The Time For A Dedicated Independent Irish Radio Archive is NOW

 

We have harvested wood and bogs to heat and cook, we’ve tamed rivers to provide electricity and now we have harnessed the wind, the oceans, and the sun to create renewable energy but the ether has been a natural resource that we’ve utilized successfully, using it to communicate and entertain ourselves for over a century. The radio waves that help us land planes on the Aran Islands and listen to the Cranberries have also been harnessed. According to the most recent JNLR ratings 80.2% of the adult Irish population listen to Irish radio every day. It is our heritage.

 

Our love affair with radio has propelled Irish radio history onto a global stage. From Marconi’s Irish mother encouraging her son to experiment, to the rebels of 1916 ensuring that Ireland became the first nation in the world to be declared by radio to Clondalkin born Ronan O’Rahilly helping to revolutionise radio with his Radio Caroline, we have a rich tapestry in radio and it continues to evolve from analogue to digital to online.

 

 We are now entering a celebration of Irish radio milestones. 1923 and Ireland’s first licensed radio station 2BP takes to the airwaves, 2BE is launched by the BBC in Belfast in 1924, the new Free State inaugurates 2RN in 1926, while Cork sees the arrival of 6CK in 1927 and 1932 sees radio take the Eucharistic Congress to a global audience.

 

Are we remiss in not exhibiting our immense radio history? How will scholars of the future discover how and why in this modern age of social media that analogue radio listenership is still over eighty percent? Unlike many nations of a comparable size, Ireland does not have a centralised radio archive or museum both open to both donations and research. Our disregard of our broadcasting heritage is shameful. The memories of those in front and behind the microphone seems lost in the mists of time.

 

The largest radio and audio archive is RTE’s. While not complete, the only recorded snippet of the opening nights broadcast comes courtesy of the BBC who rebroadcast part of the opening night to the UK, it is an invaluable resource but spending cuts within the broadcaster has seen its staffing levels and importance reduced. An independently funded body should be put in charge of maintaining, updating and making available all radio archives, including RTE, commercial, local and community radio.

 

We have the archives; it is scattered to the four corners of the island. We have a unique collection of invaluable Irish radio artifacts gathering dust on shelves in the Cork City Gaol Museum, a passion of the late Paddy Clarke, degrading as I write this impassioned plea. Without County Louth born Fr. Nicholas Callan and his work on the induction coil in the mid-19th century, Marconi may not have ended up leaving Italy, his archives are in Maynooth University. Without the work of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society to save the work of Colonel Meade Dennis, the world’s first radio ham, another remarkable story would be lost. His equipment was donated to the Computer and Communications Museum at NUIG. The RTE scripts of the past are located at UCD. The Hurdy Gurdy Museum in Howth, a personal achievement of the late Pat Herbert is a treasure trove of Irish radio history. The Irish Pirate Radio Archive is located at Dublin City University. There is the RTE archive, totally under resourced and haemorrhaging staff, a massive an invaluable archive unfortunately for scholars hidden behind a pay wall. There are the archives of the independent sector for which limited Sound and Vision grant money is available. The archives of at first the IRTC, then the BCI, later BAI and now Coimisiún na Meán are a vital thread to understanding and studying Irish radio history. This scattered approach is diffused and disorganised and without a centralised online guide. Our radio archives physical and audio should be housed in a dedicated sound and audio archive like the Centre National de L’Audiovisuel in Luxembourg or the German Broadcasting Archive.

 

Whether its Clifden in 1907, O’Connell Street in 1916, 2BP’s broadcasts in 1923. 2RN in 1926, Radio Caroline in 1964, Radio Nova in 1981, Atlantic 252 in 1989 or Christmas FM in 2008, the physical and audio archives should be centralised so that those who have kept safe their treasures over the decades have somewhere to donate their collections. There should be strategic policy developed for Irish radio archiving and history protection.

 

With the GPO relocating its offices from O’Connell Street to The Point, perhaps the GPO could be used to house a unique collection of radio memorabilia, artefacts, archives, and audio. We need action now as each and every day new material is created, new memories are made and yet voices are lost.

