While the British Government were able to throw financial resources and manpower at their code breaking and intercept facilities at the Bletchley Park facility, the Irish Government had a more low key approach.
The Radio Intercept Service was formed in 1940 as the Military struggled to listen to the growing number of stations and wavelengths across the spectrum. Broadcasts had to be monitored twenty four hours a day. Not only were they monitoring foreign broadcasts into Ireland, but local illegal radio stations and clandestine espionage stations operated by German spies in neutral Ireland.
There were twenty five civilians listeners none of them members of the defence forces or the Gardai but reporting to Military Intelligence with radio logs and signal information. These listeners came from all walks of life Architects, Insurance officials, drapers and even a clerk at Guinness’s brewery. Some of them operated homemade listening sets that allowed them to not only listen to medium wave and long wave but also the short wave bands. They were each assigned times and frequencies to listen to.
They detected coded messages being sent from the British to their own forces, German spies in Ireland, distress signals from torpedoed ships and Irish army broadcasts. It took some time for a list of safe stations that did not need further attention.
Some of the intelligence gathered on unlicensed wireless transmitters was garnered from the post office intercepting post and seizing QSL cards sent from radio operators to overseas ‘ham’ operators.
Suspect signals was often linked to local Garda reports from concerned citizens. This would be followed up by army intelligence investigation and then if nessessary raids conducted. Sometimes their were innocent explanations for ‘unidentified Morse code signals’ as perhaps a local electrical dynamo or cross signals.
They were able to identify both Allied and Axis broadcasts on normal stations when a Morse tone would be broadcast between programmes to inform spies to listen to their private transmitters for messages from their spy masters.
Commandant Sean Nelligan of the Irish Army commented
‘the magnitude of the task can however by gauged from the fact that it took the signal corps plus the PO Engineering Branch four to five months to locate a station that operated on a regular schedule, the wavelength having previously been made public.’
This was a reference to the IRA’s pirate radio station operated in 1939 from Ashgrove House in Rathgar.
If a suspect signal was detected and believed to be broadcasting within the state, the Military and Post Office had two detector vans at its disposal, something lacking in their 1939 search until one was borrowed from the British authorities.
The Inductees into the Irish Broadcasting Hall of Fame for 2013 are
Radio
JIM SHERWIN
Jim will be forever associated with RTE's rugby coverage both on radio and television. Despite his versatility it was his match commentaries on International and domestic games that will be long remembered. He also had stints reading the news on RTE TV and presenting quiz shows including Cross Country Quiz. He is often heard on nostalgia shows as the lead swimming commentator of Michelle Smith's tainted Olympic swims in 1996.
BRENDAN BALFE
Brendan was born in 1945 in Dublin. In 1964 he joined Radio Eireann and was heard on air until his retirement in 2010. From 1999 until his retirement he was in charge of music policy at RTE Radio 1. In 1986 he won a Jacob’s Award for the documentary series ‘The Spice of Life’ and from 1998 – 2001 he was the radio host for RTE’s coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest. In March 2008 Brendan presented the final RTE Radio programme broadcast on medium wave. In 2007 Brendan launched his autobiography ‘Radio Man’.
JOHN SKEHAN
After an early career in the Irish Army during the Second World War, John joined Radio Eireann in the early 1960’s. In 1962 following the launch of the new television service John moved to television from radio as a reporter on the programme ‘Broadsheet’. In the seventies he moved back to radio and in 1980 won a Jacobs Award for the series ‘Play It Again’. For many years John presented RTE Radio One’s long running series ‘Words and Music’ which was similar in style to BBC’s Desert Islands Discs. John passed away in 1992
Television
CHARLIE BIRD
Charlie Bird ( born 9 September 1949) was Chief News Correspondent with RTÉ News and Current Affairs until January 2009. He took up the role of Washington Correspondent, but prematurely returned to his earlier post in Ireland in June 2010. He retired from RTÉ in August 2012.
