For Good or Evil, the GAA Embraces English Culture in 1923 via the Airwaves

For decades Rule 42 of the GAA[1] rulebook forbid the playing of what was seen as British sports, like soccer, rugby and cricket at GAA grounds across the island of Ireland including its headquarters at Croke Park in Dublin. In 1923, after several years of uncertainty due to the War of Independence and the Civil War, the GAA urgently needed to generate funds to pay off debts for the development of Croke Park. The ground had become synonymous with the events of Bloody Sunday 1920 and was a beacon of Irish nationalistic traditions. The anti-English sentiments had spilled over into the new Irish Free State but the GAA were desperate to fund their operations at the headquarters on Jones Road.

 

In June 1923, it was decided to hold a Fete or festival spanning the first two weeks in June opening on the second. Apart from sporting competitions on the field of play, markets, dancing competitions and stalls were installed on the grounds, all with one aim, to gather in as much money as they could from the paying public. The Fete was opened by Dan McCarthy TD, the president of the GAA and he suggested the optimistic plan to bring the Olympics to Croke Park. This sentiment was echoed by the then Postmaster General J.J. Walsh, both men veterans of the previous battles against the British. This launch on the steps of the main stand was the first time ever that the speeches were delivered via a loudspeaker system installed by James Kearney and his Irish and Continental Trading Company. The ‘broadcasting’ of the speeches to those gathered on the pitch was described by the Irish Independent as ‘arousing much curiosity’ and ‘the first fete in Ireland where this microphone system was used’.

 

From The Freeman's Journal

From Practical Wireless 1923

The installation of the system led to a bitter exchange between Kearney and another TD and veteran of the fight against the British going back to the Easter Rising, Sean McGarry[2]. McGarry, an electrician and businessman, seemed to under the impression that the loudspeaker system required a licence but it didn’t and he also complained that the equipment used was imported from Britain instead of being guaranteed Irish. Kearney wrote that McGarry did not know the difference between ‘broadcasting’ and ‘listening-in’. In a letter to the Irish Independent signed by ‘Fair Play’, who most likely worked for McGarry, wrote,

" As a member of the staff of an electrical manufacturing firm with a branch in Dublin which employs electrical engineers and salesmen and pays a large amount of money annually in wages, rates, and taxes in Ireland, I would like to know why permission for the reception of wireless broadcasting is refused to legitimate manufacturers and dealers of wireless apparatus and granted to people who have no connection with the electrical industry. I see by the papers that the Postmaster-General refuses to grant any further permits, and the following day permission is again granted to certain, individuals."

It may or may not have been a coincidence that in the midst of the Fete on June 15th, the electrical supplies shop on Andrew Street owned by McGarry was broken into, ransacked and a money box taken. While the GAA leadership and membership rallied against anything English, they were not against using very specific British institutions to generate cash for the organisation, cash was King.

 

One of the most popular attractions at the Fete and one that required a ticket in addition to the ground entry fee, was also organised by Kearney and had received a license from the PMG Walsh. For four hours of ‘wireless listening-in’ to British radio stations, attendees paid an extra one schilling per head. Underneath the main stand a wireless receiving set was set up with ‘perfect acoustics’ and over two weeks thousands of Dubliners enjoyed the then unique experience of listening to the wireless. In 1923, there was no Irish station to listen to, so the radio was tuned into English stations relaying concerts, gramophone records and even live sports. The Belfast station had yet to go on the air and while Cardiff and Aberdeen were both audible in Dublin, the audiences at the GAA were only treated to English stations. The gramophone records were ‘risqué’ for many of the Catholic church faithful and didn’t really sit well in the proud Irish music tradition but the younger generation flocked to the wireless room he hear the more ‘decadent’ modern music played by the English stations.

The Dublin Evening Telegraph reported on June 6th,

‘Last night[3] a most enjoyable programme was listened to by appreciative audiences. First, we had Manchester[4], which entertained us with music and song, then we switched to Newcastle to avoid a lecture which was not of great interest. From Newcastle[5] we had some fine dance music admirably rendered. When this station announced it was closing down at 10.30, we switched onto London[6]. After some orchestral selections we got news straight from the ring about the Ratner-Todd fight[7]’.

The Radio Schedule that visitors to Croke Park's Wireless Room would have heard

While the GAA held their fierce anti-English attitude, they saw no wrong in their embracing distinctly British culture broadcast over the airwaves. The GAA inadvertently had both created an interest in the new medium of radio broadcasting and for all thing culturally English. The organisation would however go one to achieve radio success as the new Irish Free State station 2RN became the first station in Europe to broadcast live coverage of a field sport when they aired the commentary of a match from Croke Park in August 1926. 

