ABSTRACT
Listeners in some parts of Ireland were able to hear radio broadcasts from the BBC starting in the early 1920s. But regular broadcasts from an Irish indigenous station didn’t take place until January 1, 1926. Notably, the first broadcast on that station was in Irish; the speaker was Douglas Hyde, cofounder of the Gaelic League, and his topic was the importance of Irish? Or Gaelige (Gaelic)? https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203730096/0c6ee87b-a144-42c2-be68-b75476c48f1a/content/fig7_1.jpg"/> 107preserving the Irish language. When the first Irish television program was broadcast 36 years later, part of that broadcast also was in Irish. The respect paid to the Irish language on these two important days in Irish media history illustrates another key theme that developed from background reading and fieldwork research, which is reverence for the ancient tongue.
