Clodagh Finn: Marie O’Sullivan was 'a real, live celebrity before they were ten a penny’

Trailblazing presenter carved out a path where there was none before

Marie O'Sullivan's legacy goes beyond her star quality. She was one of the first continuity announcers at RTÉ and she was a pioneering speech therapist in the 1950s. Picture: RTÉ Archives.

In December 1961, just three weeks before Telefís Éireann first went on air, it sent its newly appointed continuity announcers on a week-long tour of Ireland to “meet the people”.

There is a wonderful archival clip of the journey through winter-bare rural Ireland, with close-ups of those trailblazing presenters — Kathleen Watkins, Marie O’Sullivan and Nuala Donnelly — waving “like three presidents” from the back seat of a car, before touching down to greet the hordes of people gathered in town and village squares to meet them.