 

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[1] Gaelic Athletic Association

[2] McGarry served on the Dail’s Wireless Committee

[3] June 4^th 1923

[4] 2ZY

[5] 5NO

[6] 2LO

[7] Roland Rodd enjoyed a  points victory over Augie Ratner (USA) at Kensington, London on 4 June 1923, 

1930's Irish Radio Analysis - Part One. Society Changed by the Wireless

Irish Radio in the 1930's was to be educational. Its early aims were to teach farmers how to farm better and improve productivity holding out the dream of a better way of life. It would teach new languages including Irish, French, German and Esperanto. It would help to teach children many of whom had left school early to work the family farm or just to survive. Radio would provide women more help in the kitchen, which they rarely left. There was a hope that the station could be all things to everyone but it ended up being nothing to anyone except those who could criticise or take monetary advantage. The arrival of radio would alter the Irish people and their persona more than the introduction of the telegraph, telephone or even television. Rural Ireland and its way of life would be radically altered with the arrival of the station and radio itself.

The monetary value of radio broadcasts were exploited as village fairs, fetes and charity events across Ireland advertised ‘Dances by Wireless’ as a way of generating revenue. These events were ‘paid in’ events with music relayed by a radio set (known popularly as ‘the wireless’) on a stage and dancing on the main floor, an early form of nightclub or for a later generation The TV Club. These events were often organised by the local parish priest to raise funds for local charities, church and school repairs or for the running of the church itself. The parochial organisers often saw themselves as the ‘censor in chief’ monitoring what their flock listened to and protecting the moral fibre of the community. Prior to the arrival of the ‘Irish station’ this was difficult as they had no control over the choice of music being played by international radio stations.

Entertainment was an escape from the trauma of the battlefield, the poor and distressed living conditions and the mundane hand to mouth existence of much of the rural Irish population. In many homes in Ireland late at night the only light in the front room was the light of the Sacred Heart photograph on the wall and in the dial of their radio set. For rural Ireland many of the new technologies of the early part of the twentieth century like the motor car, the aeroplane and even electricity meant little to the Irish farmer, who dominated Ireland’s ‘industrial’ output in the 1920's but radio was affordable especially with a homemade crystal set. An increase in the number of licences in rural Ireland was not seen until the latter part of the thirties as listeners abandoned the crystal set for a production model. The increase was also attributed to the launch of not just a Dublin broadcasting station but a national station accessible in every part of the country.

What difference would radio make to the simple, uneducated farmer living in Dingle or Ballina? Rural Ireland was isolated, it was agricultural based and poorly educated. News of happenings outside your four walls came through word of mouth often offered at the church gates on a Sunday or the communal newsreader. The communal newsreader was the local who had a better degree of education than most and was able to read the newspaper. This led to a gathering where the reader would educate and entertain their neighbours with the contents of a newspaper that was often more than a week old. But events outside their townland or parish had little effect on their lives or so they assumed. M.R. Heffernan TD, the Secretary at the Department of Posts and Telegraphs in an article he wrote for The Irish Radio News told the farming community that he believed

            ‘broadcasting will help towards filling the gaps in the lives of our rural population, which gaps at present are dull and uncultivated gaps.’

The arrival of radio made the communal newsreader unemployed as you did not need to read and write to be able to listen to the news via the wireless and form your own opinions. There was still the gathering, the social third place after work and domestic living, but the nature and tone of the gathering had changed. Before radio broadcasts, entertainment centered on the house party. Locals would gather, drink perhaps some locally distilled spirit, sing traditional tunes and sean nos dance on the grey flagged stone floors while maintaining the Irish art of the storytelling. But now the radio broadcast was the centre of attention. People listened in silence to the music and the news.

The local traditional music was not just the only music available to the listener especially the young and impressionable. Marching band music, Operas, Jazz, crooning which was invented for radio vied with traditional Irish music for the listeners attention with the native airs no longer locally based but a national identity.  Musicians from Kerry could now hear musicians from Donegal and like an accent or a dialect there were often variations in the way the same traditional tune was played. There were new influences appearing in traditional Irish music much to the dismay of traditionalists and purists and for this radio was blamed. It was a diluting of the traditional and a moving away from the Irish culture and heritage that was once almost lost and certainly driven underground under Britain rule. For many who did not appreciate how radio worked, their belief that an Irish radio station could have the same isolationist attitude as the nation as a whole ignored the fact that the ether was carrying other influences and stations into the sometime naïve Ireland.  

But now the social equilibrium was broken as a new voice entered the home. This new unseen voice was full of new ideas, ideologies and advancements that produced change faster than the listener could adapt. The radio set was the first piece of twentieth century technology to enter the Irish home. In most houses even before electricity the radio set was the only piece of modern furniture. For many households who bought an imported radio set it was a major investment in tough economic times.

