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Established | 2003 |
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Location | Howth, Ireland |
Coordinates | 53°23′16″N 6°03′49″W / 53.387668°N 6.063654°W |
Type | communication history |
Curator | Pat Herbert |
Public transit access |
Howth railway station St Laurence Road bus stop ( Dublin Bus route 31) |
Website |
sites |
Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio is a museum of communication history based in the Martello tower in Howth, Dublin. [1]
The tower was built in 1805, one of the many towers built along the Irish coast to guard against a possible Napoleonic invasion, [2] and has long been associated with the history of radio transmission in Ireland and beyond. [3] From 1825, the tower was used by the Preventative Water Guard (now the Irish Coast Guard) in its anti-smuggling work. [1]
The tower was the terminus of the first telegraph line connecting Wales to Ireland in 1852. [2] The first successful wireless radio transmission by Lee de Forest on 23 November 1903 was also conducted from this tower. [3] Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated his technology using a high aerial to communicate with a ship in 1905. [1] From 1922, the tower was used by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, then Telecom Éireann until the 1980s when it was sold to Dublin City Council. [1] It passed to Dublin County Council and then to Fingal County Council, who still own it, as of 2020.
The tower was refurbished in 2001, [1] with the museum opening in 2003. It is based around the collections of former curator Pat Herbert [3] who had been collecting for over 60 years. [4] The name of the museum is an homage to a remark by Taoiseach Seán Lemass, who asked an RTÉ radio controller in the 1950s "How's the hurdy gurdy?". [5]
The exhibition includes artefacts relating to all forms of communication and related Irish historical events, [2] including radios, early televisions, gramophones, and records. [3] The story of curator Pat Herbert and the museum was the subject of a 10-minute award-winning film in 2014, Hurdy Gurdy Man. [4] [6] The museum was operated by Herbert and a team of fellow volunteers up to the COVID-19 pandemic, when, as with all museums in Ireland, it closed. Herbert died in June 2020, and the museum's website was updated by his fellow volunteers. [7]
The Morse code-based amateur radio station, EI0MAR, operates from the museum. [8]
![]() | |
![]() | |
Established | 2003 |
---|---|
Location | Howth, Ireland |
Coordinates | 53°23′16″N 6°03′49″W / 53.387668°N 6.063654°W |
Type | communication history |
Curator | Pat Herbert |
Public transit access |
Howth railway station St Laurence Road bus stop ( Dublin Bus route 31) |
Website |
sites |
Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio is a museum of communication history based in the Martello tower in Howth, Dublin. [1]
The tower was built in 1805, one of the many towers built along the Irish coast to guard against a possible Napoleonic invasion, [2] and has long been associated with the history of radio transmission in Ireland and beyond. [3] From 1825, the tower was used by the Preventative Water Guard (now the Irish Coast Guard) in its anti-smuggling work. [1]
The tower was the terminus of the first telegraph line connecting Wales to Ireland in 1852. [2] The first successful wireless radio transmission by Lee de Forest on 23 November 1903 was also conducted from this tower. [3] Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated his technology using a high aerial to communicate with a ship in 1905. [1] From 1922, the tower was used by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, then Telecom Éireann until the 1980s when it was sold to Dublin City Council. [1] It passed to Dublin County Council and then to Fingal County Council, who still own it, as of 2020.
The tower was refurbished in 2001, [1] with the museum opening in 2003. It is based around the collections of former curator Pat Herbert [3] who had been collecting for over 60 years. [4] The name of the museum is an homage to a remark by Taoiseach Seán Lemass, who asked an RTÉ radio controller in the 1950s "How's the hurdy gurdy?". [5]
The exhibition includes artefacts relating to all forms of communication and related Irish historical events, [2] including radios, early televisions, gramophones, and records. [3] The story of curator Pat Herbert and the museum was the subject of a 10-minute award-winning film in 2014, Hurdy Gurdy Man. [4] [6] The museum was operated by Herbert and a team of fellow volunteers up to the COVID-19 pandemic, when, as with all museums in Ireland, it closed. Herbert died in June 2020, and the museum's website was updated by his fellow volunteers. [7]
The Morse code-based amateur radio station, EI0MAR, operates from the museum. [8]