After 1920, when radio became established in the United States and Europe, pessimists declared that there would be a consequent and inevitable decline in independent thinking, literature and scholarship. Undoubtedly in the beginning listeners were hypnotized by the new invention and were inclined to be passive, just as viewers of television were prone to be ‘captive’ thirty years later. But once the public had adjusted itself to the novelty of radio, it began to demand quality and to insist not merely on first-class entertainment but also on serious programmes. This demand showed its effects first in the realm of music, and in due time in that of scholarship. At the very least it may be said that radio has drawn on and benefited from academic learning. It can be argued that it has also stimulated scholarship, and this has certainly proved to be the case with the Thomas Davis Lectures, which have been transmitted regularly from Radio Éireann since 1953.