Irish Examiner view: Late Joe Barry oversaw great change at RTÉ

Corkman displayed the ability to move with the times and get the job done

Joe Barry. Picture: RollingNews.ie

The tenure of Cork’s Joe Barry — who died this week — at the head of RTÉ coincided with a remarkable transition for mass media and for the national broadcaster.

Mr Barry, from Dunmanway, worked for RTÉ for 41 years and sat on the RTÉ Authority for another four. When he joined the organisation, radio was the only form of broadcast output from the GPO studios in Dublin. It was not until 1958 that preparations started for the new medium of television, with the establishment of the Television Commission. 

Telefís Éireann took to the air — to accompany Radio Éireann — on New Year’s Eve 1961, with the president, Éamon de Valera, addressing the nation in both Irish and English.

“Never before was there in the hands of men an instrument so powerful to influence the thoughts and actions of the multitude,” he said.

What Dev might have thought of the internet and social media is hard to contemplate.

As director general, Mr Barry oversaw the launch of online services in 1996, telling the public: “We are very conscious of the treasure trove that we have here in RTÉ. Our libraries are packed with extraordinary material. The additional digital activity will, of course, be producing CD roms, etc.”

Changing times

If that reference to CD roms sounds dated now, older readers may remember that they were once considered the cutting edge of technology, with Microsoft producing lavish encyclopaedias, such as Encarta, and other richly illustrated specialist discs. 

The internet has swept all that away. In 1997, its user base was calculated to be 70m, or 1.7% of the world’s population. It is now 5.4bn, or nearly 68%.

No national communications organisation can remain immune from such impact, and it is then in other areas that Joe Barry’s legacy can more easily be found.

Joe Barry oversaw the opening of new RTÉ studios on Father Mathew Quay, in Cork city centre, an important alternative to Dublin-focused media.

President Michael D Higgins, who described Mr Barry as a "distinguished pioneer of public broadcasting in Ireland”, pointed to his stewardship of the establishment of TG4, the creation of the Irish Film Board, and setting up RTÉ radio’s 24-hour service in 1994, an early foray into the always-on news cycle that has become so familiar.

It’s an impressive contribution before mentioning the hosting of the Eurovision song contests in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1997, which gave us Riverdance and massively increased awareness across the Continent of the qualities of modern Ireland. 

With the delayed Future of Media Commission report still unpublished — despite assurances that it will be released before the Dáil departs for the summer, and the importance of that document to RTÉ — it’s difficult not to conclude that if politicians displayed the same assiduousness in getting things done that Joe Barry did in his career, then we would not be experiencing protracted delay in this process.