The History of Radio In Donegal, Legal, Pirate, Festival and Local.

 

Radio in Donegal has had a colourful and diverse past. Like many counties across Ireland and especially in the 1970’s, town and villages organised festivals to attract visitors and improve local footfall to businesses. Of course, one of the most famous festivals is the annual Mary From Dungloe but as the world moved on a pace a new medium was used to promote these festivals, radio.

In the early seventies newspapers in Donegal were promoting Radio Ramelton, Radio Ballyshannon and Radio Letterkenny, which operated for the popular Letterkenny Folk Festival but while these activities had all the hallmarks of radio, they did not broadcast by traditional transmitter and aerial but were rather carried throughout their towns on a wired public address system.

In 1976 a new innovation led to an explosion of traditional analogue radio in Donegal thanks to the State broadcaster RTE. For that years ‘Mary from Dungloe’ festival RTE’s mobile radio station visited the town and broadcast as Community Radio Dungloe for the duration of the festival on 202m medium wave. The broadcasts were seen as a massive success but for RTE they were travelling around the country and could not commit to return annually to Dungloe. They did however visit other festivals in Donegal over the following years including Glenties, in Letterkenny and Ardara.

In 1981, RTE’s mobile service was advertised to return to Dungloe but just days before the festival launch, RTE said they would be unable to attend. This opened up the opportunity for a new form of broadcaster, the pirate station, to fill the void left by RTE. Radio Donegal had been operating from Letterkenny since April 1980. Using a standby transmitter, Radio Donegal headed to Dungloe and broadcast for the duration of the festival on 257m Medium wave.

 

Pirate radio by 1980 was booming across the country in every city, town and village. Donegal was no exception. While Radio Donegal in 1980 were announced as the first Donegal pirate, there had been a station on air towards the end of the second World War. Known as Radio Nuala, the station was located above the Beehive pub in Ardara. The operator broadcast propaganda on medium wave of a Republican nature aimed at a cross border audience.

Once Radio Donegal began the trend of illegal broadcasting, demonstrating both a need and as a revenue creator for the station operators, more pirates came on the air. This golden era of illegal broadcasting in Ireland lasted from 1978-1988 when new legislation with severely increased penalties for illegal broadcasting and a new legal framework for independent commercial and community radio came into being. Some of the stations heard on the airwaves in Donegal were,

Radio Donegal - 186mMW

A Letterkenny based station that initially opened in 1979 as Radio North-West. Radio Donegal was officially launched on Wednesday April 22nd 1980. The station stayed on air until September 1981 when transmitter issues and the loss of their audience to another Letterkenny pirate forced its closure.

 

Donegal Community Radio - 212mMW

Based in Mountcharles, this short lived station broadcast from June 1980 until early 1981. The station was set up by the local ‘radio committee’ who had successfully brought the RTE mobile station to the area in 1978 but when RTE stated that they could not visit again due to a packed schedule, they decided to set up a pirate operation.

 

Donegal Community Radio - 323mMW & 97.9mhzFM

This second incarnation of DCR was based in a room above the old ‘Funland’ building in Letterkenny. DCR opened in 1986 and closed in December 1988 when new legislation was enacted. The station was started by Paddy Simpson with Bobby McDaid later taking over the running of DCR. ^[1]

Glencoagh Radio - 262mMW & 97.8mhzFM

Originally called Westside Radio in 1987 and broadcasting initially on 266m, the station’s name clashed with a nearby station broadcasting in County Sligo. The station became Glencoagh Radio originally broadcasting from the village of Mountcharles and later from a cinema on the Main Street of Donegal town. Some of those involved in the station included Brian Curriston, Charlie Cannon and Jack Ramsey. The station closed in December 1988 after just over eighteen months on the air.