Women were suddenly not lonely when their men folk were out in the fields or cutting turf on the bogs. They were gaining in independence, more receptive to new ideas. The radio was a window on the world rather than a world that just involved the people and events of the next town land. The Irish had let this unseen stranger into their homes in a very intimate way. There were no formal introductions, their way no way to judge by a man’s looks if he was honest or not. This voice from the box was invading a space traditionally reserved for the man of the house even though that person by the act of purchasing a radio set issued an unwritten invitation. The sense of wonderment that somehow you were listening to a broadcaster or a musician in Paris, France while you sat in your kitchen in Kerry was in itself a complicated concept to accept by a simple man from of the land. If you lived on an isolated farm the only voices you would hear were those of your family, your neighbours and perhaps a few villagers as you attended Mass on a Sunday. This totalled less than one hundred people but by listening to the radio you had doubled that total in one week.

People began to speak about presenters in the same way they would talk about a family member even though they would never actually cross paths. Presenters were becoming household names. There was a third presence in a marriage whether the spouses liked it or not. The first battle over what should be listened to was now breaking out. Different styles of music and not just Irish traditional music was drawing greater audiences. When local musicians came to the house they played the tunes they knew and same way they always played them but they were now becoming redundant as with a turn of the dial or a movement of the aerial, ‘new’ music was being heard.

When they heard Birmingham, Manchester, Pittsburgh or New York there was a sense of connection for many of the older generations as these were the cities that their families had emigrated to during and after the famine. Many had lost touch completely never knowing for sure if their brother, sister, son or daughter made it to their new land of opportunity. Even though there was no direct personal contact on the radio, the thought that you were hearing programmes from New York at the same time as a family member was in that city brought a sense of peace and understanding. It drew line under some of the hurt caused by the enforced separations.

Radio changed the social activities of the natives. Radio became a national culture and a disseminator of culture. No longer did people have a parochial or provincial window on life they were now part of a bigger country or the world Listeners across the length and breath of the country were able to hear the same music, talk or news at the same time as everyone else. The advertisement of products was now a national endeavour rather than a local necessity.  Radio became a shared experience with people they would never meet. There was no need to leave the house to be entertained. No need to go to the theatre as 2RN broadcast plays, no need for vaudeville as comedians embraced the new medium and the musical hall came to your living room rather than the need to travel or pay an admission fee even though a licence fee was required to listen to the radio but the purchase of licences outside the urban conurbations was slow. The radio also meant that your entertainment requirements were not affected by inclement weather. The way we were entertained and the way we demanded to be entertained reached new plateaus.

The men of the nation were able to listen to a broadcast of the All Ireland GAA Finals live and we will look as the new stations uneasy relationship with Ireland’s largest sporting body in the next post.

Early GAA on Television

If you visit the excellent GAA Museum at Croke Park you will see their current exhibition 'Wireless to Wifi' which tells the story of how the media has covered the GAA games since it became the first field sport to be broadcast on radio on 2RN in 1926.

The exhibition lauds the fact that when television arrived in Ireland in 1962, the fledgling RTE covered Gaelic games on television but the history of Gaelic Games on television stretches back further into the early days of television.


In September 1950, the BBC in the midlands of England had cameras and crew on had at Robin Hood stadium to cover the British Hurling Championship game between the local John Mitchels club and the ultimately victorious London's St. Mary's on a scoreline of 4-4 to 2-3. In the newspaper it was described as 'hockey with inhibition' and commentary was provided by RTE's voice of the GAA, Michael O'Hehir. Highlights of the game with shown on a sports round up show the following night.

In New York following the success of the 1947 All Ireland Final won by GAA, the local GAA committee and the authorities in Croke Park attempted to expand the games on the far side of the Atlantic. This included exhibition games similar to the more recent All Star tours and in the early 1950's the National League Final was payed between the winners of the 'Home' final and New York. These games gained widespread coverage amongst the Irish media in New York but also on television when a local brewer provided the sponsorship to have the game televisied. 

In 1948, The Munster Express reported that Waterford played Kilkenny in New York with highlights of the game shown on TV. 

From the Irish Independent July 22nd 1950

'A Century of Irish Radio 1900-2000' Book Launched

A Century of Irish Radio 1900 -2000

This 595 page book tells the story of how a medium with much of its early history centered in Ireland, has revolutionized and changed Irish society more than any other medium.

