American radio. This is his story.

 

Twamley was born on Mountjoy Square in Dublin in 1896 and when he was fourteen years old, his family moved to London but even the British capital could not hold the teenagers attention. A nineteen-year-old made his way to Liverpool and boarded the SS Finland and on November 25th 1915, Edgar Twamley arrived in New York harbour to take on the new world. He wrote on his arrival card that he was heading to Washington DC but Twamley ended up in Davenport, Iowa.

 

He joined the staff of local Davenport radio station W.O.C as an announcer and this would start a career that would eventually take him to the top of his profession at a new radio network. On August 5th 1925 he was introduced to the listening public as the new station director. W.O.C had been purchased by Professor B J Palmer from Robert Karlowa in 1922. Palmer ran the ‘Palmer School of Chiropractic’s’ and moved the station to the school campus. W.O.C broadcast on two channels, news and entertainment on 360metres medium wave, while sports and weather could be found at 485m. In 1932 one of its most famous sports casters was Ronald Reagan, later to serve two terms as US President.  

The small town of Davenport was not going to hold back the Dubliner from making his mark on the broadcasting world. In 1932, having married English born Violet, he moved the family to the upstate New York city of Buffalo. Initially he was employed by the N.B.C radio sales department then in 1935 he was being listed as the ‘Commercial Director and Programme director’ of W.B.E.N in Buffalo. W.B.E.N, owned by the Buffalo Evening News, hence the callsign, broadcast on 900khz from the Hotel Slater in the city. It was an affiliate of the NBC’s Red Network and Twamley was about to head up the NBC corporate ladder.

                                                     

In the US national census in 1940, Edgar was living at 355 Voorhees, Buffalo New York and was married to English born Violet with their two children Muriel aged 19 and Edgar junior aged seven. His birthplace was listed as The Irish Free State.

 

Tragedy was to befall Twamley in 1940 when Clifford M. Taylor, the commercial manager of W.B.E.N, and a member of the NAB Sales Managers Division, died of a heart attack March 11th in Jacksonville, Florida. Mr. Taylor was on his way home with Edgar Twamley by his side from a fishing trip when he suddenly died. In 1943 Mack Twamley, the 10-year-old son of Edgar H. Twamley, made his debut Broadway appearance in the play "Tomorrow the World" at the Barrymore Theatre.

 

With the second World War consuming the world in September 1944 his departure from W.B.E.N was announced with the appointment of Robert Thompson as the commercial manager of W.B.E.N succeeding Edgar H. Twamley, who had taken up a confidential role with the US military for the duration of the rest of the war. After the war he re-joined the NBC head office on their sales team with Twamley heading up the Chicago office.

                               

In January 1946 following the resignation of Paul Gould, vice president, a member of board of directors and station manager of W.L.I.B New York, Edgar Twamley, was appointed general manager of the station, absorbing all of Mr. Gould's duties. W.L.I.B was at the time one of New York’s most popular stations. W.L.I.B was originally W.C.N.W and founded in 1941. The station's target audience was the upper middle-class and wealthy New Yorkers, as evidenced by its format of classical music and popular jazz which competed with W.Q.R.X. The station was purchased by The New York Post in 1944 and regularly ran news updates from the Post 's newsroom at various times during the day.

 

Twamley then found himself as a radio station trouble shooter. He was parachuted into the management of a number of stations floundering in the new commercial world after the war. One of those stations was W.L.A.D in Connecticut which had gone on air in October 1947. Becomes a station trouble shooter

According to the trade papers at the time,

‘The station, a 250w daytime station on 800khz, is under the temporary managership of Edgar Twamley, a consultant called in to straighten out W.L.A.D's affairs. The managership reportedly will go to Joseph Mathers, now commercial manager, when Mr. Twamley concludes his work.’

 

In 1950, Twamley left NBC to join a brand new radio Network hoping to rival the big four at the time NBC, CBS, ABC and Mutual. He was installed as Vice President in charge of the PBS Network. According to the radio trade papers of the day,

