The ink was hardly dry on the Anglo-Irish Agreement in November 1985, before the Dublin government used its newly gained influence over Northern Ireland affairs to start a campaign to have the RTE television service made more easily available there.
Since then the campaign has been conducted through a joint implementation group of officials and representatives of the broadcasters and regulatory organisations from both sides. They toiled, very firmly avoiding the glare of publicity, their slow progress recorded only through bald, one or two-line updates in communiques issued after meetings of the Anglo-Irish Conference.
But now, almost 12 years later, agreement has finally been reached, a three-month work programme is about to start on the transmitters and, probably before Christmas, the power of the RTE signal from the South will be boosted, enabling between 300,000 and 400,000 Northerners to receive RTE1, RTE2 and Teilifis na Gaeilge more easily, double the number who can theoretically watch at present.
This is only an interim arrangement, however. In a few more years, when hundreds of terrestrial digital channels become available, it has also been agreed in principle that there will be full reciprocal broadcasting of all British and Irish stations to each other, providing high-quality reception throughout all parts of both islands.
Well before the Irish television service first went on air on New Year's Eve 1961, there was a huge demand in the Republic for the new medium. High aerials sprouted along the east coast to pick up over-spill pictures from the North and Wales. Despite the fact that there are now three Irish channels, home-grown stars and a considerable amount of locally-produced programming, demand remains high for the external television services and satellite output, particularly for films and sport.
The deflector argument during the recent general election and the growth of cable services, offering the British and North-based channels, illustrate the durability of the Southern demand. The commercial operator, Ulster Television, has significantly cashed in on it by soaking up a considerable proportion of advertising revenue from its perceived coverage of the Southern marketplace. This interest is solely on financial grounds.
BY CONTRAST there is only a limited demand for the RTE services in the North. At present the station can be picked up by about 29 per cent of the 537,000 homes there but attracts only an average 5.5 per cent share of the audience, compared with 42 per cent for UTV and the BBC's 27 per cent, according to the official figures compiled by the British Audience Research Bureau.
It is, of course, arguable that if it were more widely and easily available, more people would indeed watch RTE. Northern viewers have to erect a second aerial, pointing towards the Clermont Carn transmitter in Co Louth, and install a booster unit to get a good picture.
When the Irish campaign got under way the government wanted the RTE signal to be piggybacked on the existing BBC and ITV transmitters. This would have enabled viewers to receive it from their existing aerials, just by tuning in their sets, but the proposition proved to be impracticable because of international agreements, designating broadcasting frequencies, and technical problems. It was probable that BBC and ITV reception would have been impaired by the RTE signal.
After detailed consideration of the complex political, technical and regulatory problems, the British concluded in 1994 that they had no objections and an Anglo-Irish technical agreement was finally reached in May 1996 permitting the boosting of the RTE signal from Louth provided there was no interference with the existing channels and that the cost was fully borne by RTE. It is that agreement that is now being implemented after further trials to underpin its viability.
Given the substantial cost to be met by an already cash-strapped RTE, the impossibility of imposing a licence fee outside the State and the improbability of any significant commercial gain from Northern-generated advertising revenue, the question must be asked: why has the Irish Government for so long dragooned RTE into this costly project?
It is hard to find any really definitive explanation. RTE itself says, somewhat idealistically, that it believes broadcasting output from both Dublin and Belfast should be available throughout the entire island. The Department of Foreign Affairs says the project is simply to meet demand from the North for the RTE services.
Back in the early 1970s, Foreign Affairs heavily lobbied the BBC to include the Dublin papers in its morning radio review. Over the years since there has been parallel pressure on Belfast broadcasters for greater recognition of the Irish language and culture and coverage of Gaelic games.
These campaigns have been successful and rightly so. There is a 40 per cent minority in the North which is entitled to have its interests and Irishness fully acknowledged. The easy availability of RTE, for those who want to choose to view it, is very properly part and parcel of this freedom.
But this raises the question about just how sensitive the Republic is to the unionists in the North. Since the three-stranded political talks began in 1992, successive Irish governments have promised, but failed to detail their plans for, a new, agreed, secular and plural Ireland. In particular, unionists, who comprise a 20 per cent minority in the entire island, have been assured that their fears and anxieties would be addressed if they would only support such a vision.
For them, one of the most powerful and unacceptable manifestations of what they see as the Catholic-controlled, priest-ridden Irish State is the privileged daily Angelus slot on RTE television.
The imminent extension of RTE coverage in the North provides a timely opportunity to abolish it and, in a confidence-building gesture to unionists as the Stormont talks accelerate, demonstrate that in the envisaged new Ireland, which the politicians so colourfully articulate, their commitment to take account of unionist rights and sensitivities, and confer equality of treatment on all Irish people, is more than empty political rhetoric but will actually happen.
Chris Ryder, a former member of the Police Authority for Northern Ireland, is the author of The RUC 1922-1997: A Force Under Fire (Mandarin)
Mary Holland is on leave