This comprehensive story begins with Ireland became the first nation in the world to be declared by radio during the iconic events of the 1916 Easter Rising. It charts the birth of legal radio in 1926 which is shrouded in scandal and reports of corruption with fatal consequences. Irish radio while born in the twenties, the evolutionary 1930's would change how the Irish listener consumed and interacted with the wireless. The book tells how Radio Eireann’s revenue in 1932 was £220 but a year later they reported revenues of £22,000. In the 1930’s you could learn to swim on the radio or listen to commentaries on the International Fishing competitions held on the rivers and lakes of Ireland. You can learn about an anti-Jazz movement whose legal ramifications are still felt today. How the Church and State battled both for and on the airwaves. We unravel an urban myth that the first ever radio broadcast of ‘The Saint’ was on Radio Eireann in 1940 and acknowledges the real success of Radio Eireann as it transforms rural Ireland on limited resources and offers women a new independence and perspective. The book tells the story of the first man in the world to die on hunger strike having been convicted of pirate radio broadcasting. The book .

The Irish language was relegated to third place for a time on the official airwaves but the radio battle for our native language to have access to the ether has been long, protracted and eventful. Irish radio has been a conduit for propaganda and has become Americanized with men like Bill Cunningham changing how we consume radio, the giveaways, the profits and even the success and failure of longwave station Atlantic 252. Discover how Ireland interacts with the rest of the world through radio and how ironically it was two Englishmen Leonard Plugge and Chris Cary who revolutionized radio in Ireland.

For the first time ever, the book lists and offers station histories of over one thousand illegal pirate radio stations from the first conviction of Michael Madden in 1935 to the commercial successes of the so called super pirates such as Radio Nova, ERI and Kiss FM. The book examines the impact of political pirate radio in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the troubles and how paramilitary pirate stations brought down a Government and accelerated the end of a major political career. How pirate radio and TV both threatened Government policy and led to dramatic change. As an avalanche of pirate radio stations across the country forced new legislation for legal independent radio and television, commercial interests would dominate and cause further controversy with stories of fraud and corruption.

Learn about the good and evil within pirate radio, how this illegal activity created a fledgling radio industry, created border blasters, frequency hijackings, the characters and the presenters from Larry Gogan to Gerry Ryan to Andy Preston leaders in personality driven radio. 

Click on this link to order your copy.

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The 'Up For The Match' (RTE) Top Ten

Each year on the eve of the both the hurling and football All Ireland finals RTE broadcast a special programme 'Up For The Match' hosted by Grainne Seoige and Des Cahill. A programme featuring chat, stories and music as they built up in 2016 to the All Ireland hurling final between the Premier county of Tipperary and the Cats of Kilkenny. But this year rather than simply reviewing the show, I have produced a top ten.

The 2016 Up For The Match (RTE) Top Ten
1   Eddie Brennan (9)
2   James Woodlock (8)
3   Ken McGrath (7)
4   Liam Sheedy (6)
5   Lar Corbett (5)
     Anna Geary (5)
7   Cha Fitzpatrick (4)
8   Aidan Tierney (3)
     Ritchie Power (3)
10 Owen Kelly (2)

So I am guessing you are asking the top ten in what? It is the number of times each guest said the phrase 'I SUPPOSE' while being interviewed on the show. Eddie Brennan the former Kilkenny hurler said the phrase 'I suppose' nine times. Even host Des Cahill managed to say it once. That means throughout the show 'I suppose' was spoken 56 times.

It was not the only repetitive phrase used by guests from the two neighbouring counties. Also up there were 'ye know' and either 'ah sure look' or 'look ah sure'.
Ah sure look Tipperary won, ye know I suppose they were the better team on the day.

The 'Up For The Match' (RTE) Top Ten

Each year on the eve of the both the hurling and football All Ireland finals RTE broadcast a special programme 'Up For The Match' hosted by Grainne Seoige and Des Cahill. A programme featuring chat, stories and music as they built up in 2016 to the All Ireland hurling final between the Premier county of Tipperary and the Cats of Kilkenny. But this year rather than simply reviewing the show, I have produced a top ten.

The 2016 Up For The Match (RTE) Top Ten
1   Eddie Brennan (9)
2   James Woodlock (8)
3   Ken McGrath (7)
4   Liam Sheedy (6)
5   Lar Corbett (5)
     Anna Geary (5)
7   Cha Fitzpatrick (4)
8   Aidan Tierney (3)
     Ritchie Power (3)
10 Owen Kelly (2)

So I am guessing you are asking the top ten in what? It is the number of times each guest said the phrase 'I SUPPOSE' while being interviewed on the show. Eddie Brennan the former Kilkenny hurler said the phrase 'I suppose' nine times. Even host Des Cahill managed to say it once. That means throughout the show 'I suppose' was spoken 56 times.

It was not the only repetitive phrase used by guests from the two neighbouring counties. Also up there were 'ye know' and either 'ah sure look' or 'look ah sure'.
Ah sure look Tipperary won, ye know I suppose they were the better team on the day.