Patricia Monahan Keynote: UCC’s ‘Broadcast to Podcast, 100 years of Irish Radio’ conference

A Century of Sound: 100 Years of Public Broadcasting in Ireland

Firstly, thank you for the opportunity to address such an important event in this, the centenary year of public broadcasting in Ireland.

This year we’re marking one hundred years since the first public broadcast by the nascent Irish state, and one hundred years since that first Irish voice was broadcast to curious ears across this island through the unique medium of radio.

Earlier this month in the GPO – a building that was once both a stage for the journey to independence and a nerve-centre for communications on the island – the first stamp in An Post’s 2026 Stamp Programme was unveiled. Designed around a single antenna radiating a revolutionary signal across the country, it is a simple image. Yet it captures something profound: the idea that broadcasting, at its heart, is about connection, about reaching outward, simultaneously and inclusively, to a nation waiting to hear, and be heard.

In the century that followed 1926, broadcasting and Ireland grew together, if not always in-step, then certainly in tandem.

The image on the An Post stamp takes us back in time to 7.45pm on the evening of 1 January 1926, when 2RN went on-air from Little Denmark Street in Dublin. The Irish Free State was young. Resources were scarce, and institutions were still forming. And yet the decision was made to prioritise broadcasting as an essential element in the formation of a nation. In this shared endeavour of nation-forming and the launch of public broadcasting, Ireland is unique. This was not just about building infrastructure; it was about building a nation.

Public service media took its first form through radio, by necessity. Radio came before television and before digital. It came before social platforms and streaming.

But being first is not why it has endured – plenty of “firsts” have long since vanished. Radio endures to this day because its core simplicities remain  absolutely in tune with human needs 100 years on – radio is easy to access;  it’s immediate, now, of the moment. And most importantly it provides a shared trusted space where this nation can hear itself think.

Radio has always been, at core, a voice carried through the air to everywhere. It requires no literacy, no subscription, or invitation. All you have to do is listen. Radio informs but also entertains. It challenges but also provides companionship.  It creates a shared rhythm for national life and, for us in RTÉ, that remains a key part of our public purpose.

When 2RN moved into the GPO in 1928, the relationship between broadcasting and nation-building became physical as well as symbolic. For nearly fifty years, radio operated from that building, from a place synonymous with communication, hard-won independence and a developing sense of civic life.

As the decades went by, radio evolved alongside the country it served. 2RN became Radio Éireann. Radio Éireann was joined by Teilifís Éireann. And eventually, RTÉ emerged, carrying forward that foundational DNA into all RTÉ does today.

In the latter part of the century, independent radio was born, expanding the network of stations available to audiences across the island to include commercial and community services at both local and national level. Yet even as services multiplied, radio retained its unique role.

On services like RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, radio remains a place where our  language lives and breathes daily. On 2fm, through initiatives such as 2fm Rising for example, it remains a place where contemporary musical heritage continues to evolve. On RTÉ lyric fm, it remains a place where performance and escape are cherished. On RTÉ Radio 1, it remains a space where news and sport, drama and literature, music and culture, are still narrated into collective memory.

Importantly, radio also shows us, every day, that the public is best served by a vibrant, viable audio ecosystem. RTÉ’s radio story is inseparable from the radio story of our partners in the independent and commercial sectors, or our friends in local and community radio, all of whom contribute to the development of modern identity in Ireland, and to our changing culture and increasingly diverse character.

And whether it is RTÉ, or our commercial, local and community partners, radio remains trusted and cherished. It is among Ireland’s most valuable national assets.

As the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport observed recently, when 2RN began broadcasting, the state was still learning how to speak. Radio helped it find a voice that was original, confident and unmistakably its own. That voice belonged to the public, and it still does.

Today, despite significant technological change, radio remains one of the most widely used and trusted media forms in Ireland.  3.5 million people continue to listen daily. They listen in cars and kitchens, on phones and smart speakers, live and on-demand.

Ireland is now also the home of a thriving podcast industry and has one of the highest rates of podcast consumption in Europe. As podcasting emerges alongside radio, the audio landscape adapts once again, but the essence of the form endures.

That endurance is not accidental. It speaks to audio’s particular strengths: intimacy without the necessity of screens; immediacy without interruption to our daily tasks; companionship without a demand on all our senses. If it didn’t exist, only a genius could invent it.

As we mark this centenary year, RTÉ is doing so not only through commemoration, but through looking forward. We recently came live for a full day from the GPO, across RTÉ Radio 1, 2FM, lyric fm and Raidió na Gaeltachta.  We are commissioning new programmes and series to mark the centenary. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra, itself a child of the project of nation-building, will perform this year in remembrance and celebration.

Our conversations about 100 years of public service media will ask not just where we’ve been, but why does radio – and public broadcasting – still matter?

Spoiler alert: I definitely think it still matters. At a time of fragmentation, disinformation and global uncertainty, the principles that underpinned the formation of 2RN in 1926 – universality, independence, trust and public value – are not relics. They are requirements.

The centenary of public broadcasting is itself the story of a nation. It is the story of how Ireland has spoken to itself – sometimes confidently, sometimes contentiously, often creatively – but always in the open.

As we look to the next century, our task is not to preserve radio as it is, but to carry its values forward as it continues to evolve, as the audio revolution gathers pace, and as radio strengthens within a blossoming new ecosystem of sound.

Perhaps radio is the last great, shared public space?

One hundred years ago, a signal was broadcast. It carried music, words, and possibility.

It still does.

Thank you.