The Troubles and the media up Norn.

DMC

A thread which has spawned out of #icdg on IRC...

During the worst of the 70's and 80's, the BBC and UTV were often targets of violence and destruction....

Who can remember what happened on-air at the time? Blackouts? Police messages? Switching to network or going off-air completely?

Down here, I was listening to Derek Davis on Radio 1's 5-7 Live on Monday, where he described when in the 1970's, the nine o'clock news on RTÉ always had an armed army officer stationed outside the studio, in case the IRA or other group wanted to stage a "coup-like" raid on the state media, and take over the airwaves. It was said that one officer shot himself in the foot, literally!

Watty may have some tales too....

watty

Yes...

rlogue

I believe RTÉ have always had an armed Garda or Army person outside whatever studio is used for news bulletins. Terry Wogan's autobiography mentions such an arrangement in use in the early sixties also.

Ulsterman 1690

I remember reading about an incident as far back as 1928 (admittedly well before "the troubles") during an outside broadcast In Cork (admitedly not "up Norn !) when someone "siezed the microphone and attempted to broadcast a message in connection with the IRA".

Following this incident attempts were made "to increace security during outside broadcasts" (Surely it would have been easier and more effective to have someone listening back at the studio with a finger close to the fader )

I reckon security may have been a big factor when the original locations for the Dublin and Cork radio transmitters (at/near Army Barracks) were chosen.

Someone once told me that the site around RTE's Kippure transmitter is fairly heavily fortified (never been up to that particular site so I cant confirm/refute this)

During the early seventies there was a bomb attack on Brougher Mountain which killed some BBC engineers who were preparing the site for UHF although the terrorists claimed to have mistaken them for an army patrol !

Attacks on broadcasting personell/organisations while not unknown were fairly rare (apart perhaps from the easly years of "the troubles") possibly because the terrorists saw the broadcasters as a source of publicity

ADDS: Actually I also remember reading about an attempted UVF attack on an RTE relay site (not sure which one) in Co. Donegal at the end of the 1960's

lawhec

During the early seventies there was a bomb attack on Brougher Mountain which killed some BBC engineers who were preparing the site for UHF although the terrorists claimed to have mistaken them for an army patrol !

From reading about the incident, BBC Engineers for a number of years then refused to go to the site except in emergency cases, partially explaining the late introduction of Colour 625 line TV from the site.

NorthDown

I recall one night in the winter of 1992/93 there was a bomb alert round Havelock House. We were fed Border's continuity who were very gracious in explaining to Norn Iron viewers why they were on the air and not UTV. It was during an evening that this happened.