Martin,
You have made me look back at my own notes, and at David O'Donoghue's book...
O’Donoghue, D. (2014) Hitler’s Irish voices: the story of German radio’s wartime Irish service. 2nd edn. Dromore, Bantry: Somerville Press.
My copy is the second edition of 2014 - with an appreciative Foreword by Joe Lee, Professor J. J. Lee, my colleague at NYU.
I see now that the original 1995 Thesis is freely available on the Dublin City web site...
https://doras.dcu.ie/22710/
https://doras.dcu.ie/22710/1/David_A_O%27Donoghue_20130621114741.pdf
There is much to interest historians of the BBC in David O'Donoghue's thesis and book. For one thing, the BBC Archives - especially the Monitoring reports - are an import ant part of his sources. The Irland-Redaktion broadcasts were monitored by the BBC.
O'Donoghue acknowledges the help of friends and colleagues within the BBC. Irland-Redaktion broadcast in English and in Irish - and I have a note (I was never able to do this) to find out more about the Irish language experts in the BBC. There is a suggestion that the broadcasts, in English and in Irish, contained coded messages directed towards agents and sympathisers within Ireland.
By the way, Martin, we now have a very good source for Irish government policy in this period, the series, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy
https://www.ria.ie/bookshop/category/documents-irish-foreign-policy-1005/type/publication
https://www.ria.ie/documents-irish-foreign-policy-v-6-1939-1941
https://www.ria.ie/documents-irish-foreign-policy-v-7-1941-1945
https://www.difp.ie/about/
The books become OPEN ACCESS after a gap - usually via JSTOR. You might have to hunt about...
Patrick O'Sullivan
Visiting Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies, London Metropolitan University
-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Briscoe <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2023 3:20 PM
To: 'Patrick O'Sullivan' <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: [BBC-HISTORY] Germany's wartime Irish service
I think I have heard that somewhere else but can't remember where.
Coincidentally I was reading some accounts of various women's work in WWII yesterday. One went to work for the Met Office, they were under strict instructions to not give out forecasts because they were not qualified but of course the pilots would ask them over a cup of tea!
Can't remember where I read it, probably the RSS list or our unofficial RSS list of three or four people. The Germans had weather buoys that transmitted weather data just as happens nowadays. One was washed up on the West coast of Ireland and the RN really wanted to inspect it but the Irish authorities were not being very cooperative. Whilst they were negotiating, a local fisherman got it and took it home to look at!
Martin Briscoe
Fort William
[log in to unmask]
https://sites.google.com/view/edmund-otoole-vc/
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