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Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-2715833X

Abstract

When 2RN began broadcasting from its studios on Henry Street in Dublin on 1 January 1926, it became the first radio station in the Free State. However, it was very far from being the start of radio on the island of Ireland, as there was already a community of amateur operators and engineers conducting technical experiments. This article explores the radio landscape in Ireland which 2RN joined and transformed. The early enthusiasts often not very concerned with programming or with most of radio’s possibilities as a form of entertainment, but did have a very international perspective on the medium’s possibilities. The article investigates the ways in which 2RN’s arrival revealed tensions between the early enthusiasts’ technologically-driven internationalism and the nation-building remit of 2RN as the national broadcaster of a newly-independent state. One form these tensions took was the belief in Esperanto as a universal language which would enable radio to bring together transnational audiences, in contrast to the belief that national radio would be an essential platform for Irish as the national language. Through a critical examination of this cultural landscape and public discourse, this article offers a new perspective on the foundations of official Irish broadcasting.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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