TG4 - History

History

In 1969, Lelia Doolan, Jack Dowling and Bob Quinn published Sit down and Be Counted, a book describing their campaign for a separate Irish-language television service. Bob Quinn is a maverick film director who produced many documentaries and fiction films through the Irish language on limited budgets, including the first Irish-language feature film Poitín starring Niall Tóibín, Cyril Cusack and Donal McCann.

The three writers proposed small temporary buildings for Gaeltacht regional television services broadcasting a limited number of hours each night with programming coming from each of the Gealtacht regions around the country.

RTÉ and the Irish government had sought to improve the availability of Irish-language programming on RTÉ services. In 1972, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta (RnaG) was set up to provide Irish-language radio services across the country. All radio and television services provided by RTÉ provided some Irish-language programming.

In 1980, a new group called Coiste ar son Teilifis Gaeltachta (The Committee for Irish-Language Television) was set up and in 1987 after years of delays, including the sudden death of their technician who was to build the transmitter, they set up the pirate television station Telefís na Gaeltachta. Eighteen hours of live and pre-recorded programming was broadcast between 2 and 5 November 1987. The transmitter was built at a cost of IR£4,000 through donations from local Gaeltacht communities. In December 1988, further broadcasts were transmitted from three different sites, broadcasting pre-recorded programming.

In 1988, as part of RTÉ's renaming of RTÉ Two to Network 2, they provided some Irish-language children's programming on The Den such as Boilí and Echo Island, with a current affairs programme Cursaí airing each night at 19:00. During the 1990s, RTÉ suggested the use of RTÉ Two's prime-time schedule for Irish-language programming. The movement for a national Irish-language television service was gaining momentum. However, this amounted to only 5% of the total programming broadcast by RTÉ, and was reduced significantly during the summer months.

In 1989, Ciarán Ó Feinneadha, one of the members of Coiste ar son Teilifís Gealtachta, moved to Dublin and set up a similar organisation in the capital called Feachtas Naisiunta Teilifíse (FTN). FTN outlined their demands:

• A television station to be set up in the Gaeltacht regions serving the Gaeltacht and Irish speakers across the country.
• It should be linked to RTÉ, but independent from both editorial and organisational points of view.
• A special authority set up to run it with representatives from RTÉ, the Department of Communications, and Údarás na Gaeltachta.

It was also suggested that the cap on advertising on RTÉ be removed and the additional funds be designated for the new services. Ray Burke had limited the advertising minutes on RTÉ a few years previously. Hence, there would be no cost to the Exchequer, and funding would also come from the National Lottery and the television Licence.

FTN suggested two hours of programming each day with the rest of the broadcast hours to be used for Open University type programming.