name | Jacob's Award |
---|---|
description | Outstanding contributions to Irish TV and radio |
presenter | National newspaper TV and radio critics |
country | Ireland |
year | 1962 |
year2 | 1993 |
website | }} |
The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients were selected by Ireland's national newspaper television and radio critics. Jacob's Award winners were chosen annually until 1993, when the final awards presentation took place.
Winners of a Jacob's Award include Fionnuala Flanagan (1965), Gabriel Byrne (1979), and Brendan Gleeson (1992). The record for the most awards won is held by Gay Byrne, who was honoured six times between 1963 and 1981.
On 4 December 1962, the first awards ceremony took place at the sponsor's headquarters in Dublin. There were nine winners, chosen by a panel of national newspaper television critics. Each winner received an award designed by the artist, Richard Kingston. This consisted of a silver St. Brigid's Cross mounted on a base of bog oak and Connemara marble.
The Jacob's Awards honoured teams of programme makers as well as individuals. For instance, in 1962, Telefís Éireann's Sports Department won an award for its general coverage during the station's first year of broadcasting. In 1965, a limit of eight annual awards was set, and the critics also decided not to confine themselves to fixed categories in making their selections.
A special "Golden Trophy" was introduced in 1966 to recognise exceptional performance. This was awarded every five years although it was dropped in the mid-1980s.
In 1969, the number of awards was increased to a maximum of thirteen in order to incorporate radio. A separate panel of national newspaper radio critics was formed to choose recipients of the new award, a highly-polished, white metal cylinder designed by Robert Costelloe. This was replaced in 1981 by a trophy comprising a painted canvas mounted on a stainless steel background, designed by Theo McNab.
For most of their history, Jacob's Awards were awarded to programmes broadcast on RTÉ because the national state broadcaster held a monopoly in Ireland. However, in 1989, commercial radio was introduced and RTÉ's monopoly in sound broadcasting was broken. The critics responded by widening the scope of the awards to include the new local stations. RTÉ did not face indigenous competition in television until the advent of TV3 in 1998, by which time the Jacob's Awards had ended.
Due to the "economic circumstances of the sponsoring company", the 1983 and 1984 awards were presented at a single event, which took place on 22 February 1985.
What turned out to be the final awards ceremony took place in Dublin on 11 November 1993. Presenting the awards on that occasion was Michael D. Higgins, then Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. No formal announcement was made by the sponsor subsequently as to the future of the Jacob's Awards so the reason why they were terminated remains a mystery. However, the death of Frankie Byrne shortly after the 1993 event may have been a factor.
Recalling her role five years after her death, television critic Tom O'Dea summed up Frankie Byrne's unique contribution:
"I think it is no skin off anyone's nose to accord her the distinction of giving the awards night the character it had, wheelchairs for the irretrievably drunken, and all."
Also in 1970, guests arriving at the awards ceremony were confronted by a picket of 50 female employees of W. & R. Jacob who were protesting against the cost of the banquet. One picketer carried a placard bearing the legend: "Only room at the inn for the in-people".
In 1990, RTÉ threatened to pull out of its longstanding practice of broadcasting the awards ceremony because of the involvement of Tánaiste, Brian Lenihan. Lenihan had been invited to present the awards in his capacity as Tánaiste and Minister of Defence. However, in the meantime, he was chosen by Fianna Fáil as that party's candidate in the forthcoming Irish presidential election. RTÉ claimed that going ahead with its planned broadcast would give unfair additional publicity to Lenihan, leaving the station in breach of its own guidelines on election coverage. After a brief stand-off, Lenihan agreed to withdraw from the awards ceremony. He was replaced by Minister of Labour, Bertie Ahern.
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