The Archaeology of Irish Radio (Part One)

Across Europe and further afield the arrival of radio created a new sense of national identity and nations displayed their national pride by building ornate architecturally stunning broadcasting houses but not in Ireland. At a Transnational Radio Seminar in Luxembourg in 2018 organised by Andreas Fickers and Richard Legay, one of the speakers at the event was Maryam El Moumni of the Brandeburg University of Technology spoke of the Archaeology of Radio and I pondered what the Irish experience of this was. 

Radio arrived in Ireland north of the border in Northern Ireland with the opening of 2BE in Belfast. The station which first went on air on October 24th 1924 was originally located in a converted warehouse in cramped rooms. Following a decade of violent turmoil, a new Irish Free State turned its attention to broadcasting. Two years after the Belfast launch, a new Dublin station 2RN went on air. The studios were located in a terrace of houses on Little Denmark Street in the heart of the city centre with the studios linked to the makeshift transmitter site at the nearby McKee Army barracks. The Dublin station was followed by 6CK in Cork City.

The success of radio stations across Europe was continuing upwards and nations felt a sense of pride in beaming their transmissions not just to a national audience but transnationally across borders. It was often a sense of national pride which after the postage stamp demonstrated to the world that a nation was truly independent. Elaborate, ornate and architecturally wonderful buildings were being created across Europe from England to Germany. 

       Nauen Germany 1920                                        BBC HQ

                 Radio Normandie in France in the 1930s

When the decision was taken that a Irish Free State radio station would be state controlled rather than a commercial entity, a location was needed for the studios and transmitter. The overriding issue for the fledgling state broadcaster was the lack of finance and this would dictate what could be afforded for the launch. There would be no spectacular ‘broadcasting house’ built instead when the station was launched on January 1st 1926 the stations studios were located in the inner city of Dublin on a narrow market street on Little Denmark Street. Number 36 was a four storey over basement building constructed of concrete and steel with a red brick finish and slated roof[1]. There was single studio and one actor who appeared in numerous early radio plays Harry Brogan remembered that they used their coats hanging on the studio windows to keep the noise of shouts from the street traders out. 

The locating of the transmitter in a wooden hut in the grounds of McKee Barracks was for two reasons expediency and security. McKee Barracks named after Richard McKee who was a key IRA operative for Michael Collins during the War of Independence with Britain. He had been captured in November 1920 and after being tortured he was supposedly shot dead as he tried to escape from his captives in Dublin Castle, the then British Government in Ireland headquarters. Originally called Marlborough Barracks it was built by the British Army in 1888. When Ireland became the Irish Free State in 1922, the British gave the barracks to the Irish forces and named after McKee 2] .

The McKee Barracks Hut (c) British Pathe News

By 1928 the small and cramped Dublin studios had become unfit for purpose and the station and its personnel were moved to the first floor of the iconic GPO (General Post Office opened in 1818) on O’Connell Street with one former presenter describing the corridors décor as reminding him of a public house gentleman’s urinal.

JJ Walsh the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs announced in the Dail,

‘The station is in the McKee Barracks, and the broadcasting headquarters, or studio, as it is usually termed, is in Great Denmark Street. The items set out here include furniture and equipment for both places. Under the heading relating to miscellaneous expenses, which amount to £850, we have such items as postage, stationery, and copyright royalties. Copyright royalties in broadcasting are not only difficult of arrangement, but are also expensive. We have also under this particular heading provision for weather reports and news services, and also such items as we may from time to time be called upon to provide in the way of extra musical equipment, gramophone records, and matters of that kind.’

Now, it is intended that this sum of £14,385 shall cover the period up to the end of the financial year. Thereafter the broadcasting estimates will take their place in the annual estimates and be discussed as separate items. It is not intended that these estimates should be included within the sphere of the Post Office proper.’[3]

Following the destruction of the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising, it’s rebuilding was not completed until 1928 and when it was reopened the fourth floor was taken over by 2RN, later to be renamed as Radio Eireann, who now had three studios instead of the one at Little Denmark Street. In the 1950’s two more studios were built and in 1956 six more studios including a continuity suite were added on the third floor. But the GPO was never designed as a broadcast centre and the station suffered from the lack of sound proofing.[4]

When it came to put a second station on the air, Ireland’s second city Cork was to the location for 6CK. Once again the station was to be located in a second hand building, the former Women’s Gaol in the city. Today the Irish Radio Museum is located in the building where 6CK was broadcast from. Work on the Goal commenced in 1816 and the building of the prison proper started in 1818, The building having been designed by William Robertson. It opened to prisoners on 1824 and became a women’s only prison in 1878. The Goal closed as a prison in 1923 after the events of both the War of Independence and the Civil War. In 1927, the upper floors of the Governors House became the home of 6CK.

