CONTINUING lockdown restrictions across Britain have reignited an ongoing campaign to have RTÉ services broadcast in this country.
This week members of the Irish Elderly Advice Network (IEAN) called on the community across Britain to show their support for the campaign by writing to their MP or contacting the organisation to share their views.
IEAN member Jack Lane contacted The Irish Post with a call to action directed at the community.
“The current lockdown to deal with the Covid-19 virus is particularly difficult for us older people who are considered the most vulnerable group in society,” he explained.
“It is adding enormously to the normal isolation and loneliness that affects many of us in this age group.”
He added: “Our campaign is aimed to alleviate these problems in the elderly Irish community in the UK and we are campaigning for one specific purpose that would be of great assistance in doing this – the transmission of all RTÉ services directly to the UK.”
The call for RTÉ to make their programmes available to the diaspora in Britain is one that has been made for a number of years.
For Mr Lane, it is more important to make that happen now than ever.
“It would help make older Irish people feel part of a wider Irish community to which they belong and demonstrate that they have not been forgotten during this pandemic,” he explained.”
“RTÉ TV is delivered via the SKY network in Ireland,” he added, “and it seems to us that it would be only a technical issue to make the service available here via SKY and that all it needs is the political will to have it done.”
Mr Lane has called on the community to bring the issue to the attention of their MP and/or write directly to The Director General, RTÉ, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, or email [email protected]
He would also like to hear your views on why you would like to have RTÉ in Britain, which can be emailed to him on [email protected].
See More: Irish Elderly Advice Netowrk, Lockdown, RTE
