The majority of performers in the first week of 2RN were female. This photograph from the Radio Times (BBC Genome) shows a gathering of performers in the studios in Little Denmark Street
At 7.45pm on January 1st
1926, founder of the Gaelic League and future President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde officially
inaugurated the Irish Free State’s new radio service 2RN. The opening received
extensive coverage in the press and the first fifteen minutes of the station
were relayed by the BBC. This relay meant that
people in Cork could hear Hyde clearer from the stronger BBC transmitter than
from Dublin. Yet the new station received a number of reception reports from as
far away as Dover referencing their own frequency.Once the initial success
of the first night’s broadcast was over, what was the Irish listener treated to
in the first week of 2RN? Limited financial resources from the Department of
Finance meant that the station and its first director of broadcasting, Seamus
Clandillon, were restricted in their output. Their studios were located on the
third floor of an old warehouse on Little Denmark Street, off Henry Street in
Dublin city centre and a transmitter housed on the grounds of McKee Irish Army
barracks near the Phoenix Park. On Saturday January 2nd 1926, 2RN
was on air for just two hours from eight in the evening. The schedule for that
evening was as follows,
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8 pm
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Time Interval Signal
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8.05 pm
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Music Selections -Popular
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8.15 pm
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Clery's Instrumental Trio - Classical
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8.25 pm
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Group Songs Joseph O'Neill
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8.35 pm
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New Gramophone Records
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8.45 pm
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Clery's Instrumental Trio - Classical
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9 pm
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Group Songs Florence Ackerman (Contralto)
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9.10 pm
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Violin solo Rosiland Drowse
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9.35 pm
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Group Songs Joseph O'Neill (Tenor Rathmines
Musical Society)
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9.45 pm
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Group Songs Florence Ackerman
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10 pm
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Weather Forecast
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Closedown
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The ‘Time Signal’ was used to help the listener identify the station once the transmitter was powered up. 2RN and later Radio Eireann adopted the
tune ‘O’Donnell Abu’ as its signature opening signal. The ‘Music Selections’
after the ‘Time Signal’ varied throughout the first month’s broadcasting. Some
evenings gramophone records would be played, live singers were employed and if
they failed to show, the station director Clandillon, an accomplished musician,
and his wife
Mairead, a Irish traditional and folk singer, would fill in at short notice to
avoid any dead air.
Seamus Clandillon
At 8.15pm, the ‘Clery’s
Instrumental Trio’ gathered around the studio microphone and began to play
a selection of air. An ‘Instrumental Trio’ at that time was regarded as a
pianist, a violinist and a cellist. Clery’s was one of Dublin’s most famous and
popular stores located on the capital’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street. It
was an early form of sponsorship on the radio to have the department stores
name announced several times each night and have it appear in the newspaper
listings for the station’s broadcasts, but for 2RN they received no payment
from Clery’s and in fact paid a fee to the trio of musicians they employed. The
‘Clery’s Instrumental Trio’ consisted of, on piano Aileen Doyle, Bessie O’Hart
Bourke on the violin and Chrissie Fagan playing the cello. The ‘Trio’ over the
following years had several personnel changes and by the end of 1926 they had
been renamed the ‘Station Trio’. Over the following years the trio expanded in
a mini orchestra and eventually the Clery’s Instrumental Trio became the Radio
Eireann Orchestra, still supported today by the State broadcaster RTE. Once
Aileen Doyle left the Clery’s group she formed her own trio which proved
successful in many dancehalls across the country. The Clery’s Trio would
feature daily in the first week of broadcasting and illicted this reaction from
a member of the public in a letter to the Irish Independent signed ‘Raithneach’
‘A
word of praise to Clery’s Instrumental Trio, they came across very well indeed.
Vocal items were not so good and artistes ought to remember that coughing,
clearing of the throat etc, before the microphone is unpardonable’.
