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Name: KAHN-CARL, Catherine 'Katie'
Photo Source: Irish Times 2 Oct 2021
Nee: step-sister of Lucie Walker, dau of Ottlie Luise 'Tilly' Luternauer
Birth Date: 10 Apr 1934 Paris, France
Death Date: 2 Aug 2021 Dublin
First Date: 1939
Last Date: 1952
Profession: Senior Foreign Editor, Radio Telefis Eireann
Area: All over EA
Book Reference: EAWL
School: Arusha school 40-41, Loreto Convent Lumbwa, Eldoret, Valley Rd., & Msongari; Univ. Coll., Dublin
General Information:
Irish Times 2 Oct 2021 The former foreign news editor of RTÉ, Catherine (Katie) Kahn-Carl, has died following a short illness. Kahn-Carl was a major figure in organising RTÉ’s international news coverage, selling Irish stories to foreign broadcasting stations and providing reporters with contacts for assignments abroad. Her warm, upbeat and engaging personality coupled with her forthright charm and determination allowed her to build a network of colleagues and friends across the world.
Kahn-Carl’s work in RTÉ began on December 27th, 1961, when she joined what was then Telefís Éireann four days before it started broadcasting. She was appointed foreign editor in August 1991 and held the position for eight years until her retirement in April 1999.
Her proficiency in several languages including French, German, Italian and Swahili made her an ideal person to work with television networks from other countries and promote co-operation on coverage of international news and events. She negotiated regularly with stations in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), providing news footage from Ireland and guaranteeing in return that RTÉ would be well supplied when a major news story erupted abroad. Her job was to “sell hard” Irish news of interest in Europe and to buy as cheaply as possible foreign news stories in what were often cash-strapped times.
Every year, she made her famous “whiskey run” dropping off bottles of “the hard stuff” on foreign desks all over London. Her generosity was returned when it came to RTÉ gaining coverage of breaking stories, sometimes piggybacking on satellite feeds of bigger broadcasting corporations and paying a pro rata fee for short excerpts of their coverage. Then when the BBC or ITN came to Ireland, they were often given free use of the national broadcaster’s facilities in return.
Catherine Kahn-Carl was born in Paris to Ottilie (Tilly) Carl and her first husband, Friedrich Kahn, a widower with one son. The family lived happily in Frankfurt in Germany where her father worked as a banker. Then, in 1939, her father was murdered by the Nazis just after he had received travel papers to go to Switzerland. Several other members of the Kahn family went on to die in Nazi concentration camps.
Four-year old Katie fled Frankfurt with her mother, first to Strasbourg and then Paris before departing to what were then the British colonies in east Africa where her step-brother lived. However, soon after they arrived, Tilly was regarded as an alien and told she would have to go with other German nationals into a prisoner of war camp. Instead, she found and married a lonely Frenchman whom she subsequently divorced. She married again – this time happily – to Emil Luternauer, with whom she later managed hotels in Kenya and Uganda. Their daughter, Lucie – Katie’s half-sister – was born in 1941 and, following their education with the Loreto nuns in Kenya, both sisters moved to Ireland to study at University College Dublin..
Jewish heritage: Katie arrived first in the early 1950s, availing of a scholarship to study German and French. While at UCD, she converted to Catholicism and although proud of the Jewish heritage on her father’s side, she remained a committed Catholic throughout her life. Following her degree, she worked for a time at the Canadian embassy before joining RTÉ and remaining there for the rest of her career.