 

KTOK - 192mMW & 102.9mhzFM

KTOK was launched by Russ Padmore broadcasting from Donegal Town with studios located in the Castle Shopping Centre. The station began broadcasting on January 1^st 1987 and closed in accordance with the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1988 at 4p.m. December 31st 1988. In the studio that day were Russ Padmore, Gene Wilson, Tara Brady, David James and Hugo Boyce. On behalf of KTOK Media Services they thanked their sponsors, advertisers and listeners and played ‘Good-night Sweetheart’. Following that track they told their listeners that it was not Goodbye but just Goodnight and they played themselves off air with the theme from the television show Miami Vice.

Letterkenny Community Radio – 252m MW

LCR opened and closed 1983 and was based in Letterkenny.

                                   

Letterkenny Local Radio – 187m MW & 89.5mhzFM

Following the departure Simon O’Dwyer and Paul Millar from Radio Donegal, LLR went on the air in November 1980 broadcasting initially from 9am to 6pm. The Station closed in 1981.

^[2]

Northwest Community Radio - 269mMW & 103.5mhzFM

Northwest was launched by Jackie Crossan and Hugo Boyce in September 1984 with a one-kilowatt transmitter on medium wave and a 25-watt transmitter for their 103.5mhz FM transmitter. The station was located in Buncrana, County Donegal. Northwest closed with the introduction of the new laws in December 1988 with Jackie Crossan by that time had bought out of the station. Humorously the locals called the station because of its poor on air timekeeping as ‘No Watches or Clocks Radio’.^[3]

 

Radio 4U – 97.4mhz FM (later 96.6 & 100mhzFM)

The brainchild of Patrick Garten who had arrived from England to take advantage of the lax broadcasting laws and to broadcast primarily into Derry City, the station was initially located on the Southern side of the border in a cottage owned by Tom Brolly which had previously used as the location for City Sound Radio in County Donegal. After some test transmissions in early June 1987, the station officially went in air on Saturday June 6^th 1987.  In April 1988. The stations transmitters and equipment were sold to fellow Donegal station WABC and Radio 4U disappeared from the airwaves in May 1988.

Radio Jackie - 193mMW

An early 1980’s pirate station that broadcast in Donegal.

 

Radio North - 846khzAM & 103mhzFM

Radio North began broadcasting on November 18^th 1986 from studios located at Carndonagh, County Donegal. With a number of transmitter locations around the Foyle Peninsula the station aimed much of its broadcasts into Northern Ireland. The station was operated by Frank Callaghan. The station closed in December 1988 in accordance with the new Broadcasting legislation. In January 1989, Northside Radio came back on the air and continued for two years. Meanwhile Tommy Cunningham had opened North Atlantic Radio broadcasting on 954khz. In 1992 North moved from Carndonagh to Redcastle but their transmitters were causing interference to legal operators within Northern Ireland and moved again to Muff in Donegal. North disappeared from the airwaves but North Atlantic was rebranded as Radio North now broadcasting on 846khzAM.

 

In 2002 Paul Bentley took over the running of Radio North whose powerful transmitter could be heard in Dublin in 2011. Radio North promoted themselves as a C&W and Irish music station with family values and at weekends their airtime was sold to gospel and Christian broadcasters with the station announced as Gospel 846. Their own website states that,

‘Gospel 846 promotes family values through religious programming and family centred music programs.’

A quarter of a century after Radio North’s first broadcasts the station now broadcasts from studios at Shroove and transmitters located on the Moville Road. The station in various incarnations has been known as Northside Radio, Radio North County, Christian Radio 846, North 2000 and FM103.^[4]

 

Radio North Atlantic – 266m & 98mhzFM

Based near Carndonagh on the Inishowen peninsula, this station opened after the introduction of the new legislation in 1988. The brainchild of Tommy Cunningham who opened the station in competition with Radio North. The station was prosecuted in February 1993 following raids a number on the pirate stations located in Donegal.