Ten minutes later Joseph
O’Neill, tenor came to the microphone and sang a number of songs with the
accompaniment of the Clery’s Trio. O’Neill was a member of the famous Rathmines
and Rathgar Musical Society. To give the musicians a breather some gramophone
records were aired, these were almost always symphony pieces by composers like
Bach and Tchaikovsky. At 8.45pm, the Clery’s Trio were back on the air
entertaining the listeners. At 9pm contralto Florence Ackerman was the
next performer to step up to the microphone in Little Denmark Street. After her
flirtation with radio ended, she joined the staff of the Irish Independent
where she worked until she was left to get married in 1928. At 9.10pm listeners
were treated to a violin solo by Rosiland Dowse for ten minutes. In the green
room the musicians waited to return to the airwaves. From 9.20pm until 10pm,
the Clery’s Trio played ‘two Irish airs, were followed by Joseph O’Neill again
and then Florence Ackerman. The final selection of the night was a piece from
Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera ‘The Gondoliers’. Of the six performers on air
that Saturday, five were women and just one man.
At 10pm station announcer
Seamus Hughes read the weather, delivered to them from the Irish Independent
newspaper offices on Middle Abbey Street, and the station closed. A
couple of important aspects of future radio broadcasting were absent in that
first week. There were no news bulletins, no advertisements and no playing of
the Irish National Anthem at the end of the transmission day.
There were no broadcasts
on Sunday. Broadcasting on Sunday’s did not begin until the beginning of
February 1926.
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7.30 pm
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Outside Broadcast from the Bohemian Theatre
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8 pm
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Time Interval
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8.05 pm
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Humorous Monologue Val Vousden
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8.15 pm
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Tybrone Four (AW Tyrell, JJ Brennan, C Rooney
& J Neilan)
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8.25 pm
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Joan Holland
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8.35 pm
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Musical Selections Irish Airs
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8.45 pm
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Clery's Instrumental Trio - Classical
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9 pm
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Joan Holland
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9.10 pm
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Tybrone Four (Tyrell, Brennan, Rooney &
Neilan)
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9.35 pm
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Clery's Instrumental Trio - Classical
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9.45 pm
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Tybrone Four
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10 pm
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Weather Forecast
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Closedown
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Monday saw a new
departure with a half hour outside broadcast beginning at 7.30pm from the
Bohemian Cinema and Theatre in Phibsboro. As 2RN were carrying out tests
transmissions in December prior to its official launch, a number of outside
broadcasts came from La Scala Theatre close to the studios but
for it’s first official OB, a telephone line connected the microphone in the
Bohemian to the studios in Phibsboro. With talking movies slowly coming, most
cinema’s employed musicians especially organists to accompany the silent movies
of the stars of the day including Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. The
organist at the Bohemian, Mr. Francis Harrison, played numerous airs
until 8pm. Next to the airwaves was ‘A Humorous Monologue by Val Vousden’.
There was much criticism of the new station’s output over the following weeks
and months at the over dependence of operatic and classical music and the lack
of humorous, light entertainment. Carlow born William Francis Maher MacNevin, in 1885, having
served on the western front during World War One, returned to Dublin and found
himself on stage under the stage name Val Vousden. He appeared in a number of
silent movies of the period including ‘Irish Destiny’, on stage at the Olympia,
Theatre Royal and Gaeity and was one of the first regular light entertainment
contributors to 2RN.
Vousden was followed by The
Tybrone Four (later known as the Tybrone Quartet). The quartet consisted of
A.W. Tyrell, J.J. Brennan, C. Rooney & J. Neilan, with their group
name taken from the first two letters of their surnames. The male harmony was followed
by the operatic talents of Joan Holland who performed two ten minute
slots from 8.25pm and 9pm. Between her two performances gramophone records and
a contribution from the Clery’s Trio kept listeners entertained. For the
final hour, the Tybrone Four and the Clery’s Trio alternated
performances. The final act of the night was the reading of the weather for the
following day.
