{"id":2760,"date":"2016-06-16T08:52:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T08:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=2760"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:13:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:13:37","slug":"rural-electrification-scheme-help-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/rural-electrification-scheme-help-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"RURAL ELECTRIFICATION SCHEME: HELP NEEDED!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the commencement of the ESB’s Rural\u00a0Electrification Scheme. We would like to gather as many first hand accounts\u00a0of this project as we can. It was an enterprise that brought Ireland out of\u00a0darkness and liberated a rural population from much of the drudgery that\u00a0existed prior to its arrival<\/div>\n
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In November of 1946 the first pole in ESB’s Rural Electrification Scheme was\u00a0erected in a field in Kilsallaghan, near Oldtown, County Dublin. It would\u00a0take over two months before the connections were in place for throwing the\u00a0first switch. That date was 15th January 1947, a cold, windy evening with\u00a0patches of snow lying in the fields. The body of the small village hall was\u00a0packed with local people, while up on the stage sat a group of leading\u00a0citizens, the parish priest and senior ESB offcials. The occasion was the\u00a0switching on for the first time of electricity under the new Rural\u00a0Electrification Scheme. There was, however, a snag of which the audience was\u00a0unaware. Severe winter storms had caused a last-minute fault in the supply\u00a0line and even now, as the speeches commenced, a line crew was working\u00a0frantically in the pitch darkness over a mile away to put things right.\u00a0At the back of the stage was mounted a large switch, which, when operated,
\nshould illuminate the hall and village with the new light. The hands of the\u00a0clock now showed eight, the scheduled time for the “switch on”. As the\u00a0Engineer-in-Charge, W.F. Roe, commenced his speech he kept one eye on a\u00a0small table at the side. There sat a gramophone turntable, connected to the\u00a0still inanimate supply line. Anxiety sharpened as talk time was running out.\u00a0Suddenly and unobtrusively the turntable started to rotate; the pick-up\u00a0dropped onto the record, and legend has it that a very relieved Bill Roe\u00a0concluded his speech to the strains of “Cockles and Mussels, Alive, Alive –\u00a0O!”<\/div>\n
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A blessing was invoked. The switch was thrown. The hall burst into light and\u00a0Oldtown passed into the history books as the first village in Ireland to be\u00a0electrified under the Rural Electrification Scheme.\u00a0‘Then there was light’ will be a unique collection of stories by people\u00a0recalling their memories and experiences of the Rural Electrification\u00a0scheme which was rolled out in the late 1940’s across Ireland.We want to gather as many first hand accounts of this revolutionary project\u00a0as possible before it is too late. We plan to do so by appealing for\u00a0memories of the time. All recollections will be recorded for future\u00a0historical and social research at the ESB’s archives and a selection of them\u00a0will be published in book form to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the\u00a0event.The stories will provide a valuable snapshot of the time Ireland left the\u00a0dark ages by allowing power and light into the midst of even the most remote\u00a0communities.<\/p>\n

The stories for the collection will provide a frank insight into the\u00a0suspicions, worries and welcome the ESB’s light brigade faced as they began\u00a0work on one of the most important undertakings in recent Irish history.\u00a0The stories will encapsulate and preserve the approach of a previous\u00a0generation as it came to terms with the prospect of a rapidly changing rural\u00a0landscape.<\/p>\n

The book collection will be edited by PJ Cunningham and Dr Joe Kearney.<\/p>\n

We would love an opportunity to discuss our appeal for contributors via your\u00a0societies and would be delighted to call and discuss the project if you\u00a0would like.<\/p>\n

Joe Kearney<\/p>\n

087 2633041<\/p>\n

PJ Cunningham<\/p>\n

086 8217631<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the commencement of the ESB’s Rural\u00a0Electrification Scheme. We would like to gather as many first hand accounts\u00a0of this project as we can. It was an enterprise that brought Ireland out of\u00a0darkness and liberated a rural population from much of the drudgery that\u00a0existed prior to its arrival In November […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industrial-heritage"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8088,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions\/8088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}