 

Radio Nova - 233mMW & 97.9mhzFM

This version of Radio Nova began life as City Sound Radio broadcasting from a transmitter site in Donegal aimed into Derry City in 1985. The station moved to the small border village of Fahan in 1986 and was renamed Radio Nova 2 (to be different from the Dublin version). In April 1987 the ‘2’ was dropped and the station continued to broadcast until midnight December 31^st 1988 when it closed after a live broadcast from a pub in Buncrana.

 

WABC - 241mMW & 101.7mhzFM

Located at Greencastle, County Donegal WABC aimed its broadcasts at Northern Ireland especially the town of Coleraine. WABC at one time operated two stations WABC Hot Hits on 101.7mhz and WABC Gold on 101.2mhzFM. The stations closed in December 1988 only to return on the air in early 1989. The station finally closed when the station manager Paul Bentley departed for the UK.

 

Gospel 98 – 98mhz FM

Opened in 1989 by Angela Evans, this religious pirate broadcast a mixture of American preachers, rock music and bible quotations. The station was located on the Inishowen Peninsula in Donegal and broadcast into Northern Ireland. In February, their aerial was vandalised but it was quickly repaired only for that aerial to come crashing down during an Atlantic storm in March 1990. The insurance would not cover the damage as it ‘was an act of God’ and while with the help of fellow Donegal pirate, Radio North, the station opened an aerial fund, the station failed to get back on the air on its own but its programming was carried for four hours per day by Radio North from 3pm.

 

Tyrone Community Radio – 1512khz AM & 106.8mhzFM

TCR opened in May 1996, broadcasting from Strabane in County Tyrone but following raids by the British authorities that station relocated south of the border in the house at Castlefin near Lifford, Co. Donegal. With increased pressure from the authorities south of the border to discourage advertisers on the station, TCR began fundraising by holding dances and party themed events n and around Strabane. In August 2001, the station was raided but was back on the air within ten days. On November 24^th 2004, the station was raided again by the Gardai and officers from ComReg. Following that raid, the Donegal Democrat reported that,

‘A Castlefin farmer who allowed a pirate radio station to broadcast from his land was fined €100 and ordered to pay €1,500 in costs at a special sitting of Letterkenny District Court. Noel Burns, Ballylast, Castlefin, pleaded guilty to the charge which related to November 24, 2004. Mr Philip Rahan, BL, representing the Office of the Commission for Communications Regulator, prosecuted.

Evidence was heard from Mr Ivan Kiely, an official with the Commission, who said that he first picked up the frequency in the Lifford and Castlefin area in October 2004. On investigation he found that Tyrone Community Radio was operating from the defendant’s lands.

“They offer easy listening and main stream country music together with commercial advertising,” Mr Kiely said. The broadcast was traced to a pre-fab at Ballylast, Castlefin. On November 24, 2004, Mr Kiely arrived at the premises to execute a warrant. Mr Rahan explained that a DJ was broadcasting at the time the Commission officials arrived on site. An inventory was made of the radio equipment which was subsequently seized.’

On December 12^th 2007, TCR was raided again. John Barron of Drumdoit, Castlefin pleaded guilty to supplying electricity for broadcasting and two counts of supplying premises for broadcasting. William Baird with an address at Tirkeeran, Lifford also pleaded guilty to two charges of supplying electricity for broadcasting and one count of supplying premises for broadcasting. Judge Kilrane fined 68-year-old Barron €50 along with €750 costs for supplying electricity for broadcasting. Two charges of providing premises for broadcasting were taken into consideration.

 

Mr Tom Boyce, an inspector with ComReg told the court he had been monitoring radio signals from the TCR radio station on December 12, 2007 which in turn lead him to a prefabricated building at a premises in the Castlefin area. He reported that a man was seen running from the premises across a field but was quickly detained by a garda who had accompanied the inspection team. The prefabricated building contained the radio studio including computers, mixing desk, microphones and CD players. The electricity supply to the prefab was disconnected, he said, and a cable from a transmitter lead to another single story dwelling on the property. Boyce said he interviewed Baird who identified himself as the owner of the premises. He admitted disconnecting the electricity supply to the prefabricated building adding he believed the prefab was to be used for a taxi business and he would get help with paying the electricity bills.