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8
pm Time
Interval
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8.05
pm Louis O'Brien’s
Boys Choir
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8.15
pm Clery’s Trio
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8.25
pm Choir
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Choir
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Choir
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9
pm William
Reddy
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9.10
pm Clery’s Trio
Russian Music
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9.25
pm Louis O'Brien’s Boys Choir
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9.30
pm William Reddy
Cello Solo
9.40
pm Choir
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10
pm Weather
Forecast
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Closedown |
Tuesday’s broadcast
from the fledgling station was a special day for the choir of St. Andrew’s
Church on Westland Row. Since the
foundation of the Church in 1834, there has been a choir in St. Andrew's. The
Male Voice Choir consisted of boy sopranos, tenors and basses. The choir
under the direction of Louis O’Brien, made their way to the Little Denmark
Street studios and would perform both as a choir and with individual
contributions. They began after the Time Interval with two pieces ‘See
Amid The Winter Snow’ and ‘Dia Mater’. They were followed at 8.15pm by a
contribution from The Clery’s Trio, ‘Samson and Delilah’, then
a couple of solo from choir members. At 8.30 Master Gillette delivered a
Boys Solo of two Gaelic songs ‘Druimfhionn Donn Dilis’ and ‘Sois Gael
Dubh’. Mr. C.L. Kenny, a tenor, sang ‘The Glory of the Lord’
by Handel accompanied by the Choir, packed into the small studio. The choir
were given a break when William Reddy performed a Cello solo with Hilda Shea at
the grand piano that Clandillon had installed permanently in the studio. A bass
solo by Mr. S Jones followed at 9.05pm while the Clery’s Trio delivered
a number of Russian folk songs for ten minutes. At 9.20pm David Legge
performed ‘Sit Lans Plena’ with the choir, followed by another performance by
William Reddy. At 9.35pm another of the young choristers Master C. Doyle
took to the air with a performance of ‘The Last Rose of Summer’. The
Choir then rounded out the evening’s entertainment with some solos. A baritone
performance of ‘Agnus Dei’ by John Neilan, a tenor solo by David
Legge of ‘Jesu Doloris Victima’ and a group performance of the Hallalujah
Chorus ended the contribution of the St. Andrews Choir. The night’s broadcast
ended with the Clery’s Trio performing an instrumental version of ‘The
Mikado’ by Gilbert and Sullivan. The
station as usual closed with the weather forecast for the following day.
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7.30 pm
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Outside Broadcast from the Bohemian Theatre
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8 pm
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Time Interval
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8.05 pm
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Songs by Miss S Jameson
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8.15 pm
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The Clery's Trio
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8.25 pm
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Songs by Mr. TJ Flynn
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8.35 pm
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Traditional Violin Cormac MacFionnlaoich
(McGinley)
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8.45 pm
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Clery's Trio
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9 pm
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Songs by Miss May Mortell
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9.10 pm
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Songs by Mr. TJ Flynn & May Mortell
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9.35 pm
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Traditional Violin Cormac Fionnlaoich
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9.45 pm
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Clery's Trio
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10 pm
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Weather Forecast
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Closedown
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Wednesday’s
transmissions once again began with a organ recital relayed from the Bohemian
Cinema. Once the ‘Time Signal’ introduction had been completed Miss
Sheila Jameson sang three tunes, ‘Down Here’, ‘Leaves in the Wind’
and ‘My Prayer’. She was followed
yet again by an appearance of the Clery’s Trio. Next up to the
microphone was baritone T.J. Flynn, a Feis Ceoil gold medal winner. From 8.30pm
he delivered three songs in the Irish language, ‘Bean Dubh an Gleanna’,
‘An Tuirinn Lin’, and ‘Marie ni Griobhta’. Cormac MacFionnlaoich (McGinley) then
played three Irish airs on the fiddle, ‘An Cailin Fionn’ , ‘An
Buachaill Caol Dubh’ and ‘An Laon-Dubh’. The Clery’s Trio
then returned and played a couple of instrumental Irish tunes including the
hornpipe ‘Little Brother of my Heart’. A new artist then approached the
boxed microphone, contralto/soprano Miss May Mortell delivered ‘The
Lover’s Curse’, ‘Half a Bap’ and ‘My Aunt She Died’. Mortell ‘who’s
voice and style won immediate approval’ was a well known performer
on many of the Dublin Stages including the Theatre Royal and the Queens.
Mortell also recorded a number of Irish songs for a growing collection of
records created by Conradh na Gaelige. T.J.
Flynn returned with a couple of more songs including ‘The Parting’ and then
Flynn and Mortell sang a number of duets that took the broadcast to
9.30pm. McGinley then played a couple of more traditional Irish airs
including ‘A Raibh tu ag an gCarraig’. That night’s entertainment was
rounded off by the return of the Clery’s Trio who played until the
weather forecast and closedown at ten o’clock.
