Irish Examiner view: That’s entertainment ― 60 years of RTÉ television

There is much to celebrate in RTÉ's influence and impact on cultural life

RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, National Library of Ireland director Sandra Collins, and RTÉ presenter Bláthnaid Treacy at the launch of Ireland On The Box, a photographic exhibition running at the National Photographic Archive, Dublin, to mark 60 years of RTÉ television. Picture: Andres Poveda

After RTÉ made its first television broadcast, 60 years ago tomorrow, on New Year’s Eve 1961, the authority chairman, the well-known personality Eamon Andrews, joked that the national symbol of Ireland, Kathleen Ní Houlihan, may in future become known as Cathode Ní Houlihan.

The anecdote is recounted by journalist and commentator Fintan O’Toole in his latest book, We Don’t Know Ourselves, and underlines the centrality and influence of the State broadcaster in the development of the modern Republic.