 

Mr Boyce explained to the court that TCR played country music and advertisements for local businesses, adding the defendant was not at the core of running the station. William Baird was also fined €450 for supplying electricity plus €750 costs.

 

In August 2008, TCR was raided yet again but this time they were located north of the border and the warrants were executed by Ofcom and the Northern Ireland authorities. This was the sixteenth raid on the station. In 2013 the station went off the air in the hope of applying for an RSL.

 

But it was the closure of Radio Donegal after eighteen months on the air that created one of the most unique pirate radio experiments in the county. Don Clark who worked for Radio Donegal saw an opportunity to help publicise the various festivals around the country by creating a mobile service in a caravan travelling from town in town.

Radio Dungloe                        257m MW                  1981

Radio Downings                     192m MW                  1981

Radio Ceilteach                      192m MW                  1981    (Falcarragh)   

Radio Dungloe                        192m MW                  1983

Radio Lifford                          192m MW                  1983

Radio Twin Towns                 192m MW                  1983    (Ballybofey and Stranolar)

Radio Dungloe                        198m MW                  1985

Radio Cunamh                        187m MW & 96FM    1985    Letterkenny

Radio Killybegs                      192m MW                  1985

Radio Killybegs                      205m MW                  1986

The legal stations have included these stations including today’s leading local station, Highland Radio based in Letterkenny. Highland began broadcasting on March 15th 1990 having been awarded the new licence from the IRTC. The southern part of the county along with Sligo and Leitrim was covered initially by North West Radio but they lost their licence in 2004 to be replaced by Ocean FM. Community in the county in the past has included Inishowen Community Radio and Donegal Bay FM and today is served by temporary licences awarded to Owenea FM, Finn Valley FM and Rosses Radio. 

Today (February 2023) there is one pirate still operating in the county, Radio North.

https://www.facebook.com/DublinsPirateDays/videos/5878453322204545/

There are other non-licenced stations operating on FM across Donegal as various Catholic and Protestant churches broadcast Mass and services mostly on Sundays but also for funeral services.

Sources

The DX Archive

Radiowaves.fm

Pirate.ie

The Irish Pirate Radio Archive

The Anoraks Ireland Collection at DCU

The Irish Newspaper Archives

The British Newspaper Archives

Tommy Rosney

Russ Padmore   

---

[1] Donegal Democrat

[2] The Donegal Democrat

[3] Gerry O’Reilly

[4] As of January 31^st 2023, the station was still on the air broadcasting illegally

Week One of 2RN - The Domination by Women

 

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 1^st 1926, founder of the Gaelic League and future President of Ireland[1], 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[2]. 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[3].

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 2^nd 1926, 2RN was on air for just two hours from eight in the evening. The schedule for that evening was as follows,

8 pm	Time Interval Signal
8.05 pm	Music Selections -Popular
8.15 pm	Clery's Instrumental Trio - Classical
8.25 pm	Group Songs Joseph O'Neill
8.35 pm	New Gramophone Records
8.45 pm	Clery's Instrumental Trio - Classical
9 pm	Group Songs Florence Ackerman (Contralto)
9.10 pm	Violin solo Rosiland Drowse
9.35 pm	Group Songs Joseph O'Neill (Tenor Rathmines Musical Society)
9.45 pm	Group Songs Florence Ackerman
10 pm	Weather Forecast
	Closedown

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[4] 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’[5]

‘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[6], 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.

7.30 pm	Outside Broadcast from the Bohemian Theatre
8 pm	Time Interval
8.05 pm	Humorous Monologue Val Vousden
8.15 pm	Tybrone Four (AW Tyrell, JJ Brennan, C Rooney & J Neilan)
8.25 pm	Joan Holland
8.35 pm	Musical Selections Irish Airs
8.45 pm	Clery's Instrumental Trio - Classical
9 pm	Joan Holland
9.10 pm	Tybrone Four (Tyrell, Brennan, Rooney & Neilan)
9.35 pm	Clery's Instrumental Trio - Classical
9.45 pm	Tybrone Four
10 pm	Weather Forecast
	Closedown

 

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.