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7.30 pm
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Live Organ Music from Bohemian Theatre
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8 pm
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Time Interval
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8.05 pm
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Gramophone Record Tschovsky Symphony
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8.15 pm
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Clery's Trio
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8.25 pm
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Songs by Irvine Lynch
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8.35 pm
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8.45 pm
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Songs by Teasa Owens (Reported as Terry Owens)
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9 pm
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Clery's Trio
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9.10 pm
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Songs by Irvine Lynch
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9.35 pm
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Songs by Teasa Owens & Violin Solo by Miss
Bessie O'Hart Bourke
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9.45 pm
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Clery's Trio
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10 pm
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Weather Forecast
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Live Organ Music from Bohemian Theatre
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Closedown
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Thursday’s
transmissions began once again with a relay of an organ recital from the Bohemian
Cinema, though the radio trade papers reported a ‘less than satisfactory connection
between the organist and the studio’. Once the ‘Time Signal’ was completed at 8.05pm,
2RN played a gramophone record, a ‘Tchaikovsky Symphony’. The Clery’s
Trio with their piano, cello and violin then performed ‘La Boheme’. Another
new performer joined 2RN’s parade of artistes was Mr. Irvine Lynch, who
had a long and popular career throughout Dublin’s stages. He was a baritone
singer who had also performed with the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society. He
had previously performed as the featured singer with the Number One Irish Army
Band under Colonel Fritz, who had performed on the opening night of 2RN in a
outside broadcast from Beggar’s Bush Barracks. Lynch continued to perform on
stage and on Radio Eireann until his passing in the late 1950’s. The next
performer on 2RN was advertised as Terry Owens, Soprano, in some
newspapers schedules while in others she was described as Treasa Owens.
In fact, Terry was
born Terry O’Connor in 1897 near Waterford city. The daughter of a publican,
she studied the violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. After
graduating she worked as a full time cinema musician playing the violin and
performed at the 1922 Irish Race Convention held in Paris. After a number of
solo appearances on 2RN in January, she joined up with the Clery’s Trio which
became the national broadcasters’ embryonic orchestra. In 1928 she married an
engineer David Glasgow but she continued to perform under her stage name. Terry’s
sister Viola joined the new orchestra as a cellist and by 1937, when 2RN was
renamed as Radio Eireann, the station orchestra was being led by Terry.
At 9pm, the Clery’s
Trio returned to the airwaves followed by the return of Irvine Lynch.
The three artistes, The Clery’s Trio, Irvine Lynch and Treasa Owens alternated
contributions with the addition of another violinist Bessie O’Hart Bourke.
By wartime, O’Hart Bourke was performing on Radio Eireann with her own Trio
after spending a number of years playing with the Gresham Hotel Trio. Thursday’s
transmissions ended with another relay from the Bohemian Cinema.
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7.30 pm
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Live Organ Music from Bohemian Theatre by Mr. Harrison
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8 pm
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Time Interval
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8.05 pm
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Gramophone Records
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8.15 pm
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Clery's Trios
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8.25 pm
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Lyric Quartet
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8.45 pm
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Cello Solo by Miss Chrissie Fagan
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9 pm
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Violin Solo Miss O'Hart Bourke
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9.10 pm
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Solo by Miss Dora Levey
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9.35 pm
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Lyric Quartet (Joan Burke, Renee Flynn, Irvine
Lynch & Joseph O'Neill
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9.45 pm
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Clery's Trios
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|
10 pm
|
Weather
|
|
|
Live Organ Music from Bohemian Theatre
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Closedown
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Friday night began
like the previous nights with a relay of an organ recital from the Bohemian.
The relays were timed to be broadcast before the film was shown and after the
end of the film. After a couple of gramophone records the Clery’s Trio took to
the airwaves yet again. The department store was gaining access to free
advertising every night on the airwaves of 2RN. A Lyric quartet, made up of
Joan Burke, Renee Flynn, Irvine Lynch and Joseph O’Neill, then performed. The
quartet were regular performers at the Bohemian Cinema.
Renee Flynn, a soprano that has appeared on every
radio station to broadcast in Ireland up to the Second World War. In January
1926 Ms. Flynn’s appearance on 2RN was not her first visit in front on the
radio microphone. In December 1925 she had sung on the stage of the La Scala
Theatre off O’Connell Street which was relayed to the nearby studios of 2RN and
aired live as a test broadcast for the new station. But even her December
broadcast was not her first as she became one of the first women to appear on
Irish radio when she broadcast on 2BP. 2BP was a Marconi organised temporary station that was set up to
prove to the new State’s Government the power of radio. It’s studios and
transmitter were located in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire and a main
listening-in station set up in the RDS during that years annual Horse Show.
