Jacob's Award

For the American football award, see Jacobs Blocking Trophy.
Jacob's Award

Jacob's Television Award
Awarded for Outstanding contributions to Irish TV and radio
Country Republic of Ireland Ireland
Presented by National newspaper TV and radio critics
First awarded 1962
Last awarded 1993

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 Fionnula 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.

History

Telefís Éireann was launched as Ireland's first indigenous television station on 31 December 1961. Three months later, it was announced by W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd. that they intended to sponsor an award for outstanding contributions to the new medium.[1]

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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5]

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.

Awards ceremony

In the 30 years of its existence, compères of the annual Jacob's Awards event included Hilton Edwards and Frank Hall. Winners were presented with their awards by a senior member of the Irish Government, sometimes the Taoiseach of the day.

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.[6]

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.[7] 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.

Frankie Byrne

From the inception of the Jacob's Awards, each of the annual presentation events was organised and promoted by public relations consultant and radio presenter Frankie Byrne. However, according to former Jacob's chairman, Gordon Lambert, Ms. Byrne actually started the awards in 1962 and her role in their eventual longevity seems to have been crucial. This is borne out by the fact that no further awards ceremonies took place following Frankie Byrne's death in December 1993.[8]

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." [9]

Controversy

The 1970 awards were attended by some controversy. Eoghan Harris refused to accept an award for his production of the Irish-language current affairs programme, Féach. In a statement issued on the day of the awards ceremony, Harris criticised RTÉ for its involvement with commercial sponsorship.[10] However, five years later his attitude changed and he accepted a second award for a special report on 7 Days.

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".[10]

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 for Labour, Bertie Ahern.[11]

Winners - multiple awards

Six

Four

Three

Two

Winners - full details

1960s

1962

Television

1963

Television

1964

Television

1965

Television

1966

Television

Golden Trophy

1967

Television

1968

Television

1969

Radio

Television

1970s

1970

Radio

Television

1971

Radio

Television

Golden Trophy

1972

Radio

Television

1973

Radio

Television

1974

Radio

Television

1975

Radio

Television

1976

Radio

Television

Golden Trophy

1977

Radio

Television

1978

Radio

Television

1979

Radio

Television

1980s

1980

Radio

Television

1981

Radio

Television

Golden Trophy

1982

Radio

Television

1983

Radio

Television

1984

Radio

Television

1985

Radio

Television

1986

Radio

Television

1987

no awards listed[34]

1988

Radio

Television

1989

Radio

Television

1990s

1990

Radio

Television

1991

Radio

Television

list incomplete (see Talk Page)

1992

Radio

Television

1993

Radio

Television

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Irish Times, "Firm to sponsor TV awards", 7 March 1962
  2. 1 2 The Irish Times, "BBC wins award for Hancock series in first T.E. critic's selection", 5 December 1962
  3. ↑ The Irish Times, "Jacob's Television Awards", 12 October 1965
  4. 1 2 The Irish Times, "Television awards presented", 8 December 1966
  5. 1 2 The Irish Times, "Kee wins award for TV history of Ireland", 11 April 1981
  6. 1 2 The Irish Times, "Jacob's prize producer leaving for Australia", 23 February 1985
  7. 1 2 The Irish Times, "Higgins warns of threat to service", 15 November 1993
  8. ↑ The Irish Times, "Frankie Byrne dies after long battle with illness", 13 December 1993
  9. ↑ Irish Independent, "Frankie: we did it her way", 21 December 1998
  10. 1 2 3 The Irish Times, "Controversy is indication of RTÉ's success, says minister", 11 December 1970
  11. ↑ The Irish Times, "Lenihan pulls out of Jacobs show", 4 October 1990
  12. ↑ The Irish Times, "Presentation of television awards and citations", 4 December 1963
  13. ↑ The Irish Times, "Television awards presented", 2 December 1964
  14. ↑ The Irish Times, "Television awards presented", 9 December 1965
  15. ↑ Gaeilgeoir whose media career spanned four eventful decades Irish Times, 2011-07-23.
  16. ↑ The Irish Times, "RTÉ advised to fight defeatism", 7 December 1967
  17. ↑ The Irish Times, "Presentation of Jacob's TV awards", 12 December 1968
  18. ↑ The Irish Times, "Awards for radio and TV presented", 11 December 1969
  19. ↑ The Irish Times, "Radio and TV awards presented", 31 January 1972
  20. ↑ The Irish Times, "Jacob's Awards presented", 22 January 1973
  21. ↑ The Irish Times, "Radio awards presented by O'Brien", 25 February 1974
  22. ↑ The Irish Times, "Jacob award marks return of Peggy Dell", 24 February 1975
  23. ↑ The Irish Times, "Taoiseach presents radio, television awards", 1 March 1976
  24. ↑ The Irish Times, "Critics honour 'Olives' and 'Riordans'", 16 May 1977
  25. ↑ The Irish Times, "Decision to drop 'Spike' was correct, says Lynch", 13 March 1978
  26. ↑ The Irish Times, "Jacobs present awards", 31 March 1979
  27. ↑ The Irish Times, "RTÉ asked to portray N.I. culture", 12 April 1980
  28. ↑ The Irish Times, "Gay Byrne wins award", 3 April 1982
  29. ↑ The Irish Times, "Nealon pledges local radio", 26 March 1983
  30. ↑ The Irish Times, "Derek Davis among 11 RTÉ award winners", 7 March 1984
  31. ↑ The Irish Times, "Taoiseach presents Jacob's Awards", 10 April 1986
  32. ↑ Caldwell, June (14 May 2008). "'She gave a voice to Irish women'". The Guardian. Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
  33. ↑ The Irish Times, "TV and radio awards presented", 6 June 1987
  34. ↑ The Jacob's Awards were subject to erratic scheduling, and there were no awards made between June 1987 and October 1988. The 1987 awards ceremony is deemed to relate primarily to 1986 and, as the subsequent presentation covered programmes broadcast in 1988, no awards are listed for 1987.
  35. ↑ The Irish Times, "Jacob's Award for McAnally", 17 October 1988
  36. ↑ The Irish Times, "'Worlds Apart' may not continue", 16 October 1989
  37. ↑ The Irish Times, "Jacob's awards presented", 15 October 1990
  38. ↑ The Irish Times, "6 out of 7 can't be bad", 11 November 1991
  39. ↑ The Irish Times, "Household Games", 12 November 1991
  40. ↑ The Irish Times, "Duignan named as new press secretary", 18 February 1992
  41. ↑ The Irish Times, "Winners of radio and TV awards", 16 November 1992
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