8 pm                             Time Interval

8.05 pm                        Louis O'Brien’s Boys Choir

8.15 pm                        Clery’s Trio

8.25 pm                        Choir

Choir

Choir

9 pm                             William Reddy

9.10 pm                       Clery’s Trio Russian Music

9.25 pm                       Louis O'Brien’s Boys Choir

9.30 pm                       William Reddy Cello Solo                 9.40 pm                       Choir

10 pm                          Weather Forecast

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.

7.30 pm	Outside Broadcast from the Bohemian Theatre
8 pm	Time Interval
8.05 pm	Songs by Miss S Jameson
8.15 pm	The Clery's Trio
8.25 pm	Songs by Mr. TJ Flynn
8.35 pm	Traditional Violin Cormac MacFionnlaoich (McGinley)
8.45 pm	Clery's Trio
9 pm	Songs by Miss May Mortell
9.10 pm	Songs by Mr. TJ Flynn & May Mortell
9.35 pm	Traditional Violin Cormac Fionnlaoich
9.45 pm	Clery's Trio
10 pm	Weather Forecast
	Closedown

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’[7] 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.

7.30 pm	Live Organ Music from Bohemian Theatre
8 pm	Time Interval
8.05 pm	Gramophone Record Tschovsky Symphony
8.15 pm	Clery's Trio
8.25 pm	Songs by Irvine Lynch
8.35 pm
8.45 pm	Songs by Teasa Owens (Reported as Terry Owens)
9 pm	Clery's Trio
9.10 pm	Songs by Irvine Lynch
9.35 pm	Songs by Teasa Owens & Violin Solo by Miss Bessie O'Hart Bourke
9.45 pm	Clery's Trio
10 pm	Weather Forecast
	Live Organ Music from Bohemian Theatre
	Closedown

 

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.

7.30 pm	Live Organ Music from Bohemian Theatre by Mr. Harrison
8 pm	Time Interval
8.05 pm	Gramophone Records
8.15 pm	Clery's Trios
8.25 pm	Lyric Quartet
8.45 pm	Cello Solo by Miss Chrissie Fagan
9 pm	Violin Solo Miss O'Hart Bourke
9.10 pm	Solo by Miss Dora Levey
9.35 pm	Lyric Quartet (Joan Burke, Renee Flynn, Irvine Lynch & Joseph O'Neill
9.45 pm	Clery's Trios
10 pm	Weather
	Live Organ Music from Bohemian Theatre
	Closedown

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 1^st.

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.

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
8.35 pm	Gramophone Scottish Airs
8.45 pm	Songs By Herbert McCormick
9 pm	Clery's Trio
9.10 pm	Songs by Lily McCarthy
9.35 pm	Violin Solo Miss Bourke & Songs by H McCormick
9.45 pm	Clery's Trio
10 pm	Weather Forecast
	Bohemian Theatre Orchestra
	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 8^th with a talk in Irish titled ‘Tuaisceart na Spainne[8]’ 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’[9]. 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’[10]. The weather forecast followed and another relay from the Bohemian Cinema in Phibsboro.

 

 

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[1] Hyde’s presidency 1938 - 1945

[2] Although part of the BBC, the London station was known as 2LO

[3] 390m Medium Wave

[4] They married on January 19^th 1904

[5] The Gaelic word for ‘Bracken’

[6] The Irish Independent moved to new offices on Middle Abbey Street on January 1^st 1926 from their previous offices on Trinity Street.

[7] The Anglo Celt newspaper

[8] Translates as ‘Northern Spain’

[9] Words by William Watson, music by Francis Allisten

[10] Written by Arthur Foote in 1917 based on a poem by Alfred Noyes

Sources:

The Irish Newspaper Archives

The British Newspaper Archives

The National Archives

BBC Genome

World Radio History

US Media Archives