Kettle's Boyled: All fur coat and no funds in Donnybrook
Gibraltar TV was founded in 1962, just a year after RTÉ TV opened
I once knew a lovely lady who came into a few pounds after a lifetime of struggling. She bought a nice car and a fur coat, despite her not being able to drive. The car was parked in her driveway, and she would often sit in it, watching the world go by as she snuggled into the comfortable front seat in her warm fur. It was her money, she was fulfilling a lifetime ambition to own a big car and a fur coat, and she was happy. She kept the best side out.
Prior to 1961, an impoverished Ireland relied on picking up BBC and ITV broadcasts from Britain and Northern Ireland. We had a radio station, opened in January 1926 by Douglas Hyde, with a strong emphasis on Irish culture. Such was nationalist fervour in Ireland at that time that one Dail motion proposed erecting a giant aerial in Athlone in the shape of a harp, so that nobody would be under any illusion this was an Irish radio station. We’re good at losing the run of ourselves!
Other places made the transition from rebroadcasting TV signals to setting up their own stations, with varying success. The Isle of Man picks up TV from Northern Ireland, but a proposal to set up their own TV station in 2003 was rejected by the British Broadcasting Commission because of insufficient detail. A local journalist set up a low-cost internet station that remains a popular source for news among the island’s population.
The Channel Islands rely on a service run under contract by ITV, but Gibraltar made the leap to a fully independent TV station, with GBC transmitting to the 23,000 residents. Gibraltar TV was founded in 1962, just a year after RTÉ TV opened. The small subscriber base of just over 7,000 homes made collecting license fees impractical, so it is now paid for from taxes and advertising. It is a limited service though, open from 7.30 p.m to midnight, and it broadcasts local and international news as well as current affairs programmes with a local slant. It doesn’t cost a lot to run, but it matches the available resources.
Ireland has always taken a different view. We wanted to be best in class, whether we could afford it or not, and the current round of cuts won’t affect that. The late NBU secretary, Tom Darby, famously said that when CIE had a financial crisis, they would sack a few cleaners, and the same mind-set prevails in RTÉ. The axe will fall on lower grades and on presenters who are generating revenue, but the amorphous mass of middle managers and the culture of extravagant spending habits will prevail. They will keep the best side out, ploughing on as if they were the BBC, but without BBC levels of funding.
My late friend in her fur coat would have been proud of them.