Charlie Bird was born in Sandymount, Dublin in 1949 and educated at Sandymount High School. In the late 1960s, Bird took an active interest in far left politics, being a member of Young Socialists. In this role, along with Tariq Ali of the International Marxist Group, he attended the funeral of Peter Graham of Saor Éire who was assassinated on 25 October 1971 in an internecine dispute. A photograph of the funeral shows Ali and Bird giving a clenched fist salute at the grave.
Charlie Bird was recruited into RTÉ by Eoghan Harris in the mid 1970s. For many years in the 1990s, Bird was the only point of contact between RTÉ and the Provisional IRA. He witnessed at first hand the ceasefires and the subsequent twists and turns of the peace process.
Charlie first story to bring him national attention was when he interviewed Fr Niall O’Brien in the Phillipines. On 6 May 1983, O’Brien was arrested along with two other priests, Fr. Brian Gore, an Australian, Fr. Vicente Dangan, a Filipino and six lay workers – the so-called "Negros Nine", for the murders of Mayor Pablo Sola of Kabankalan and four companions. The priests where held under house arrest for eight months but "escaped" to prison in Bacolod City, the provincial capital, where they felt they would be safer. Charlie interviewed Fr. O'Brien in his overcrowded prison cell on RTE TV. When Ronald Reagan visited Ireland in 1984, he was asked on Irish TV how he could help the missionary priest's situation. A phone call the next day from the Reagan administration to Ferdinand Marcos resulted in Marcos offering a pardon to Fr. O'Brien and his co-accused.
In 1998, Bird and his colleague George Lee broke the story about tax evasion at National Irish Bank which involved Beverly Cooper Flynn, daughter of former Government Minister Padraig Flynn and herself a former TD.
On the international front, Bird reported on both Gulf Wars and was in Syria for the release of Brian Keenan who had been held hostage in Beirut for many months. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin in 2002. Charlie was attacked during the riots that followed the ‘Love Ulster’ parade on 25 February 2006, suffering a fractured cheekbone, soft tissue damage and bruising. On RTÉ News broadcasts later that evening, he spoke of his personal experience—and of how his assailants had recognised him and called him an "Orange Bastard". Witnesses included Sunday Independent journalist Daniel McConnell, who reported on the event the following day. In 2008, a man pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assaulting Bird. He presented the Charlie Bird Explores series in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In this collection of documentary programmes, he visited the Amazon, the Ganges, and the Arctic.
On 7 October 2008, Bird was announced as the latest person to fill the post of RTÉ News and Current Affairs Washington correspondent. His first report as Washington correspondent was on RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock about US Airways Flight 1549. RTÉ received 30 complaints after he "failed to wear a suit and tie" on RTÉ News: Six One during coverage of the death of Ted Kennedy. Bird provided coverage from the 2010 Haiti earthquake in January 2010. A two-part documentary about his first year in the United States was broadcast later that month on RTÉ One. In it he spoke of his "madness" in moving to the country and his lack of contacts and recognition in Washington DC. At the end of the second programme, he announced he would vacate his Washington post. Early viewing figures suggested that the two programmes got viewing averages of 473,000 and 563,000 people. RTÉ cited Bird's “popularity” when asked about the large audience.
Bird returned to Ireland to take up his previous job of Chief News Correspondent with RTÉ in June 2010. He covered a high profile leadership challenge of Enda Kenny on his return. During August 2010, Bird began presenting The Marian Finucane Show. Charlie retired from RTÉ on 26 August 2012 deciding to take the redundancy package being offered by the state broadcaster as it attempted to cut its budgets. His last broadcast was presenting the The Marian Finucane Show on RTÉ Radio 1.
LARRY MASTERSON
Larry Masterson is one of the most established and respected producers in the business. Apart from RTÉ he has produced for Channel 4 UK, Discovery Channel US, Learning Channel US, Travel Channel and TG4. Some of his productions including ‘If I Should Fall From Grace’ have been syndicated internationally. He has also been the recipient of many awards and was nominated for a Cable/ACE award in America. He began at RTE as a researcher including the 1976 & Days programme ‘It’s A Hard Auld Station’ about the lives of people in the Sherriff Street community of Dublin. He completed four years as Executive Producer of the Late Late Show and has produced other shows including The Miriam Show with Miriam O’Callaghan, The Saturday Night Show presented by Brendan O'Connor and the six part series with Dermot O'Neill, Dermot's Secret Garden.
