June 2, 2024 at 10:10 am #1217

Wow great posting, a lot to digest, love the old photos, and the long article is interesting. In a small country it’s easy to become well known, my ‘ex’ James was known for years as ‘The First Man on Irish TV’

http://www.rte.ie/archives/2013/1231/495370-national-anthem

Of course I was only a ‘chisseler’ lol.

A new television service, but not without a cost

Wed, Dec 30, 2009, 00:00

JOE JOYCE

BACK PAGES – December 30th 1961:The first Irish television station, TelifÍs Éireann, began broadcasting on New Year’s Eve in 1961 with, as this report in the previous day’s Irish Timessaid, bad news for those who had been receiving free television for years beforehand, albeit with varying technical quality.

From New Year’s Day, Ireland’s 100,000 owners of television sets will be liable to pay £4 each for their television licences. Many of them have been watching British television without having paid any licence fee at all for several years and the Department of Posts and Telegraphs anticipates a certain amount of objection from some when it demands the licence fee.

There is no plan at the moment to see that every owner pays up immediately; in fact there certainly will be an informal grace period, during which they will be given time to pay the fee or be prosecuted.

The stronger Irish television signal will not, of course, be interfered with to the same degree as BBC andITV are at the moment, but many electrical appliances could start off the jagged lines which at present rule out British and Northern Ireland transmissions for many Irish viewers.

The Broadcasting Authority Bill, which to some extent supercedes (stet) the old Wireless Telegraphy Acts, provides the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs with powers to compel the owners of electrical appliances to ensure that they do not cause undue interference.

Under the Act, however, he has not so far made the statutary (stet) declaration which would bring it into force.

Six months ago the Minister appointed a committee of experts to study the whole problem of electrical interference and how such interference would affects Irish viewers. Among those on the committee were engineers from his own department and the E.S.B.; representatives of the Institute of Electrical Engineering; the Wireless Dealers’ Association; the Electrical Industries Federation, and Professor E.T.S. Walton, F.T.C.D.

His committee has now made its report to the Minister, who may make the statutory declaration which would make it obligatory to fit suppressors to electrical machinery within the next few days, but this will not be in time to eliminate what most Irish viewers now sorrowfully accept as normal interference.

Meanwhile, Telefis Eireann’s first programme will come on to Irish screens (and on to some screens in north Wales) to-morrow night. The Television Authority will hold a reception in the Gresham Hotel to-morrow night, part of which will form the first outside live broadcast. The programme will begin at 7 p.m., when the President, Mr. De Valera, will inaugurate the service.

The Taoiseach, Mr. Lemass, and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, Mr. Hilliard, will give brief addresses, and the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev. Dr. McQuaid, will officiate at Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The remainder of the programme will include appearances by Siobhan McKenna and Micheal Mac Liammoir reading verse by Pearse and Yeats; Maureen Potter, Jimmy O’Dea and Mary O’Hara; a review of events in Ireland during 1961; greeting the New Year in O’Connell street, and an address in the first hour of the New Year by Cardinal D’Alton, the Primate of All-Ireland.

Second Lieutenant James Mortell, attached to Collins Barracks, Dublin, will be the first person to appear on Irish Television to-morrow night. Lieutenant Mortell, who is 22, and who is a native of Charleville, Co. Cork, will be featured in the opening seconds of the service.

He will be seen leading an Army Colour Party and hoisting the Tricolour at Collins Barracks.

There is not too much to be found, just a few clippings here and there, nothing too fancy. Thank goodness.
I just hope this is not the preparation of one of your eh …outings …hahahahaah

You know…just thinking out loud here…you better not be dining with Cameron this evening, dear CEO hahahaha
ah you cant be too sure these days eh …just teasing…if you hear a buzzing sound might be one of our drones coming over…just by ..accident….
well yeah ..it´s all quite …unusual, but nothing too fancy, I mean..sowhat…you know…who cares..nice to know sure..but…etc

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