(c) Radiomuseum.org

The major expansion for Radio Eireann was the installation of a new high powered transmitter in the midlands near Athlone. The decision was taken at Cabinet level in November 1931 to build a high-powered transmitter in Athlone. Since the inception 2RN wanted to be heard nationwide and the Government desired that Irish broadcasts and programmes should be heard further afield, to be on at least a par with some of the European stations that were now quite popular in Ireland. They wanted to counteract the broadcasts of 2BE and the BBC networks although the BBC had been quite helpful directly to the staff and management of 2RN. This included the relaying of certain broadcasts including St. Patrick’s Day broadcasts and sporting events including the motor racing from the Phoenix Park. A large powerful transmitter would be geographically located in the centre of Ireland. Engineers identified both Athlone, County Westmeath and Birr County Offaly as possible locations. In 1931 a site was purchased at Moydrum Castle on the outskirts of Athlone for the transmitter. The Department of Finance set aside resources for the building of the infrastructure and the purchase of a 100 kilowatt transmitter from the Marconi Company in England. A four hundred and twenty-five aerial was erected and when DeValera came to power in February 1932 a new impetus was injected to have the station operational in time for the Eucharistic Congress being held in June 1932.

The first Eucharistic Congress was held in 1881 under Pope Leo XIII. The congresses were organised by a Papal Committee for Eucharistic Congresses to increase devotion to the Eucharist as a part of the practice of faith, and as a public witness of faith to Catholic population at large. The 31st International Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin, 21-26 June 1932. It was the premier international Catholic event. The 1932 Congress provided the platform for the Irish Free State Government of DeValera to assert their position as a leading Catholic nation. It would be the largest public gathering in twentieth-century Ireland until the 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II. There was even an act passed by the Government specifically for the event titled the Eucharistic Congress (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1932.

Congresses were often linked with anniversaries or other events special to Christians and in particular to Catholics of the country in which they took place. The 30th Congress which took place in Carthage, Tunis, commemorated the death of St. Augustine. The Dublin congress commemorated the death of St. Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint.

The new Irish State mobilized its meager resources in order to meet the challenge posed by this show case event. The arrival of the special Papal Legate, Cardinal Lorenzo Lauri at Dún Laoghaire Harbour at the beginning of Congress Week was greeted by thousands along the harbour piers and the Papal Mass in the Phoenix Park six days later was attended by over 1,000,000 of the faithful. The event was considered to be an outstanding success. The Irish State had successfully entertained literally thousands of churchmen and laity who came to Dublin from every corner of the globe to pray.

The Congress was a logistical nightmare for the under resourced radio station. The station carried out a number of major outside broadcasts from across Dublin for the event. These programmes were relayed by landline to Athlone whose transmitter was operating at sixty kilowatts allowing coverage over much of Europe and more importantly the powerful transmitter allowed for coverage across Ireland. For those with radio sets it was a massive improvement in quality but the broadcasts were relayed on receivers in churches and halls across the country allowing everyone access for the first time to listen to 2RN. The Congress marked the first time that the overwhelmingly Catholic population heard the voice of the Pope relayed over the Athlone transmitter on the final day of the Congress. Reaction to the broadcasts in the print media was positive and commended the station on their achievements.

The Athlone transmitter was officially opened by Eamon DeValera on February 6th 1933 but some complaints remained that the station was too Dublin orientated as the studios and all of the programmes produced came from the GPO Studios in the capital. In January 1937 the Athlone transmitter power was increased to the full 100 kilowatts. Radio Athlone began life on 413m but the Lucerne Conference altered that to 513m medium wave. With the opening of Athlone, the Dublin transmitter was closed down and the station became known as Radio Athlone rather than 2RN. 

The Athlone transmitter building (c) Joe Guilfoyle

Although no longer in use, the building houses the oldest working 1930's Marconi transmitter

On December 31st 1961 a new television channel began and Radio Eireann became Radio Telifis Eireann. The television studios were located at Montrose in Donnybrook. The site at Montrose was originally bought by University College Dublin in June 1949 as a University Campus but in a swap UCD moved across the road to Belfield and the State took over the Montrose site. On the land was a house once lived in by Guglielmo Marconi, the father of radio whose mother Annie Jameson owned Montrose House. Jameson was related to the famous distilling family before she married Marconi’s father. 