CATHAL O'SHANNON
Mr O'Shannon flew with the RAF during World War II - having joined with a forged baptismal certificate aged 16 - and later became a reporter with The Irish Times.
He also worked on the paper's London desk, where he met and married the love of his life, Patsy.
He was a journalist and documentary maker with RTÉ, filming the first deployment of Irish troops overseas on a UN mission to the Congo, among many other works.
But it is as a television presenter he is perhaps best remembered.
Terry Wogan described him as possibly Ireland's greatest television journalist and programmes - such as his interview with Muhammad Ali - became iconic pieces of television. Among his other notable achievements was the Spanish Civil War documentary Even the Olives are Bleeding.
Alternative
HUGH HARDY
Hugh Hardy was a well known pirate radio station operator who is more famously associated with Radio Carousel and its network in Dundalk, County Louth and KLAS in Dublin. Described as 'one of Omeath's most famous sons', Hugh was a member of the Louth 1957/58 squad, which brought the Sam Maguire Cup to the 'wee county' for the first and only time.
ALTERNATIVE RADIO DUBLIN 257
ARD was the first pirate station to really break the monopoly of RTE especially on the airwaves of Dublin. progressing from a hobby, garden shed pirate radio station, with the assistance of Bernard Llewellyn, ARD built specialised studios, introduced regular schedules and a playlist. The station provided a launching pad for many of today's radio and TV stars.
JIMMY GREELEY
Jimmy Greeley (born 12 July 1945)worked for 4FM until early 2012. Jimmy is a veteran of Irish radio having worked for many stations such as Millennium 88FM, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ News and RTÉ Radio 1. In 1994 he joined Dublin's local station 98FM, presenting the weekday Morning News, alongside the Head Teena Gates. Greeley spent 14 years in that post. In 2006 he began a new show on the cable TV station City Channel called ‘On The Menu’. In early 2009, after spending 14 years as a newsreader, Greeley left 98FM to join Ireland's new national radio station 4FM, where he started off working Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., before moving to the 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. time slot. In May 2011, following a number of schedule changes, he returned to presenting Morning News and Sport. In January 2012, Greeley confirmed his decision to retire from radio broadcasting to concentrate more on voice imaging.
A NEW SIX PART SERIES HAS BEGUN TO AIR ON DUBLIN COMMUNITY TELEVISION.
This six part interview series looks at the momentous moments as the new Wireless Telegraphy Act came into force at midnight on December 31st 1988 and closed the majority of the pirate radio stations that were dotted across the country. In the series we chat to some of those iconic names in pirate radio many of whom are still on the air today. We hear stories of guns being put to DJ's heads at Big D, The US Ambassador to Lebanon rescuing Radio Dublin DJ's who found themselves in a war zone, the raids, the fun, the postman who was arrested just because he was delivering post to a radio station as it was being raided. The characters some of whom are no longer with us but are fondly remembered. Tune in each Friday at 7 on UPC Channel 802, Dublin Community Telelvision, AERTV or on Vimeo.
My thanks to Burl Barer at the Saint.org web site for this kind e mail.
http://www.saint.org/
I was recently asked at my lecture on 1930s Irish Broadcasting History if I was aware that the first radio broadcast of Leslie Charteris's The Saint was on Radio Eireann in 1939. The Saint is perhaps more famous now through the television incarnations of actors Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy. I had to be honest that I was not aware of that but it sent me on a little CSI style investigation.
