RTÉ back to the GPO?

RoTelly

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2024/10/15/proposal-to-relocate-rte-in-gpo-considered-by-dublin-taskforce/

Irony here that the taskforce was headed by David McRedmond former CEO of TV3 and current CEO of An Post. The irony that he moved out of the GPO over to the point's Exo building a few year ago, because he just didn't like the GPO and it needed maintenance (you'd wonder who'd maintain the GPO?). I never though I'd say this but I hope RTÉ move to the GPO and Dave gets to be the DG in 2028!

L1011

City centre studios for news/current affairs/talk shows wouldn't be a bad option; but you won't fit the full broadcaster in there.

JVince

A better option would be a museum of "Greats" and celebrate Irish people and Irish inventions from history in a Smithsonian style.

Everything from the invention of Milk of Magnesia and Whiskey to Spud Murphy's Cheese and Onion, the writings of James Joyce & Oscar Wilde and the aircraft ejection seat.

A floor could also be devoted to "Greats" who emigrated and their achievements.

The only stipulation is that the person was born on the island and the achievement was international / world stage.

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720849#Comment_122720849

That probably part of the plan. The 2,500 employees/contractors are by far their main cost, not the handful of highly paid talent.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720849#Comment_122720849

Another Idea would be to split RTÉ News and Current Affairs from RTÉ and place it in the GPO as the national news and current affair public service media organisation (NNCAPSM), allowing it to provide news to RTÉ and TG4. (Obvs you'd split up RTÉ between Radio and TV :) )

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720884#Comment_122720884

The EPIC museum already covers all the Irish inventions and the GPO already has a museum so it could get confusing having a Rising and a "greats" museum.

Both are very good too.

yagan

I don't see any irony in it, national broadcasting in Ireland did start out of the GPO.

I can see a lot of angst though from the RTE lifers having to cross the Liffey. I bet there'll be loads of complaints about nausea and vertigo.

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058374415/rte-back-to-the-gpo

The GPO is an important historic building in the centre of Dublin that is currently used for damn all. So something should go in there.

However, whatever does go in there should be accessible to the public and to boost tourism - wtf else would you do with an important historic building in the very centre point of the city - not sure RTE is that.

On your point regarding David McRedmond - I honestly had never heard of the guy until you brought him up there - however, if you ask UPS or Amazon or DPD - well where do you want as your central hub, for an entity that requires access to commerce, to shipping, the cargo flights, for people and vehicles to get in and out of easily - they sure wouldnt be picking a city centre street with limited access.

I doubt it was simply the case that they moved 'because he just didnt like the GPO'.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720906#Comment_122720906

That wasn't the bit of An Post that was moved. That has been on the Naas Road for decades, having left the area around Connolly before that.

The counter office is also still in the GPO. What moved was the HQ staff.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720897#Comment_122720897

I still can't believe that's what they called that museum.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720919#Comment_122720919

He seemed to make an issue of An Post in the GPO on the move, more than the HQ TBH. You'd wonder if he was itching to move TV3 out of Ballymount over the years he was there. IMO he's still part of the problem, I am not sure why he was given the role to lead this group considering he and An Post seemed unable to improve the street or the building they are in.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720884#Comment_122720884

You should set up a separate thread about this fascinating subject, my vote is for fergusons 3 point link still used today!

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720919#Comment_122720919

Shows how much I know :-)

Tombo2001

What could work really well - is some equivalent to the Irish Country Life museum in Castlebar - thats a brilliant museum.

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720901#Comment_122720901

Yeah - you could get on the Luas in Ranelagh though, and literally just have to walk across the road, thats like 30 or 40 yards on the northside and not ever have to go to Parnell Street. I'm sure that would be manageable.

RoTelly

https://www.thejournal.ie/an-post-new-office-gpo-david-mc-redmond-6111981-Jul2023/

The postal service has now moved from its historical home of the GPO on O’Connell Street to a new, modern office building overlooking the city’s port and quays.

The GPO will continue to operate as a post office and museum. 

And McRedmond on the move

“It is a milestone. An Post had been in the GPO forever,” he said. “So it was a big decision, it was a brave decision. It was made easier by the fact that the offices in the GPO were very old and falling apart, so it was great to make the move.”

The location of the building, at the heart of Dublin’s finance and technology district, is also appropriate, he said. 

“We’re down here by the port, and by the port we’re in the middle of e-commerce, we’re looking at e-commerce and that’s where our future business is. That’s where An Post is now, we distribute e-commerce to the nation. 

“So it makes sense to be here.” 

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720897#Comment_122720897

EPIC is an emigration museum and very much aimed at tourists. Good but quite boring.

If you have ever been in the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC, you'd get the idea.

yagan

Dublin's finance and technology district?

Drug dealer crypto and battery powered angle grinders more like.

Sigma101

As it's a significant building and of historic importance, I think it's essential that the ordinary person on the street can freely access it and interact with it, going about their daily business.

