Talk:Jacob’s Awards: Difference between revisions

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The 1991 awards ceremony took place on November 9, 1991 at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, and was hosted by Marian Finucane. Due to extensive coverage of a concurrent leadership crisis in Fianna Fail, the ceremony was not covered in the Irish national press. Consequently, the list of winners of the television award for that year is incomplete. A subsequent article in The Irish Times (January 1, 1992) suggests that the missing names include Hugh Leonard‘s TV play Parnell and the Englishwoman starring Trevor Eve, the documentary series Bringing It All Back Home, and A Song for Europe, a spoof documentary on the Eurovision Song Contest. A later article in the same paper (January 10, 1992) indicates that a total of 15 awards (radio and TV) were made in 1991, 14 of them to men. This would leave six TV award winners to be added to the relevant section of the article page. The most likely source of a definitive list of 1991 TV winners is the edition of the RTÉ Guide published around the second or third week of November.
Jim Bruce 18:18, 8 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why did the Jacob’s Awards end in 1993? What if anything replaced them? Snappy (talk) 03:31, 30 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There does not seem to have been any clear decision to end the awards. They simply never took place again after the 1993 awards were made. This probably relates to the death of Frankie Byrne in 1993. She had been very involved in organising and promoting the Jacob’s Awards and perhaps the sponsors lost interest when she was no longer around. I suppose the Irish Film and Television Awards are the present-day equivalent. Jim Bruce (talk) 08:20, 30 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think this should be mentioned in the article. I mean it was a major national award, it does seem odd that it suddenly ended after over 30 years for no clear reason. So Frankie Byrne died in 1993, how come there was no one to take her place? There needs to be more context in the article for the rather sudden end of the awards. Snappy (talk) 13:09, 30 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the sudden and unexplained end to the awards is odd. What I wrote in my last reply is purely speculation. I have been unable to find any reason given in the media at the time so I can only conclude that there was no formal announcement by the sponsor. The media probably did not pick up on it because the date of the awards ceremony was a moveable feast. Sometimes eighteen months could go by between presentations. As regards Frankie Byrne, she was pretty irreplacable as those who recall her career in the media will agree. Sometimes the personal enthusiasm of a single individual can sustain something like the Jacobs’ Awards long after everyone else has lost interest. Anyway, I have added something to the article which I hope clarifies this point a little more. Jim Bruce (talk) 08:35, 1 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That’s good. It makes it a bit clearer. I have also added the Irish Film and Television Awards in See also section, since they are the nearest awards today, though not a direct successor. Snappy (talk)

Answer: “The equivalent of an Oscar for an Irish radio broadcaster”. —candle•wicke 19:51, 18 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Jacob’s award should be compared to an Emmy award rather than the Oscar, and it was for two media – radio and television. (Updated link to the incorrect comparison.) Spideog (talk) 07:20, 4 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This article states that Al Byrne won a Jacob’s award in 1978 but his obituary in the Irish Times says he won in 1979.

The newspaper may be right or wrong about the year; conceivably, a family member informing the newspaper got the year wrong – or perhaps right. I mention the discrepancy here, for the record. Spideog (talk) 06:40, 4 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]