At the very top of Teach a Sé lives Ireland’s largest student-run radio station, Trinity FM (TFM). Following their recent AGM the newly elected chair and secretary of the TFM committee and the outgoing chair and secretary sat down with The University Times to chat about all things TFM and their experience with student radio.
When reminiscing on their first experiences with TFM outgoing secretary, Rowena Breen, explains that she got involved with TFM in first year by doing her own radio show. Breen recalls finding out about TFM with her friend Ciara Munnelly and thinking, “this is the perfect place for us to get to speak freely to a very limited audience”. They came up with a show called DU Eejit Soc which over the years has transformed into a scripted comedy show. However Breen explained that the idea originated because, “neither of us are from Dublin and we wanted a radio show where we could talk about rural Irishness because it was like the cornerstone of our friendship”.
Reflecting on the past four years Breen remembers what the pair were like in first year: “we got in trouble a bunch of times for doing things wrong and breaking rules and we were constantly afraid of getting banned off the air for some reason.” Thankfully they didn’t get kicked off air. Instead, DU Eejit Soc finished its four year run this term and they were given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Trinity FM Ball on March 20th. Speaking on their award Breen comments, “It’s nice to see that everything we had been doing for the last three years was not only fun but it was also somewhat meaningful.”
Breen’s time in TFM has made her passionate about student radio as she describes TFM as a “beating heart of campus”. All the TFM shows over the years have been recorded with their back catalogue acting capturing the changing student culture over the years. Breen notes, “it’s quite cool to hear people speak in a way that’s not rehearsed or edited … sometimes it’s about the state of the world or an experience specific to their time and it is quite cool to be part of the 2024-2025 version of that”.
Photo by Aoife Bennett.
At the head of the 2024/25 TFM team is outgoing Chair, Dervla Walsh. Walsh also joined TFM in her first year after seeing their society stall at the Freshers Fair. Walsh remembers how her and her friends were all “very much interested in the podcast space at that stage of time,” which drew them to TFM. After a chat with some of the committee at the Freshers stand and a free Newstalk water bottle Walsh was sucked in and applied for her first show. Walsh comments, “you just get sucked in once you get your first slot and it’s just been a whirlwind ever since!”
As Walsh prepares to hand over the reins she cited the weekly committee meetings as a particularly special part of her time in TFM saying, “it’s just really fun to all pile into a big room and chat and everyone was so congenial … sometimes you look around at the stuff that you’re doing and the way that people are dressed you’re like, ‘this is college man’ and that’s how it felt to do the meetings.”
For anyone considering getting involved in TFM Walsh encourages you to go for it, stating, “we want new people and we want people that are passionate. It’s much less scary than it seems.” This year Walsh did her first solo radio show First Thought, Best Thought named after the album by Arthur Russel. After this experience she also wants to encourage students to not be scared to go for a show by themselves. Walsh explains, “it’s kind of cool to be in there by yourself and be faced with trying to come up with your next couple of words. It’s a very quick learning curve for how to express yourself coherently.”
Incoming Chair, Faye Mellon, had a similar experience doing her first show. Mellon was first attracted to TFM as she was “really shy” when she first came to college. Unlike some other societies that were predominantly social Mellon liked that TFM was working towards a project. Mellon recalls thinking TFM was amazing in first year as she noted, “all I had to do is my job and then I’m like part of this community and it turns out that a community where you have to talk on the radio is a really efficient way to stop being shy, so I stayed here”.
This year Mellon was TFM’s station manager. Reflecting on her time in this role Mellon notes that her highlight of the year was the shows she supervised as part of the TFM committee. Mellon describes the job as an “often underrated part of the TFM experience”. TFM runs 45 shows a week during term time and while each show is on air a member of the committee is in the studio with the show hosts to ensure everything runs smoothly. The shows Mellon was supervising this year were visiting students from the USA who brought their already established radio show’s to Dublin. Mellon explained, “it was amazing to hear about all of their American student radio stations, like in Pitch Perfect, where they have to use cds and they can’t have dead air … it was so nice I’d be supervising and they’d come in asking, “oh can I swear?’ and I got to be like ‘yes you can do anything you want!’”
Finally, incoming secretary, Ciarán Cronin, came to TFM a bit later than his fellow committee members. Cronin first found TFM by coming on his friend’s radio show at the end of his first year. The following year, when he saw show applications open he decided to go for it. Cronin recalls the panic of getting his show application in, when applications used to be done on a first come first see basis. He explains, “I remember stressing. Someone was trying to talk to me and I was like “ No, I need to do this. I need to come up with a name now!”
This year Cronin’s show, The Ciarán Cronin Show, has seen him interview Provost Linda Doyle and most recently Mary McAleese. Cronin, speaking on getting his high profile guests casually says, “actually it’s surprisingly easy, if you send emails to people they will actually respond … Leo Varadkar told me he’d do it when the memoir is out.”
As Cronin gets ready to take up the role of secretary and moves into his final year of college, he meditates on the allure of TFM, “I think it’s a great space for telling stories and communicating with people … when you’re in first and second year and you come up for here for the first time you’re like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on here but I’d like to be a part of it more,’ and now as we’re sitting here I’m like ‘oh actually I am now.’”