Renee sang into the microphone shortly after the station had been visited by
President William T Cosgrave, who was originally visiting the hotel to meet
with New York Supreme Court Judge, Daniel Cohalan.
Renee and her immense talent would
enthrall theatre goers and radio audiences alike and she was in high demand.
Not content with appearing on the first two licensed stations broadcasting from
Dublin 2BP and 2RN, she appeared on the other Irish station 2BE singing with the
Belfast Wireless Orchestra in April 1933. Earlier in 1931, she crossed the
Irish Sea to London to appear on the London Regional Service before performing
and recording with the BBC Symphony orchestra in 1936. Her broadcasting career
in Ireland continued as 2RN was transformed into Radio Athlone in 1933 and when
Athlone was renamed Radio Eireann in 1937, one of the first singers to appear
on the station was Renee Flynn accompanied by the Irish Radio Orchestra.
Joseph O’Neill would
be a regular performer with Irvine Lynch and they appeared in numerous
productions produced by the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society. Joan
Burke, a contralto, was also a member of the R&RMS and a sister of the
Irish Free State political leader W T Cosgrave. O’Neill and Burke had performed
on the opening night of 2RN on January 1st.
Chrissie Fagan was one of Dublin’s most popular cellists, playing with numerous trios
across the city. She was followed by another performance by O’Hart Bourke
at 9 o’clock. Ten minutes later another new voice was heard in the form of soprano
Dora Levey. The Lyric Quartet came back on the air followed by the
Clery’s Trio who played out the evening from the studios until ten.
Following the weather forecast for Saturday, another relay from Francis
Harrison playing from the Bohemian Cinema, the station closing down just
before 10.30p.m.
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7.30 pm
|
Talk by Michael O'Lonain
|
|
8 pm
|
Time Interval
|
|
8.05 pm
|
Gramophone Records
|
|
8.15 pm
|
Clery's Trio
|
|
8.25 pm
|
Songs by Lily McCarthy
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8.35 pm
|
Gramophone Scottish Airs
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8.45 pm
|
Songs By Herbert McCormick
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|
9 pm
|
Clery's Trio
|
|
9.10 pm
|
Songs by Lily McCarthy
|
|
9.35 pm
|
Violin Solo Miss Bourke & Songs by H
McCormick
|
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9.45 pm
|
Clery's Trio
|
|
10 pm
|
Weather Forecast
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|
Bohemian Theatre Orchestra
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Closedown
|
By Saturday 2RN was
celebrating its first week on air, receiving mixed reviews both for its
reception and its content. It was also competing with stations like 2LO from
London, 2ZY in Manchester and 2BE north of the border in Belfast. The British
stations were broadcasting longer hours and a more varied programme content. For
a departure in content 2RN opening at 7.30pm on Saturday 8th with a
talk in Irish titled ‘Tuaisceart na Spainne’ delivered by Michael
S. O’Lonain. At eight the time signal aired followed by gramophone records
chosen by station direction Seamus Clandillon. At 8.15pm just as they had done
most of the week, The Clery’s Trio performed pieces from the opera ‘La
Tosca’. It would be another night dominated by female performers. There was
a belief that their operatic voices suited the airwaves better than their male
counterparts. There is also some evidence that they were cheaper to hire and
less worried about their reputations suffering from the new medium and many of
the male performers, suspicious of the wireless, were unwilling to give up paid
gigs across the city to perform in front of a microphone.
Next up was Lily McCarthy
who song three songs, ‘Oh Song Divine’, ‘Carmena’ and ‘Down Here’.
Her contribution was followed by some records of Scottish airs, then the only
male performer of the night Herbert McCormick, a baritone sang three
more songs, A ‘Fathers Love’, ‘If I Might Come To You’ and ‘The Lute
Player’.
The Clery’s Trio played another ten minutes while at 9.05pm Lily
McCarthy was back to sing ‘Child O Mine’, ‘I Know a Lovely Garden’
and ‘In Old Madrid’. Bessie O’Hart Bourke then performed a violin
solo followed by Herbert McCormick once more with three tunes. At a
quarter to ten The Clery’s Trio performed ‘Lilac Time’. The weather forecast
followed and another relay from the Bohemian Cinema in Phibsboro.
