Special thanks to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this weeks special on the radio scene in Ireland - Part 1 of 3.
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Jeff: We begin this week by asking the question, "Did Ireland ever establish its own shortwave station?" To answer this question, and to learn a lot more about broadcasting in the Emerald Isle, Ray Robinson has been delving into the long and fascinating history of wireless and radio broadcasting in Ireland.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. The island of Ireland is indeed beautiful with its rolling green pastures, rugged mountains and scenic lakes. Whether seen from the air while flying between Europe and North America, or being visited on vacation, I’m told that Ireland has its charms and fascination, although I’ve never been there myself.
The history of Ireland can be traced back through the distant past to the very dawn of human settlement in Europe. Many people groups with varying ethnic backgrounds have migrated at times from elsewhere in Europe to this green, verdant and in some places rugged island at the north west extremity of the continent. The ancient capital of Ireland was at Tara, about 27 miles northwest of present-day Dublin, and there’s a tradition that in 569 BC, the Biblical prophet Jeremiah traveled there from Egypt in his old age and set up a school to teach other Israelites (who had migrated there in earlier generations) wisdom from the books of Moses, Joshua and Samuel, and from the Psalms of David.
From 1542 until 1800, the Kingdom of Ireland, which had united the whole island of Ireland, was a dependent territory, first of England, and then after 1707, of Great Britain. It was administered from Dublin Castle by a Viceroy appointed by the monarch in London. Then in 1801, Ireland officially became a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland when the British and Irish Parliaments passed a joint declaration known as the Acts of Union. This was not universally popular, however, and many Irish nationalists opposed the union. Three rebellions occurred during the 1800’s, but all were failures. However, in April 1916 an armed insurrection known as the Easter Rising took place in Dublin, while the British were fighting World War I. Sixteen of the Rising’s leaders were duly executed the following month, including the grandfather of Ronan O’Rahilly, the founder of Radio Caroline. Those executions, combined with subsequent political developments led to increasing popular support for Irish independence. Then, in 1921, the island of Ireland was partitioned into two states – six of the nine counties of Ulster that were predominantly Protestant and Royalist became Northern Ireland, while the other three counties of Ulster and the provinces of Connacht in the west, Leinster in the east and Munster in the south, which were all predominantly Catholic and anti-Royalist, became the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion of the UK. The Irish Free State did not participate in World War II, and was officially neutral. Finally, in 1949, the Irish Free State declared itself independent of the UK, and became the Republic of Ireland, which these days is a part of the European Union, using the Euro for its currency. The population of the Republic is now about 5 million, with another 2 million in Northern Ireland.
The story of radio broadcasting in Ireland goes way back to the very beginning of early wireless experimentation, and this is how it all happened:
In 1896, the famous wireless experimenter Marconi travelled from Italy to England, where he conducted several demonstrations for the benefit of government officials. Two years later, Marconi went over to Dublin for the annual Kingstown Regatta in Dublin Harbor where he demonstrated the practical value of wireless communication.
Marconi installed a wireless transmitter on board a tug boat, the "Flying Huntress." and he transmitted the progress of the boat race in Morse Code for the benefit of the "Daily Express" newspaper which printed the results in a special edition. The Kingstown Regatta was a two-day sporting event that was held on July 20 and 22, 1898.
Three years later in 1901, two coastal wireless stations were established in Ireland, one at Crookhaven in County Cork, and the other at Rosslare in County Wexford. These two stations were located on the southern coast of Ireland, as the first and last stations for ships travelling along that coastline. The station at Crookhaven was on the air with spark gap transmissions in Morse Code under the callsign GCK.
Three years later again, Marconi established his famous station at Clifden in County Galway at the center of the west coast of Ireland. This station was constructed for transatlantic communication in Morse Code. Originally the callsign was simply CDN, an abbreviation for the location name, Clifden, though later the station was officialized with a British callsign, MFT.
Ireland is one of the many countries that claims a world first for wireless broadcasting. During the previously mentioned Easter Rising in 1916, the undersea cable linking Ireland and England was deliberately cut by the British, making it impossible for immediate news to get out of Ireland.
During the rebellion, republican leaders occupied the Irish School of Wireless Telegraphy in Dublin. Beginning on April 25th at 5:30 pm using a ship’s wireless transmitter that had been repaired, they transmitted messages in Morse Code for a period of 20 hours, giving news reports on the progress of the rebellion. That transmission has subsequently been claimed by the Irish as the first wireless ‘broadcast’ in the world.
Radio broadcasting first came to Ireland when a medium wave station was launched by the BBC in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in October 1924. This station was assigned the call 2BE, and it used 1.5 kW on 440 meters (680 kHz).
The first station in the Irish Free State began testing in Dublin in late 1925, and was officially launched on January 1st 1926 with the callsign 2RN, the letters chosen to sound like "Eireann," the Gaelic name for Ireland. This was also a 1.5 kW unit, which operated on 390 meters (770 kHz). The inauguration ceremonies were relayed by the 25 kW BBC station 5XX at Daventry in England. The studios and transmitter for station 2RN were originally located in a wooden hut next to the police barracks in Dublin, though soon afterwards the studios were relocated above the offices of the Employment Exchange.
The next radio station to be launched in Ireland was 6CK in Cork on the south coast, initially with 1 kW on 400 meters (750 kHz). This station was inaugurated in 1927 with its own production studios, and it operated as 6CK for three years. In 1929, it changed wavelength to 224 meters (1337 kHz). Then in 1930, it became a slave relay of 2RN for a period of nearly 30 years.
In preparation for the broadcasts of the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in June 1932, a large 60 kW transmitter was installed temporarily for radio station 2RN. After the conclusion of the Congress, the transmitter was re-installed at Athlone in the dead center of Ireland for nationwide radio coverage on 530 meters (566 kHz). And that’s why European radios of the 50’s and 60’s have ‘Athlone’ marked on the dial at the far end of the medium waveband.
In January 1941, the BBC donated a new 2 kW medium wave transmitter to replace 2RN’s aging 15-year-old unit in Dublin.
During World War II, the three medium wave stations in Ireland were synchronized on one channel so they couldn’t be used as radio beacons for invading aircraft and ships.
By 1970, the Cork station had been upgraded to 10 kW and the Dublin station to 5 kW, both on 240 meters (1250 kHz).
In 1955, the Athlone transmitter was upgraded to upgraded to 100 kW, and in the 1990’s it was replaced by a 500 kW unit in
Tullamore, a few miles to the southeast. Neither transmitter was ever allocated a callsign.
After the creation of the Republic of Ireland in 1949, the stations had adopted the name Radio Eireann, and in 1950, Radio Eireann was one of the 23 founding organizations of the European Broadcasting Union. Television broadcasts started on December 31st 1961, and five years later, the name was finally expanded to Radio Teilifis Eireann, or RTE. The radio station that had started life on January 1st, 1926 as 2RN became the foundation for what is today Ireland’s first public service radio network, RTE1, which now operatedson FM and DAB only.
And, we’ll continue the story of radio broadcasting in Ireland, including answering that question about shortwave, next week.
Back to you, Jeff.
(Ray Robinson/NWS Wavescan)