  

In June 1960 Michael Scott of Scott, Tallon and Walker architects was appointed architect to design the new RTE television centre at Montrose. Scott had won acclaim as the architect of the Dublin central bus station Busaras. The contract to built the television studios was signed on October 3rd 1960 with the Government, RTE and Michael Scott with the builders E Stone of Thorncastle Street. The company had previously built the new stand at Lansdowne Road. The studios were the first building in Ireland to use pre-cast concrete and flat slab structure.[5]

A 380 ft a self supporting lattice steel tower in the grounds connected with transmitter site at Kippure in the Dublin Mountains. Following a tender process the contract to build the tower was awarded to Anderson & Martin Capital Equipment in association with Huso Verft and Mek of Tronsberg Norway with an estimated cost of £20,000. Working on behalf of Radio Eireann was Chief Engineer J. J. O’Keefe, A. G. Tobin head of transmitters which were built by Pye Limited.

By the end of the decade the GPO was now unfit for purpose as a broadcasting centre and a new purposely built radio centre was to be built at Montrose after almost a half century of radio broadcasting radio in Ireland was to get its first dedicated radio studios.

 RTE on top, Illinois Institute of Technology on the bottom, 

it's hard to tell the difference

Ronnie Tallon (1927 – 2014) of Scott, Tallon and Walker was appointed to design the RTE Radio Building.[6] Tallon was an admirer of Mies Van Der Rohe (b.1886 Germany d. 1969 US Citizen) who designed unornamented steel and lass skyscrapers.[7] The architects had previously worked on the building of the Illinois Institute of Technology and there is no escaping the similarity.

Work on the Radio centre commenced June 9th 1969 on 8 acres formerly used as the sports ground of nearby St. Andrews College. The original budget was £650,000 but eventually cost was over one million pounds. The final broadcast came from Henry Street on November 8th 1976.

When new legislation in 1988 created an independent commercial radio sector for the first time a national licence was granted to Century Radio but like the early days of Radio Eireann, they were located on the floor of an office block across the street from the iconic and historic Christ Church Cathedral. Located at One Christchurch Square, High Street, the station went on air on September 4th 1989 but due to financial troubles was gone within two years. To get on air the station’s owners had purchased the pirate radio transmitters and site of Sunshine Radio on the Northside of the city.

       Mornington House, Trim County Meath where the studios 

and offices of 252 were located.

The Transmitter building at Clarketown, Co Meath

When the joint venture of RTL (Radio Luxembourg) and RTE on longwave 252m, Atlantic 252 was launched and located in County Meath. The stations studios were located in a three-storey period building known as Mornington House on Summerhill Road in the town of Trim. According to the auctioneers[8] the building consisted of

Accommodation: ground floor, entrance hall with ornate stairs to first floor, production room (sub divided into smaller offices), boardroom, kitchen with filled floor and wall presses. ladies & gents toilets. First floor, four offices, reception, three studios. Second floor, two offices, landing office, library and links room.

This was not a purposely built radio station but an adapted studio facility. The stations powerful transmitter and aerial system at nearby Clarkestown were the subject of a number of High Court appeals by local residents and an active campaign to prevent its installation and operation. After the demise of Atlantic 252 Mornington House was bought by Meath County Council for their own uses in 2002 for € 750,000

Pirate radio had a long and colourful past and some locations for the stations have included Georgian Houses in the Dublin City Centre, garden sheds, attics and caravans. While no pirate radio station built a purpose built studio and broadcasting facility some stations purchased portacabins to broadcast from as they were easy to locate and to soundproof. Perhaps the largest and most successful pirate radio station was Radio Nova (1980 – 1986) who were initially located in a Georgian building on Herbert Street on the south side of Dublin city near the Grand Canal. 

There transmitter site was located at a nightclub complex in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains near Rathfarnham known as Green Acres. Following a number of raids on the station and the jamming of their microwave link from Herbert Street to their main transmitter, the station moved to Rathfarnham where the nightclub was renamed Nova Park. Q 102 also broadcast from the basement of a Georgian House on Upper Mount Street until the closure of the majority of pirate radio stations in December 1988 when new tougher legislation was enacted and a new Independent sector was created. Other stations because of their illegal nature found themselves located in Caravans, farm sheds and garages. 

