In April, Raidió na Gaeltachta will be 40 years on air and it will mark this milestone anniversary with a series of special programmes and events.
The national Irish-language station came on air for the first time at 3pm on Easter Sunday 1972, becoming the second legal radio station in the State.
It was established as a result of a campaign by the Gaeltacht Civil Rights Movement, which had set up pirate radio station Saor Raidió Chonamara in 1970, resulting in a Government announcement later that year creating Raidió na Gaeltachta.
The service started with seven broadcasters, and initially broadcast for two hours a day to Gaeltacht areas. Today RnaG is broadcasting 24/7 nationally and across the world via satellite and online. It is also an essential link between Gaeltacht communities, and intrinsic to the health of the Irish language.
The 40-year anniversary will be marked in several ways over the coming months. On April 2 Seán Bán Breathnach will present a special programme with five of the original seven broadcasters in studio to talk about the establishment of RnaG and the early years.
On Easter Sunday the station will have live programming and music from An Cheathrú Rua – the place from which Ó Riada’s Mass was broadcast on the first day of broadcasting in 1972. There will also be several live concerts over the coming months, and Uachtaráin na hÉireann Michael D Higgins will visit the station HQ in May.
