“Use Electricity!” advert for the Dublin Corporation Electricity Department
You don’t see many adverts for the old municipally controlled Dublin Corporation Electricity Department and a colour one is even nicer. A clutch of twee ladies, taking tea, are sharing the new life possible by the domestic supply of electricity – and being advised to see those ‘awfully nice people’ in the Fleet Street offices.
This, dating from 1927, would have been amongst the very last advert issued by the DCED as under the 1927 Act setting up the Electricity Supply Board for the IFS in 1928 the Department was merged into the ESB. The ‘Fleet St’ address used by the Department became well known in Dublin as the main offices of the ESB and I’m sure I recall one evening in the early 1980s in Dublin when on a TV quiz show an elderly lady was asked the question “What is Fleet St famous for?”; expecting the answer ‘newspapers’, as in London’s Fleet St, the old dear immediately spat out “De ESB” and, after much hilarity, was awarded the points!