When the independent franchises were awarded the national franchise was awarded to Century Radio, who located their headquarters in an office block in the shadows of Christchurch Cathedral on High Street. Their transmitter network was leased from RTE which two medium transmitters and their sites were bought from former pirate stations Sunshine Radio in Dublin and ERI in Cork. Century was a short lived station, closed to due crippling financial losses but the two successful Dublin candidates 98FM and Capital Radio were launched in 1989. Initially 98FM were located in Studios in a shopping centre on St. Stephen Green, while Capital Radio was located in the former Q 102 headquarters in a Georgian house on Upper Mount Street. 98FM would later move to a former granary silo building on the banks of the Grand Canal while FM 104 as Capital Radio was re-branded and moved to the upper floors of an office block in the docklands. The floors would be shared by FM 104 and a legal Q 102 who were both owned by the same parent company. In 2017[9] 98FM would move once again moving to its parent company’s new headquarters on Digges Lane, known as Marconi House.

Marconi House in the compact office block on Digges Lane

The only indication that the headquarters of FM 104 & Q 102 are located in the office block are name plates on the front entrance intermingled with other renters in the building.

The replacement for Century Radio was launched on March 17^th 1997 as Radio Ireland from studios located in the centre of the city at 112 Upper Abbey Street. Radio Ireland was rebranded as the nightly successful Today FM and would be purchased by 98FM’s parent company Communicorp. Today FM moved to Marconi House in 2007 followed by fellow stations 98FM and Spin 1038. The quasi national news channel NewsTalk also moved into the building from its original location on the upper floors of an office block on Upper Mount Street. The building also housed the failed Phantom/TX FM before its closure.

In Cork when 96 FM (originally known as Radio South) were awarded the local franchise for the city in 1989, the station set themselves up in the former pirate radio station ERI’s location in White’s Cross. In 1991, a merger took place between 96FM and the Mallow-based County Sound 103FM and some years later, the station moved premises from the rural Whites Cross (the former Radio ERI studios) to a city centre location at Patrick's Place, in a building which was formerly the location of Christian Brothers College. The station named its new premises 'Broadcasting House', but this building name is rarely referred to on air, except by Emmett Kennedy in the evenings.

                                 

As a number of the local franchises became more established and their contracts renewed by the overseeing Broadcasting Authority of Ireland[10] they began to move from second-hand premises seen as unfit for purpose, to purposed built broadcasting centres. The stations making that move include Waterford Local Radio (WLR) who moved from a building on George’s Street facing onto the quays in the city to a building at Ardkeen. Work began on the €3 million 10,000 square feet project began in 2002 with the new studios the following year but the cost had spiralled to over five million[11]. The official opening was performed by the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD The station sold their former home in the city centre to property developers[12]. With WLR in the broadcast centre was the youth radio franchise for the South East, Beat 102-103. The station claimed that their new studios were the first purposely built radio studios since the development of Montrose for RTE Radio[13].

This was an exaggerated claim as LMFM serving the north east franchise area moved into their purposely built radio centre in 2001 with the official opening performed once again by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in January 2002. When the station opened first in 1989 it’s main studio was located in the Boyne Centre in Drogheda with a satellite studios located in the Navan shopping centre[14] and Williamsons Mall in Dundalk. For LMFM, with their success they could financially absorb a move from rental accommodation to a dedicated studio and office facility.

One of the most popular and successful regional stations was MidWest Radio based in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo. Led by Paul Claffey who had run the pirate version of the same station up to the new legislation in 1989, MidWest moved into new fit for purpose premises on Clare Street in the town in 2000, a decade after they had been awarded the licence on a ten year basis. The station when it was awarded the licence was located on nearby Abbey Street.

Highland Radio first broadcast in March 1990 with the franchise for the North West of Ireland. Despite a challenge to their license in 2014, Highland Radio has been located in the same premises in the Pinehill Industrial Park on the outskirts of Letterkenny. While the building was built as a storage area by the Boal family and never envisaged as a broadcast facility, the station has created a permanent location for the station in the building.

© Google Maps

© Radio Today

One of the few purposely built radio buildings in Ireland was that of Radio Na Gaeltachta in County Galway in 1972. When the Government gave the go ahead for the Irish language channel which would primarily serve the Gaeltacht areas, its headquarters would be situated in the main Gaeltacht area in County Galway. The architect firm of Nolan and Quinlan on Pembroke Street, Dublin were employed on the design and James Stewart Limited were awarded the contract for the build. The main single storey studio building consisting of three studios, two control rooms and sundry office space would be built at Derrynea in Connemara while a transmitter site five miles away was located at Bealadangan. The Government allocated a quarter of a million pounds for the building project and a further ninety thousand for transmitters. Satellite stations were to be built later in Kerry and Donegal.  

