Green telephones in the shape of Ireland are launched with the American market in mind.

The first of a quarter of a million zany new phones are rolling off the production line at the Giant and Northern Telecom plant.

The telephones are the brainchild of the company's marketing division and the Blarney Woolen Mills Group. The Ireland shaped phones will go on sale in the US in time for a Saint Patrick's Day spending splurge.  

Freda Hayes, Managing Director of the Blarney Group, describes how Americans are much bigger users of phones than the Irish.

Eugene Cranley, President of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) describes the phone as having a "very interesting design" and believes that people will want to call home when they see the phone. 

It's a piece of the old sod they can have.

An RTÉ News report broadcast on 26 January 1990. The reporter is Jim Fahy.