'My shows made RTÉ €50m. Now I resent paying my licence fee'

Gareth O'Callaghan says RTÉ is an organisation that hasn’t been sustainable for years

Children in Churchfield, Cork, watch Éamon de Valera during the first broadcast of RTÉ on December 31, 1961 

“Now it is you the people who will ultimately determine what the programmes in Teleifís Éireann are to be. If you insist on having presented to you the good and the true and the beautiful, you will get these.”

On New Year’s Eve 1961, staring stoney-faced into a camera, Éamon de Valera spoke these words to an audience mostly new to the concept of television, launching a brand new service back in a time long forgotten.