End of Part One

---

[1] James North Auctioneers description 1956

[2] Dublin City Corporation

[3] Dail/Oireachtas Historic Debates 1926

[4] The RTE Archive

[5] The Irish Times December 4^th 2010

[6] archiseek.com

[7] Free Dictionary

[8] Sherry Fitzgerald Auctioneers in 1972

[9] Radio Today June 11^th 2017

[10] Formerly known as The Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) & The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).

[11] Waterford News and Star April 9^th 2004.

[12] The Irish Independent October 3^rd 2002

[13] Waterford News and Star April 9^th 2004.

[14] The Dundalk pirate radio station Radio Carousel also had a studio located in the Navan Shopping Centre

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.

A Couple of Slides from NORTHERN IRELAND PIRATE RADIO Lecture

'No Borders' Radio in Ireland

Just like it is today the border between the new Irish Free State and Northern Ireland following the passing of the Treaty that ended the War of Independence was not to everyone’s liking but radio did not recognize so called hard borders and its signal in the ether was transnational. 

On December 13^th 1927 at 8 pm a unique experiment took place, that at least for forty five minutes united the island of Ireland. A comedy revue titled ‘Hip Hip Hooradio’ was staged at the Empire Theatre in Belfast. The show was transmitted live by the Belfast radio station 2BE but in a moment of broadcasting history it was also relayed by 2RN in Dublin and 6CK in Cork. 

The Lord Mayors of the three cities recorded greetings for each other which were aired before the relay. The Lord Mayor of Belfast Rt. Hon. Sir William Turner attended the Empire in person and spoke into the microphone from the stage. The comedy revue was written by Richard Hayward and Gerald McNamara and was described in the pre-publicity as having ‘seventeen scenes of fun and frolic’ performed by the Ulster Players. The show was set in a radio station studio. Some of those who performed in the show were Vivian Worth, Marian Wright, Kitty Murphy, Dorothy Camlin, Jack Chambers, Richard Hayward, Jack Gavin and Kenneth Coffey.

 While the relay was well advertised in the Dublin newspapers, the Belfast newspaper like the Telegraph and the Northern Whig advertised the show at the Empire Theatre just before it closed for renovations and the fact that it would be relayed on the 'wireless' but did not push the fact that it was being relayed on Free State radio stations. 

A Century of Irish Radio Reviews

A Century of Irish Radio 1900 -2000

This new book tells the story of how this popular medium with much of its early history centered in Ireland, has revolutionised and changed Irish society more than any other medium.

“An excellent work, this book is a must”, Ian Biggar, The DX Archive (Scotland)

“An excellent read”, Amazon 5* review by Premier Radio

“If you’ve an interest in broadcasting, this book is for you. Well worth the money”, Aidan Cooney Q102 Presenter and former Ireland AM (TV3) host

“Eddie’s magnus opus is the most comprehensive work on the history and evolution of radio in Ireland. Historically important record” Eoin Morgan News4 Newspaper
“A great book”, Ralph McGarry radio presenter

“A superb read” E. Burbage on Goodreads

“A great read” Rob Allen 96FM Cork

This comprehensive story begins when 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 why 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 read about an anti-Jazz movement whose legal ramifications are still felt today and 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. The book tells the story of the first man in the world to die on hunger strike, Sean McNeela having been convicted of pirate radio broadcasting. The book acknowledges the real success of Radio Eireann as it transformed rural Ireland on limited resources and offered women a new independence and perspective.

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 Americanised with men like Bill Cunningham changing how we consume radio, the giveaways, the profits and even the success and failure of Atlantic 252. The book tells how this nation interacts with the rest of the world through radio and how ironically it was two Englishmen Leonard Plugge and Chris Cary who revolutionised 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 of the 80’s with Nova and ERI. 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. It documents 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 creating 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 today’s radio industry. ‘A Century of Irish Radio 1900-2000’ covers the border blasters, the innovators, the urban myths are dismantled, and we reveal the careers of characters and presenters from Michael O’Hehir and Larry Gogan to Dave Fanning and Andy Preston. The first full comprehensive history of Irish radio in decades is detailed in this 595-page book.

Copies of the book can be purchased here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Century-Irish-Radio-1900-2000/dp/1717899641