On This Week: Irish moments from history (2nd - 8th March)
Welcome to On This Week, where we delve into the standout stories from the years gone by, featuring standout news stories, major sporting events, and pop culture highlights that helped shape Irish life. Here's your dose of Irish history from 2nd-8th March .
This week in Irish news
1962: De Valera returns to Kilmainham Gaol
On this week in 1962, then-president Éamon de Valera visited the partially restored Kilmainham Gaol and returned to the cell where he had been interred following the Easter Rising in 1916. At the time the cell, as with much of the prison, was in a state of disrepair. "DE VALERA" is etched into the cell door.
Éamon de Valera also met members of the Kilmainham Gaol Restoration Committee and visited the spot where the leaders of the 1916 rising were executed. This footage was broadcast as part of the programme Broadsheet on 6 March 1962.
1971: Singles mingle at the Dublin Bachelors' Club
Options were limited for anyone wanting to date casually in Ireland back in the early 1970s. Which was where the Dublin Bachelors' Club came in, as this 1971 TV report reveals.
The Dublin Bachelor's Club offered a space for single people to meet and have fun without the pressure of long term commitment. Chairman of the Dublin Bachelor's Club Wally Doyle tried to place an advertisement in The Irish Times and The Irish Independent.
Wanted two beautiful, articulate intelligent young ladies, wanted to escort two handsome bachelors to a dinner dance on Saturday; view definitely not matrimony.
Both newspaper editors papers refused to run the advertisement, insinuating the Bachelor's Club was a covert brothel and a prostitute club. But as the report explained, the Bachelor’s Club was neither a brothel, nor a lonely hearts club. Wally Doyle describes it as "a society or an organisation which will enable uncommitted people to meet without any commitment." One of the few rules of the Dublin Bachelor’s Club concerned dating. If a man dated the same woman more than three times he was fined. If a member decided to date long term, they had to opt out of the Bachelors' Club entirely. Wally Doyle claimed there are 200 members enrolled in the Club - do you know any of them?
This episode of Newsbeat was broadcast on 3 March 1971. The reporter was Michael Ryan.
1981: Kids learn the rules of the road at the Clontarf Traffic School
If you were a child in Dublin in the 1970s and 1980s, chances are you got to pedal around tbe minature roads of the Clontarf Traffic School. On March 7th 1981, Anything Goes paid a visit to the traffic school, where children hopped onto bikes or (best of all) into pedal cars and learned how to obey the rules of the road.
Garda Pat had been teaching at the school since 1977. He believed the school's benefit is reflected in the accident figures. Since the school opened in 1972, the figures have dropped each year for road deaths and for those injured on the road. "We like to think that we contribute in some way to the saving of lives out on the road."
1985: TDs turn fashion models
On March 7th 1985, members of the Oireachtas modeled some of the 'Enterprise Collection' from the Kilkenny Shops Spring Summer Collection. A group of the Dáil’s female TDs swapped their seats for the catwalk on the plinth of Leinster House to raise money for St Michael’s House.
An Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald joked for the cameras with Alice Glenn, Nora Owen, Mary O’Rourke, Monica Barnes, Myra Barry, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Mary Harney and Tras Honan.
This week in arts and entertainment
1978: A Tribute to Micheál Mac Liammoir
The legendary actor, designer and writer Micheál Mac Liammóir, who co-founded Dublin's Gate Theatre, died on 6 March 1978. The following day, his friend and colleague Christopher Casson payed tribute to a legend of Irish theatre.
Casson was known for his role as a Church of Ireland canon in the long running RTÉ drama The Riordans. In 1938, he joined Micheál Mac Liammóir and Hilton Edwards at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. Micheál Mac Liammóir was the best man at his wedding to Kay O'Connell in 1941. This episode of PM was broadcast on 7 March 1978. The reporter was Doireann Ní Bhriain.
1981: Graham Norton defends the disco
He's now an internationally celebrated chat show host, but on March 2nd 1981 Graham Norton was 17 and speaking out in defence of discos on the RTE show Youngline.
After a fellow audience member expressed their outrage about teenagers going to discos, Norton spoke up. "Everybody seems to be making a really big deal about discos," he said. 'What's the big deal? It's just an auld dance!"
1983: Slane's rocking future
Major outdoor rock concerts were not the norm in Ireland in the early 1980s, but that all changed when Lord Henry Mountcharles opened the grounds of his family home, Slane Castle in Meath. Thin Lizzy were the first to take to the Slane stage in 1981, followed by the Rolling Stones in 1982.
On March 2nd 1983, reporter Carolyn Fisher went to Slane for Ireland's Eye and talked to both Lord Henry and the local residents about the castle's new role as a major rock venue and the concerts' effect on the people who live nearby.
This week in sport
1979: Tributes to a hurling legend
Cork hurling legend Christy Ring died on March 2nd 1979, and on March 5th Donncha Ó Dúlaing paid tribute in a special broadcast.
Ó Dúlaing quoted from 'A Song for Christy Ring' by Bryan MacMahon.
How oft I've watched him from the hill, move here and there in grace,
In Cork, Killarney, Thurles town, or by the Shannon's race.
'Now Cork is bet, the hay is saved!' the thousands wildly sing.
They speak too soon, my sweet garsún, for here comes Christy Ring.
Christy Ring was born on 30 October 1920 and died on 2 March 1979.
1995: British soldiers play Gaelic Football
In 1995 it looked as though Rule 21, which banned members of the British security services from joining the GAA, might soon be abolished. In anticipation of this change, British soldiers from the Third Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment and the First Battalion of the Staffordshire Regiment played Gaelic football on the pitch at Ballykinlar in County Down on March 5th, 1995.
Derry supporters arriving for the Kildare national football league match in Newbridge give their reaction to the historic match. Some fans think lifting the ban could benefit the game and one Derry fan added, "I have no qualms about them playing, I'd like to be playing against them personally." Rule 21 would not be officially lifted until 2001.
What was Number 1 in Ireland this week?
1996: 'How Deep is Your Love' by Take That
The ultimate boy band released their first single as a foursome thirty years ago, following rthe departure of Robbie Williams.
The song stayed at the top of the charts for three weeks.
1991: 'Do the Bartman' by Bart Simpson
Unofficially co-written by Michael Jackson, this song was performed by Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart in The Simpsons, with contributing vocals from Dan Castellaneta, who plays Homer. It was the lead single from the 1990 album The Simpsons Sing the Blues, performed by various members of the cast.
It remained at number one for an incredible nine weeks.
2006: 'Jumbo Breakfast Roll' by Pat Shortt
Half of comedy duo D'Unbelieveables had a massicve hit twenty years ago with this novelty ode to an iconic Irish breakfast treat, which remained at number one for six whole weeks in February and March 2006.
The song was the bestselling single in Ireland in 2006, outselling the second biggest song, Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie', by 500 copies.
Famous Irish names celebrating birthdays this week
Ronan Keating
The former Boyzone member turns 49 on March 3rd
Ron Delany
The legendary athlete turns 91 on March 6th
