Witness History
Witness History
How electricity came to rural Ireland
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August 22, 2023
10 minutes
Available for over a year
In May 1948, Canon John Hayes flicked a switch and brought electricity to the parish of Bansha, in Ireland.
The village was the first in County Tipperary to be connected to the grid, under the Rural Electrification Scheme.
The ambitious programme ran from 1946 to 1964 and saw 300,000 homes powered up.
Vicky Farncombe produced this episode of Witness History using archives from Irish electricity board, the ESB.
(Photo: Erecting electricity poles in rural Ireland. Credit: ESB Archives)