From the adverts: computer offer

February 1984

The Sinclair ZX81 was a revolution in home computing in the early 1980s, as it made computers affordable to many people for the first time. It was famously the first home computer to be sold in the UK at a RRP of less than £100 stg.

Adverts in this newspaper in 1984 told of even a much better price, as an ‘Ireland’s Own’ special offer allowed people to order one for just £45.81

Benefits of ownership would include becoming familiar with a QWERTY keyboard, and learning the BASIC programming languate of the time. However, computer memory was just 1 kb. To put that in context, a typical photo you might snap on your phone right now is likely to be 2.5 Mb. That means some 25,000 computers would be needed to store just one photograph...