{"id":671388,"date":"2026-11-01T02:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T02:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/671388\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T02:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T02:48:09","slug":"book-reviews-socio-political-effects-of-100-years-of-radio-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/671388\/","title":{"rendered":"Book reviews: Socio-political effects of 100 years of radio in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there has been a muted air surrounding the centenary of the founding of 2RN, the forerunner of RT\u00c9 Radio, it is perhaps understandable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For all the ubiquity of radio over the past 100 years, it\u2019s also an ephemeral, even intangible medium \u2014 something authors Rosemary Day and Cl\u00edona N\u00ed Anluain both acknowledge \u2014 lacking the easily identified and readily recoverable highlights of its visual broadcast cousin television.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s perhaps unsurprising that these two books approach Irish radio with differing emphases and contrasting aims.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Day\u2019s volume is the more wide-ranging, framing the development of medium across the country in a socio-political context.\u00a0<\/p>\n

N\u00ed Anluain, meanwhile, solely concentrates on RT\u00c9 radio; her book is published as part of the state broadcaster\u2019s \u201cRT\u00c9 100\u201d anniversary celebrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Accordingly, both overviews have their strengths, though neither tells the full story.<\/p>\n

Mixing grassroots history, technical detail, and anecdotal recollection to tell the story of Irish radio at institutional and personal levels, Day is admirably ambitious in her scope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She captures the political and technological challenges faced by 2RN when it commenced broadcasting on New Year\u2019s Day in 1926.<\/p>\n

Seamus Clandillon, the director of the new station (later renamed Radio \u00c9ireann) had to contend with a febrile political atmosphere, with the newly independent Free State\u2019s government concerned about the influence of BBC broadcasts from across the water and over the border.<\/p>\n

There were also infrastructural problems, from a lack of wireless receivers and complaints about the licence fee (plus \u00e7a change), as well as the difficulties of fulfilling an impossibly wide brief \u2014 from the revival of the Irish language to the fostering of native culture \u2014 with only primitive technology and limited airtime.<\/p>\n

Day recounts how the new station\u2019s hybrid funding model of licence fees and advertising revenues was a source of tension from day one, resulting in still-familiar conflicts between public service obligations and commercial demands.<\/p>\n

For example, Day chronicles how so-called \u201csponsored\u201d programmes weren\u2019t officially considered part of Radio \u00c9ireann\u2019s self-consciously highbrow output, despite the popularity of these commercially-produced entertainment shows.<\/p>\n

She also highlights the restrictive conventions that hampered the station, not least the patronising patriarchal bent that pigeonholed women both as listeners and broadcasters; the word \u201cpregnant\u201d wasn\u2019t used on air until the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Of course, the story of Irish radio goes beyond RT\u00c9. Day, who teaches media and communication studies at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, comprehensively covers the often-overlapping growth of pirate stations and community radio.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The story of how the pirate radio explosion of 1970s led to the founding of 2FM and the establishment of the independent commercial broadcasting sector is well-known, but Day digs deeper, recounting how unlicensed stations even operated back in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

She also delves into the often-overlooked sphere of regional radio, outlining how the sector has built its popularity by focusing on local issues, not least sport; she cites the late Radio Kerry commentator Weeshie Fogarty as an exemplar of broadcasters forging bonds with their communities.<\/p>\n

There are some odd lacunae, however. Newstalk \u2014 a national fixture for 20 years \u2014 warrants the same space as Radio Luimn\u00ed, an idiosyncratic pirate station in Limerick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Ryan Tubridy secret payments controversy, which sent RT\u00c9 Radio 1 into a tailspin in 2023, is recounted in fleeting fashion.<\/p>\n

Day commendably favours chatty accessibility over academic jargon, notwithstanding her frequent if generalised references to post-colonial cultural inferiority, though her prose can be clunky.<\/p>\n

She describes the famed commentator Michael O\u2019Hehir as \u201cliterally a legend in his own lifetime\u201d, using not one but two \u2018L-words\u2019 that should be avoided if at all possible. (Hint \u2014 it\u2019s not \u201clifetime\u201d.)<\/p>\n

In contrast, N\u00ed Anluain\u2019s survey is elegantly written, conjuring up vivid personal anecdotes that evoke the indefinable power of radio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But her book\u2019s narrow focus on RT\u00c9 and its antecedents limits her narrative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, given it\u2019s an authorised history of the state service, contentious pronouncements are at a premium, though some gentle criticisms do seep through the author\u2019s wryly observant style.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

N\u00ed Anluain, an RT\u00c9 producer who has worked on radio shows such as Sunday Miscellany, shares some of Day\u2019s concerns. (Both writers arrange chapters thematically rather than chronologically.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

She outlines the obstacles historically faced by women in the industry \u2014 the arrival of Marian Finucane\u2019s programme Women Today in 1979 is highlighted as a watershed \u2014 while examining how the Irish language has been treated by the national broadcaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The brief existence of Irish-speaking pirate station Saor Raidi\u00f3 Chonemara in 1970 is characterised as \u201cnine days that would change the face of broadcasting in Ireland\u201d, leading to the establishment of Raidi\u00f3 na Gaeltachta two years later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0However, while N\u00ed Anluain rightly devotes attention to those presenters with an uncanny ability to tap into the public mood, such as Gay Byrne and Gerry Ryan, the long descriptions of programmes from years past can veer from the exhaustive into the wearying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Full disclosure: N\u00ed Anluain covers the radio work of my father, Seamus Heaney. My most vivid memory of his stint at RT\u00c9 in the 1970s, however, is his ill-tempered exchange with a security guard who wouldn\u2019t allow our Volkswagen Beetle onto the Montrose campus.)<\/p>\n

Then again, these fond recaps are perhaps inevitable in a generously illustrated volume that serves as both official record and commemorative edition. (Fans of old RT\u00c9 Guide covers are in for a treat.)<\/p>\n

That the Tubridy controversy goes unmentioned is similarly unsurprising.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s frustrating, as N\u00ed Anluain can be eloquently insightful on how Irish radio and society have evolved together; she calls the medium \u201cthe new confessional\u201d, pointing to memorably revelatory interviews by Leo Varadkar and Nuala O\u2019Faolain.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a key difference between these two thoroughly researched works, it\u2019s that Day laments the missed opportunities missed of radio in the republic \u2014 for instance, not being used in schools to teach the Irish language \u2014 while N\u00ed Anluain stresses the achievements, lauding Radio \u00c9ireann\u2019s Thomas Davis Lectures as \u201ca university on the air\u201d.<\/p>\n

But while neither book fully captures the sweep and appeal of this most influential yet evanescent medium, both writers provide an absorbing education on its history here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there has been a muted air surrounding the centenary of the founding of 2RN, the forerunner of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1736,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-671388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-books-non-fiction","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}