A brief stop in Dublin this April 16th in 1960 – further evidence there is always something going on in the world whether you know it or not.
On this particular day Easter was about to make its presence known, and this newscast; a roundup of provincial news, covers the local goings on and international events as they pertain to the people of Ireland in general.
For all the local news, the one item that stands out is a report that two representatives of The Sony Corporation had arrived at Shannon Airport with the sole purpose of setting up a branch in Ireland – bringing with them some 100 jobs for local workers.
Sony was a new name in Ireland at the time, as it was in the rest of the world -Sony’s big claim to fame was the lowly transistor radio, which was to catch the eyes, ears and imaginations of most of the world. Shortly after, Sony televisions arrived on the market and Sony became a universal household name for all things consumer electronics.
But in 1960 they were just starting to show interest in expanding operations to the rest of the world. But rather than create a Photo Op, heaped with much publicity and fanfare, Sony’s arrival in Ireland was low-key, primarily because Sony was a name new to most people throughout the world, but that was going to quickly change.
Even the transistor radio was viewed as a novelty – Postwar Japan was viewed by most consumers (certainly in the U.S.) as a country of “gadgets”. The Transistor radio begged possibilities and so the two newly arrived Sony representatives are interviewed in a rather awkward exchange between the RTÉ reporter and the two representatives who are getting familiar with English but not completely comfortable with it.
There is much other news of local interest during this half-hour broadcast – and hearing what the rest of the world was doing this day in 1960 makes for fascinating listening.
Here is the news from Dublin, April 16, 1960.