My first port of call was the internet and the always reliable Mr. Google. There it was not 1939 but 1940. I was stunned. I checked a number of 'The Saint' fan sites all all pointed me in the one direction even Old Time Radio sites in the United States refered to Radio Athlone and its historic connection with the suave spy.
http://www.saint.org/radio.htm
My attention was peaked and I continued to research the mighty internet. I began to look at the career of the actor who 'played' the role on Radio Eireann Terence DeMarney and sadly discovered that he died in 1971 when he accidently fell under a train in England. Then I came a cross a very disingenuous remark towards the Irish national station in a book on The Saint
This piece of misinformation and inaccuracy came from the 2002 James Chapman book 'Saints and Avengers, British Adventure Series of the 1960's'
'A short lived' station that is now almost a century old. I next checked the radio guide of the day The Irish Radio News and to my surprise there was no mention of the six part series. It occured to me that perhaps the books reference to 'commercial' may have indicated that the drama's was part of the sponsored programmes that were carried by Radio Eireann in the 1930s and early 1940s but when I looked up the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes archives as they were the main radio sponsors of the day, yet again nothing found on now the elusive Saint.
The research went on and I began to trawl the Irish Newspaper Archives and everything that had been written in articles, magazines and respected books was completely and totally wrong. Inaccuracy in facts has led to a myth that is simply not true. Radio Eireann did NOT broadcast the first radio incarnation of Leslie Charteris's The Saint. In fact the series was broadcast by the BBC.
This from the Irish Independent October 25th 1940
To prove that Radio Eireann/Radio Athlone did not broadcast the show as given in evidence on October 18th 1940 this is the programme schedule for the Irish state broadcaster for that Friday and no mention of The Saint or even a drama being broadcast
The only connection Ireland had with The Saint in October 1940 was the fact that showing in a number of cinema's was the movie 'The Saint Takes Over' starring George Saunders in one of his many 'Simon Templar' roles. But my next question in the investigation was why? Why had this myth grown up and how did it come about. The investigation was a little complicated as was many events during the Second World War.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the British War Office instructed the BBC to synchronize their transmitters to prevent the German air force from using the signals as beacons for their bombing raids. Most of the BBC’s transmitters for their national and regional services were synchronized on 449m and 391m medium wave. The problem for the War Office was that Radio Athlone’s powerful 100KW transmitter could be used as a directional beacon and despite low level communications between the British and Irish Governments initially their was no co-operation from Radio Athlone to synchronize their transmitter on 531m with those less powerful transmitters in Dublin on 223m and on 242m in Cork.
The BBC was ordered to take three of their transmitters out of service and use them to mask Radio Athlone. The BBC engineers would use a receiver to tune in the Dublin frequency and then relay by landline to three UK transmitters to rebroadcast programmes from Radio Athlone.
The three transmitters used were the five kilowatt transmitter at Redmoss outside Aberdeen in Scotland that originally broadcast on 373m but was moved to the Athlone frequency of 531m. This was similarly done at Penmon outside Angelsey in Wales and at Clevedon near Bristol in Somerset.
The BBC continued with these rebroadcasts from September 1939 until October 1940 when the Irish Government purchased the equipment required to synchronize the three Radio Eireann transmitters. Thus British listeners who had been listening to Radio Eireann's programmes which had been secretly rebroadcast by the BBC assumed once the Irish Government had synchronized the Irish transmitters that it was still Radio Eireann when in fact Redmoss, Clevedon and Penmon begun broadcasting BBC programmes once more to their own audience in October 1940.
This is a slice of espionage that Simon Templar would have been proud of.
I spotted this advertisement for Today FM at Blackrock Dart station yesterday. What strikes you as odd about the photo used?
This is Cork born Matt Cooper posing on a London styled taxi, that is painted in New York cab colours. It featured a rugby player and Rugby is an English game the invention of William Webb Ellis in 1823. The cab has a running board similar to the gangster movies of the prohibition era in the United States.
There are clearly too many passengers for this cab. The nurse has a stethescope invented in France. The 3D glasses are an American creation,popcorn has its origins in Peru, South America and the electronic megaphone is a 1954 US invention.
The runner is wearing sneakers an American product while the businesswoman is wearing high heels a European fashion creation with origins in the Middle East.
The show is sponsored by Irish Life who are owned by a Canadian firm.
So thats what I got out of Today FM today, not much Irishness for the national independent broadcaster.
