2RN

Click picture for a larger image

John Behan's sculpture, Na Guthanna, stands in the grounds of RTÉ in Montrose. It was unveiled in 2001 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the inauguration of the Irish national radio service then known as 2RN.

The service started in Little Denmark St. (off Henry St.), coincidentally the street where I bought the parts for my first, and only, crystal set (which never worked).

In 1928 the service moved to the GPO from where it continued to broadcast until its move to the Radio Centre in Montrose in 1973. I have fond memories of the many hours I spent in the small cubicles in the GPO sitting in on some of Brian Reynolds's programmes and of the radio people I met in the corridors.

I was out in the Radio Centre last week which is when I took the photo above. I was recording two small WWI inserts for the History Programme on my uncle John and Richard Brewster, both of whom died on the Somme. I also did a short piece on Edward Ball, who was born in the same house as myself, and who, some years before my own birth, put a hatchet in his mother's head.

I had no idea what the thing was until I got home and checked it out.

Incidentally, the name 2RN ceased to apply to the service from 1933, but I was interested to see that it is now back (in lower case) as the name of the company which provides transmission services to the various RTÉ radio stations and Today FM and also site hosting for mobile telephone operators, the emergency services, wireless broadband and other private mobile communications service providers.