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The Marconi Connection
Portmarnock Hotel's Long History with The Marconi Radio
MARCONI CONNECTION
Four of John Jameson’s sons followed their father into distilling in Ireland. With John Jameson II installed at Bow St., his younger brother William was distilling across the river Liffey at Marrowbone Lane. After William’s early death in 1802, a third son James took over William’s interest in the distillery although the firm still carried William’s name. The two distilleries worked independently and were in fact business rivals.
A fourth son, Andrew who had a small distillery at Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, was the grandfather of Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy.
Guglielmo Marconi was the younger son of Annie Jameson of Daphne Castle, Co. Wexford. She was a granddaughter of John Jameson founder of the Jameson Distillery. Her father, Andrew Jameson, one of the 16 children of John Jameson, had moved from Dublin to Wexford leaving the running of Bow Street to his brother John. While in Wexford Andrew founded and managed a Distillery at Marlfield near Enniscorthy.
Guglielmo Marconi was therefore John Jameson’s great grandson.
Annie’s influence on Marconi was very strong. She personally taught him English which allowed for his entry into the business world in London. She also taught him music and in later life he paid tribute to this training. In 1894 she brought the 22 year old to London to meet her nephew Henry JamesonDavis whose financial support and engineering contacts led Marconi to demonstrate his apparatus to William Preece, Engineer-in-Chief of the British Post Office. It was his interventions that got Marconi his foothold in Britain and enabled him to develop wireless communications for commercial purposes.