‘PROGRESSIVE Broadcasting System, a new operation offering daytime programs to local stations exclusively throughout the country, will begin full operation Nov. 26, President Larry Finley announced last week in New York. Arrangements for service to about 250 stations are completed, he said, and additional stations are expected to bring the total to 400 by Feb. 1, he said. Mr. Finley, who arrived in New York after a six -weeks tour cov- ering more than 760 radio stations, also announced the election to the PBS board of Dr. Miller McClintock, former president of MBS. He also announced the appointments of Edgar H. Twamley, formerly with NBC and WBEN Buffalo, as vice president in charge of the eastern division, and Robert B. White, a former executive of ABC, as vice president in charge of the central division. Donald Withycomb, former president of WFIL Philadelphia, is ex- ecutive vice president, with headquarters in New York. Mr. Finley, former transcription producer, is one of three stockholders, and will headquarter in Hollywood. Programs, will be fed both live and via tape -recording from divisional points in New York, Chicago and Hollywood, via AT &T lines, Mr. Finley said. Stations will pay a minimum program fee of $580 per month, he said, plus one -half of the talent charge per quarter - hour, which ranges from $4 to $40. The company also plans to represent its affiliated stations in national sales, at the standard 15% commission, according to Mr. Finley.’

Unfortunately the network failed to take off and within months ceased operations on January 31st 1951.

After the disaster of PBS sudden closure, he crossed the country to Santa Barbara, California where he began working for sixteen year radio veteran Paul H. Chapman & Co., a company who matched radio stations up with perspective investors and new owners.

 On July 26th 1967, the newspapers reported,

‘Edgar H. Twamley, 70, broadcaster associated with stations in Davenport, Iowa, Los Angeles, New York and Buffalo, N.Y., died July 26 in hospital in Santa Barbara, Calif., following surgery.’

The Lough Beg Wireless of 1932

In January 1932 on a small uninhabited island in Lough Beg, seventy six year old pensioner George McErlain reversed the trend and built a wooden cabin on Duck Island where he lived a solo, hermit existence. Occasionally George, who became known as ‘the Robinson Crusoe of Ulster’, would row over to Antrim to attend church services. He lived by fishing and catching pike in the Lough. The Lough which is located just north of Lough Neagh was a major religious retreat.

His story made front page news as he went off grid as they would say today, the post office complaining how difficult it was to deliver post and packages to the island dweller. In a story on the front page of the Evening Herald on July 7th 1932, the article revealed,

‘Over these islands he rules like a king, without any subjects except the birds that know his sun-bronzed face so well and come unafraid, to his hand. He is more lonely than Robinson Crusoe, for no man Friday is by his side.’

But if, as this reporter did today, you row out to the island of the loneliest man he will run to greet you with a welcoming smile and tell you some of the blessings of solitude and the secrets of the islands.

In August one of those packages brought his story to international prominence when a woman who signed herself Madcap Madeline sent him a wireless set. In a note with the wireless set the donor said that she hoped the set would help pass away ‘pleasantly a few hours’. She said that she envied what she considered an ideal life.

We don't know how the radio impacted his life but it's arrival on the small island for his pleasure certainly gained column inches in the newspapers and periodicals of the day.

1938 - 'Wrong Way Corrigan' on the Radio

On July 18th 1938, at Baldonnel Aerodrome, outside Dublin, a small aircraft landed without any advance warning. On board was a solo pilot Douglas Corrigan. He was about to become a cultural icon and celebrity and would forever be known as ‘Wrong Way Corrigan’. An aircraft mechanic who had helped build Lindbergh’s ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ that itself had crossed the Atlantic, he had purchased a 1929 Curtiss Robin aircraft and modified it. He applied for permission to cross the Atlantic from the United States but was denied as the authorities deemed his aircraft not to be airworthy to make the crossing. On July 9th, Corrigan and his aircraft left Long Beach, California and landed at Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York. On July 16th he took off again from Bennett’s Field having filed a flight plan to return west to California. But instead, he later claimed accidentally, his plane flew twenty-seven hours west landing in Ireland.

He became an instant media sensation and radio played a pivotal role in spreading his fame. A front-page story across the world, he was even introduced to the Irish Taoiseach Eamon DeValera at Irish Government buildings. The following day after he landed in Ireland Corrigan would broadcast live on NBC across America from Dublin and that the broadcast in itself received unprecedented press coverage.

Despite the fact that Radio Eireann in their studios to the rear of the GPO on Dublin’s main thoroughfare O’Connell Street closed transmissions at 11.30pm, the studios were opened at 3am in the morning for Corrigan to broadcast to America. From Radio Eireann’s studios and live across the United States, Corrigan held a conversation with his grandmother, Aunt and Uncle in Hollywood, California. It would be his native Hollywood California that would also turn his adventure into a big screen movie ‘The Flying Irishman’ made by RKO Pictures. In his international interview with Robert Ripley the creator of ‘Believe It or Not’ the host asked,

‘How are they treating you?’

