RTÉ radio will mark 100 years of public service broadcasting in Ireland with a series of broadcasts from the GPO.
RTÉ Radio 1, Raidió na Gaeltachta, RTÉ 2fm and Lyric FM will broadcast programmes from Dublin’s O’Connell Street throughout the day, beginning at 6am and finishing at 8pm.
The GPO was the transmission location for Irish radio from 1928 and was the building that housed Radio Éireann until 1976.
At 7.45pm on 1 January 1926, the precursor to RTÉ, then 2RN, delivered the fledgling new Irish State’s first public radio transmission, with the first broadcast taking place right around the corner on Little Denmark Street.
Across that century, RTÉ, in its guises as 2RN, Radio Éireann, Teilifís Éireann and latterly RTÉ, has been focused on marking the life of the nation across an expanding range of services.
The first broadcast from the GPO will be RTÉ 2FM Breakfast this morning.
Listen: Douglas Hyde Opens 2RN 1 January 1926
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Today with David McCullagh will take over at 9am on RTÉ Radio 1 and will feature panel discussions on Irish history, society, sport and music with leading voices from across public life, including GAA President Jarlath Burns and historian and archivist Caitriona Crowe. They will be joined by a wide range of musical guests.
At 1pm, the Full Score with Liz Nolan on RTÉ Lyric FM will host a special programme featuring the Army No. 1 Band, who played the first music heard on 2RN.
Tenor Gavan Ring will also perform a number of songs, including two which were performed during that first 1926 broadcast.
RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Tús Áite, presented by Fachtna Ó Drisceoil, will take over from 5pm and will include conversations about the history of the broadcasting service, a look through the archives and special guests will share their memories of Irish radio.
RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena will mark the centenary with a special programme, featuring live music and exploring literature with Booker Prize-winning novelist Paul Lynch, novelist Christine Dwyer Hickey and An Cailín Ciúin’s Colm Bairéad.
RTÉ weather forecasts will also be broadcast live from the GPO throughout the day.
An Post has issued a special stamp to mark 100 years of broadcasting.
Unveiled yesterday, An Post said the stamp, which features an antenna surrounded by transmission signals “radiating across the nation”, celebrates a “historic milestone in Irish cultural life” and the evolution of broadcasting over the last century.
Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan said: “When 2RN began broadcasting, this nation was only in its infancy in the first years of independence, and with limited resources, the State prioritised finding and sharing a new voice for the nation.
“This established, here in Ireland, a medium which to this day remains one of the most accessible and engaging forms of communication and self-expression, which is as popular today as ever with the majority of people here in Ireland still listening to radio on a daily basis.”