National Anthem on RTE

Our man in Havana

How many different versions of the National anthem were shown on RTÉ televison?
I only know of 2. This one from the 60's in B&W

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYUdR2CiDhk

and this one in colour which I remember well growing up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wygzJtJwPnk

Does anyone know if there were different versions shown?

Onthe3rdDay

I remember a different colour version shown in the early 1980's but I was much younger and not paying too much attention.

During 1966 when they were commemorating the rising they had a special version of the anthem.

http://www.rte.ie/laweb/smil/t06/t06_19660410_7signatories_tv.smil

You'll need realplayer to watch it I believe.

They also showed the football team with the anthem at least once during the 1990 world cup at the end of transmission.

I have a copy of the other colour anthem mentioned. It was previously available on thetvroom.com but there doesn't seem to be any videos on there now, just stills.

cml387

I think Sean O'Riada arranged this version.He was no fan of the tune and added a lot of orchestration and a more nuanced tone (especially around the lines "..sean tir ar sinse fasta") making it a more plaintive and slightly tragic song.

And as a Mullingar native, at 50 seconds in the first film you'll see St. Mary's primary school featured.

Thanks for that Haddockman.

Ger Roe

Speaking of National Anthem closedown procedure....

I was once told a story by a friend who used to do night shift studio tech site support at RTE TV in the early '80's.

He got a call from the studio duty manager at BBC NI late one night asking if RTE was putting out a Cowboy film. Apparently they had lost the studio link to their main Belfast mountain transmission site and the mountain TX had then begun showing a cowboy film.

It seems that their backup at the time, in case of studio link failure, was an off air signal from a mainland TV transmitter in West Scotland. It wasn't a totally reliable system and on this occasion the signal level from Scotland was low, so the Belfast mountain site backup receiver re-scanned and locked onto RTE. Having confirmed that it was the RTE signal that they were seeing, the BBC staff watched it run while they tried to figure out if a late night trip up the mountain was required.

They didn't enquire however, how long the film had left to go and twenty minutes later RTE closed for the night by playing the traditional 'mountain heather and cobwebs' National Anthem footage.

Apparently it wasn't too late at night to avoid some very awkward questions at BBC NI the following morning.

My friend swears it's a true story.....

Hotblack Desiato

I knew I'd read a similar story before :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=76233136&postcount=1835

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=76233389&postcount=1840