The museum recently took delivery of a classic telephone familiar to domestic and phone users in Ireland during the 1980s.
In 1982, the government’s department of Post & Telegraphs, launched the first push button telephone for the Irish domestic market. The “Shannon” phone came in four colours and was manufactured by Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications corporation based in Athlone.
Previously, domestic and business phones provided by the state telephony service were based on the 'rotary dial' and were primarily made by Northern Telecom (NT) in Galway city.
Getting a phone installed in one’s home in the 1970s or early 1980s was not easy- the state’s department responsible for the provision of telephones in 1982 had a waiting list of over 80,000 new subscribers which it was expected would not be cleared until the following year.
As well as the push button, the Shannon had features that would have been new to most Irish domestic telephone users at the time including a plug that could easily connect/disconnect the phone to/from a wall socket, and an electronic ‘tone’ ring rather than the ‘bell’ ring of the traditional rotary phone.
Interestingly the government also announced at the launch that they would be providing by January 1983 new style NT rotary phones that would have with a dial built into the handset.
The 'Shannon' telephone can be viewed any Saturday between 2pm and 4pm when the museum is open to the general public.