‘Oh swell, they are treating me like an Irishman’ he replied according to the Irish Independent report

‘He then introduced the famous airman to his audience and then asked him a series of questions similar to those he has been asked by newspaper men since he suddenly appeared out of the clouds at Baldonnel’

Ripley in Hollywood continued "Hello, Douglas; here's your uncle," and' the airman's uncle greeted him with the news that Douglas also had become an uncle in the previous 24 hours. "Your niece, Lucille Ann, was born at 12.17 last night," he said.

Then his Uncle asked,

 "Have you any need of money? "

 " I guess not," replied Douglas. 

" Well, anyway," said his uncle, " I am sending you some through the American Consul and don't fly back."

Douglas was just starting to cash in on his new found celebrity status which included ticker tape parades in both New York and Chicago. He was paid $2,000[1] ($36,000 in today’s money) for his interview with NBC but Radio Eireann got little or nothing for their efforts to open their station doors to allow the broadcast.

Corrigan, who was housed in the American embassy in the Phoenix Park, gave an interview to Radio Eireann the following Saturday. According to the newspapers,

‘Mr. Douglas Corrigan. the American was the centre of attraction last night when he broadcast a talk of five minutes from Radio Eireann.

"Hello, Irishmen." were the first words used by Mr. Corrigan when he stepped to the microphone.

Mr. Eric Boden. compere, asked: What did it feel like when you came down at Baldonnel?

" It felt pretty good to get on the ground again," said Mr. Corrigan. "I was then a bit dubious as to what was going to happen next."

Mr. Corrigan had some nice things to say about Baldonnel. Everybody interested in Ireland, he said, knew about Baldonnel. The flying field was a good one but the buildings did not seem quite so new as those in America.

Mr. Boden, ‘When you were broadcasting previously you said you were being treated here like an Irishman. What was implied by that?

Mr. Corrigan-Well, I was being treated as good as anybody could treat anybody else. I have met Mr. de Valera, and 1 have met Dr. Douglas Hyde[2]. Mr. Walsh. Mr. Leyden. Major-General Brennan, and they have all been very nice to me.’

Before he departed Ireland via Cobh, he spoke one again live to the US audiences in the early hours of the morning, late night on the East Coast of the United States.  Broadcasting for CBS from the Customs office, at the Deep-Water Quay, Cobh, Douglas Corrigan gave the American people some of his impressions of his stay in Ireland following his flight. He made the broadcast through a long land link-up with England, and in the little room those present could only hear the replies made by Corrigan to the questions put to him by the interviewer, who was speaking from America. Corrigan heard the questions through earphones.

Sharp at 4.30 a.m. Corrigan, who was wearing the leather jacket in which he flew the Atlantic, two weeks earlier, stepped up to the microphone and announced: "Hello, Dublin! hello, London! hello, New York, this is Corrigan,' speaking from Cobh, Ireland, I am sailing in about half an hour for New York. It is 4.30 here, and a very wet night."

In reply to the questions put to him Corrigan said he was most impressed by "the large crowds who waited at each of the railway stations coming down from Dublin to Cork on the train last night. They all wanted autographs, and 1 was very gratified, because it was raining all the time.”

Corrigan returned with his plane to New York by ship and was feted wherever he went, now known as ‘Wrong Way Corrigan’.

---

[1] Evening Star Washington DC

[2] The newly elected President of Ireland

The Irish Pirate Radio Rivalries - Of the 1930's

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 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 licence 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.

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.’[1]

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[2]’ 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 interviwe 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.

Meanwhile in Waterford City another broadcaster was taking to the airwaves. The ‘Waterford Broadcasting Station’ was heard broadcasting on 280m medium wave and were on air from 11.15pm for an hour. On Wednesday April 17^th , the broadcast to the listeners of Waterford, which was described by the Irish Independent correspondent as ‘a most enjoyable broadcast’, included ‘gramophone records, vocal and instrumental items’ but ended with an unfavourable critique for their Limerick rivals. The announcer bemoaned that,

‘an amateur in Limerick had broadcast programmes which were 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’. Some of the issues related to newspaper reports that O’Carroll’s signal was interfering with listeners enjoyed of concerts from the Berlin station.

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.

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.

Greater rivalries would consume the Irish airwaves in the decades to come but these stations proved that the battle for hearts and minds on the radio could consume time and newspaper columns. 

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

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