I've just had an idea: how about using it as a post office?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122721047#Comment_122721047

The public post office counter is a tiny fraction of the overall space (as is the museum). There's multiple floors of 1920s offices upstairs, now vacant.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720983#Comment_122720983

Well it covers all the type of stuff you listed like " Milk of Magnesia and Whiskey to Spud Murphy's Cheese and Onion, the writings of James Joyce & Oscar Wilde and the aircraft ejection seat"

By Smithsonian I assume you mean the Air & Space museum which wouldn't be much good in an Irish context be we don't have loads of airplanes and spaceships that we invented (yes I know about the submarine).

I wonder how much of the GPO is actually available for RTE to use. Can't really see the purpose of moving bits of RTE just as a reason to use the GPO.

yagan

How about a cage fighting arena in it? It would give the local scotes somewhere to focus their energies.

icdg

The way the report is written it is like it is proposal that was considered but rejected. But the remainder of the article doesn’t make that clear and implies it might have been in the reports gone to Government.

Either way I don’t see that the RTE of today could be potentially accommodated there. When they were there before they were just running one radio station, a much smaller undertaking than now.

whisky_galore

Bizarre proposal. It's a big building but far too poky for RTE kit and caboodle to relocate to.

If we were serious about heritage here, usually lots of "talk" about it, very little action, they'd have purchased the adjacent buildings and make a full on Rising/WOI/Civil War museum out of it. Many countries seriously interested in their past have at least one flagship museum about their growing pains of independence.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122721644#Comment_122721644

At best I'd say it will just be one studio, maybe even a walk in option for Joe Duffy contributors.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720884#Comment_122720884

You forgot Sudocrem!

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122721673#Comment_122721673

Famously no longer manufactured here.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122721059#Comment_122721059

Smithsonian operate many museums & galleries in DC. I spent 4 days walking them and still probably only saw 20% - back there next Sept.

https://www.si.edu/visit/hours

For kids the options are utterly amazing https://www.si.edu/visit/kids

Its that type of family oriented learning and history experience that would suit such a location and in tandem with the National history museum and EPIC

Tabnabs

We could replace the Spire with the RTE mast, look lovely at Christmas!

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122722089#Comment_122722089

Stick Ryan Tubridy in an elf costume on the tip of it. Prizes for knocking him off.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122722056#Comment_122722056

But we already have all those museums (except the Black and Indian ones which would make no sense here)

You said one documenting greats of invention from Ireland. We have one and a very good one at that.

It's a pity the option wasn't available for the recently completed MoLI.

RoTelly

It could be the national telecommunications museum, highlight the history of the GPO, it could also have a modern working recording studio.

taratee

My husband worked for An Post in the GPO. They (GPO HQ) moved to the EXO building beside the 3Arena. The GPO was an absolute disaster. The offices were not fit for purpose, i.e. desks falling apart, electrical hazards etc and they were plagued by drug addicts, petty thieves etc also. Said that the whole building would need to be gutted before any organisation could even think about moving in there.

Goldengirl

.…

icdg

Can I please ask that this discussion is now limited to the prospects, or otherwise of RTE, or (even more tenuously) another broadcaster, relocating to the GPO.

The use of the GPO for non broadcasting related activities is off topic for this forum.

thereiver

its a very old building it would cost a fortune to upgrade it to host a large broadcasting organisation .#

it would be funny if they went back there eg all presenters must wear 70s style clothes just to be historically accurate . 2fm is now called radio 2 on the wireless .

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122723599#Comment_122723599

Was did Radio Broadcast from there? They would also have to bring back smoking into the studios for this plan to work.

icdg

They fully left in 1976, but the Radio Centre in Montrose was open from 1971. (Television was in Montrose from more or less the beginning)

RoTelly

Radio 2 / 2fm began broadcasting in 1979

https://www.thesun.ie/news/14010353/new-smaller-rte-hq-2fm-dj-gpo-proposal-montrose/

ebbsy

I think what they are suggesting is that putting RTE in the GPO could help regenerate the city, and get rid of all the scum,drug sellers and beggars.

Yeah right.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122725785#Comment_122725785

Similar approach to opening TV city in the old Salford docks, still rough as F.

ebbsy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122725868#Comment_122725868

True

thereiver

Every city has drug sellers or beggars where rte goes will probably just mean more traffic in that area. And more customers for local shops or cafes

I see no reason to move rte to the gpo unless they intend to sell off some of the land they own in donnybrook

If they want to regenerate the city step one hire more gardai. Step 2 Convert old offices into apartments

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122726694#Comment_122726694

RTE could reemploy Paddy O'Gorman, he has a good way with the indigenous city centre inhabitants.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2008450/episodes/10839523-the-criminal-courts-in-dublin-city-centre

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720934#Comment_122720934

You want it all but you can't have it.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122720959#Comment_122720959

Off topic but there's a similar museum in Johnstown Castle in Wexford which is very good. I never knew that people used to bring their hens into the kitchen in winter to keep them laying!

On topic - the GPO was used by Radio Eireann / RTE Radio for decades until the 1970s. It was long regarded as a profoundly unsuitable location for studios, a badly laid out building with lots of external noise, and now it has electrical noise from the Luas. It's a daft suggestion to be honest.

Was the RTE Station "Millennium Radio" not located in/near the GPO ?

Charles Slane

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122975239#Comment_122975239

Yes, it was in the GPO Arcade.