Where's Wally on Radio Luxembourg? Ireland is on the Hunt.

 

Recently while I was researching the historical significance of Radio Luxembourg’s broadcasts in the 1950’s on Irish listeners. The Irish public had their radio tuners firmly on Radio Eireann for a quarter of a century but as Radio Luxembourg changed their focus to become a dedicated pop and rock and roll station in the early 1950’s, the Irish youth had found a new listen. As I researched, I found this unusual advert in the ‘personals’ of the Irish Independent on September 8^th 1955,

‘George, please come home on Saturday night and listen to Wally Petersen in ‘By Candleglow’ on Radio Luxembourg at 10pm, Janet.’

It seemed very random, who were George and Janet? In keeping with the era, was this a cold war secret message aimed at spies in Ireland? Where was Wally? Lots of questions with very few answers.

 

The following day, Friday September 9^th, in the Derry Journal in the ‘Personal’ section the same advert appeared. Was it inserted both North and South of the border to ensure that a spy saw it? Meanwhile the following weekend in the Belfast Telegraph personals the following wording,

‘Babs, I heard Wally Petersen on Radio Luxembourg last Saturday at 10pm. He’s great! Don’t miss him next Saturday at 10, 208 metres, Alan.’

One week later, once again in the ‘Personal’ section of the Irish Independent was

‘Ronald, come around and listen to Wally Petersen’s wonderful programme next Saturday from Radio Luxembourg at 10pm, signed Margaret’

 

If this was a spy ring, there were a lot of random people involved. While we complain today about clickbait on social media, and even ads as you swipe left or right on dating apps, these were ads for a radio programme dressed up in personal ads, lending a certain humanity to an invitation to listen. In the 1950s the personal ads section in the newspapers were often used to seek out pen pals or even a bachelor seeking a spinster for the prospect of marriage.

 

There was probably never any Ronald or Babs or George but there was a Wally and he was easily found. Wally Petersen was an American born actor, writer, singer and musician who in 1955 joined the staff at Radio Luxembourg in the Grand Duchy. His show ‘By Candlelight’ aired at 10pm directly as the Irish Requests Show that was hosted then by David Gell. Strangely when the Irish show ended on Luxembourg, the personal ads ended. It appeared to be an expensive way to advertise a show that was only fifteen minutes in length.

 

In a career that began in the 1930s and occupied seven decades, Wally Peterson filled an extraordinary number of roles in the theatre and on radio — actor, singer, musician, writer and stage manager. Born in Boston in 1917, his first broadcast was for a local radio station at the age of 15 when he sang Blue Moon. In the 1930s, he was a member of the famous Barter Theatre in Virginia, a collective created in the depression that paid its company in food received from the audience.

He continued broadcasting on radio until he joined the Army in 1943, and produced a number of variety performances for the USO, showing his versatility by also singing, playing piano, writing songs and sketches and acting. By 1944, he was in Europe presenting shows and displaying a talent for improvisation by draping curtain material over trees and setting up pianos and music stands in clearings.

 

After the war, Peterson auditioned for a role in the London company of Oklahoma, which opened in 1947. He would five years in the show at the Drury Lane Theatre. In 1948 Peterson met the Australian singer and actress, Joy Nichols, who was the female star of the new hit radio programme, Take it From Here on Radio Luxembourg. They married in 1949 and Peterson moved into radio, writing and performing shows for the BBC and Radio Luxembourg, where at the time he was the only American presenter. His show on Luxembourg was a massive hit but television beckoned where initially he worked as a producer of the independent television company Associated Broadcasting but following the success of his wife’s role in the West End’s ‘Pyjama Game’, the Petersen family now with daughter Roberta moved to New York. While working at the commercial Luxembourg, he was presenting a weekend show on the BBC’s Light service ‘Down Memory Lane’ aired at the same time as his weekday Luxembourg show.

 

There was some confusion in the entertainment pages of newspapers and magazines in 1955 as there was another Wally Petersen. According to the BBC obituary to Betty Driver, famous to many viewers as Betty Turpin the landlady of the Rovers Return on Coronation Street,

‘In 1953 Driver married Wally Petersen, a South African singer who had guested on one of her shows, but the union was not a success, Peterson was a serial womaniser and made free with Driver's money. The couple parted in 1960’.

Michael O'Hehir, The GAA and Radio Brazzaville

 

“Bail ó Dhia oraibh a cháirde Gael. Hello everybody and welcome to Croke Park. And a special welcome to all those joining us today on Radio Brazzaville.” The words of Michael O’Hehir.

In 1953 these words of the great Michael O’Hehir welcomed listeners to the All-Ireland Hurling Final between Cork and Galway. But how did Radio Brazzaville get to rebroadcast the final? The 1950’s represented the ‘heyday’ of Irish missionary work across Africa with an estimated eight thousand Irish across the continent. Beginning life as The Radio Club in 1936, in 1940, Brazzaville, the capital of the Belgian controlled Congo, became the capital of the Free French government in exile under Charles De Gaulle. In 1941, the station became the voice of the Free French and renamed Radio Brazzaville, broadcasting on short wave.

 

After much lobbying by Catholic missionaries, Radio Eireann struck a deal with Radiodiffusion et Television Francais(RTF) to take the transmission to Paris and then sent by land telephone line to Brazzaville who would rebroadcast the final via short wave. It was a major departure for Radio Eireann and a coup for the GAA to have their sport reach a global audience. These broadcasts were not just being heard abroad but by listeners in Ireland often getting better reception from Radio Brazzaville than Radio Eireann. The Derry Journal reported,

‘Those radio enthusiasts who listened on the short wave to the transmission here in Derry had the thrill of hearing the Irish programme all the way from Radio Brazzaville.’

The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs told the Dail that the broadcast cost £41 and that related to the cost of getting the transmissions to Paris, the onward journey for the commentary was provided free by RTF. The broadcast was deemed a success and so a repeat was inevitable in 1954, but this unique experiment was to find choppy waters.

 

In March 1954 a decision was made to rebroadcast the Railway Cup finals via Radio Brazzaville. With O’Hehir behind the microphone, the national station decided to broadcast the hurling final but rather than broadcasting the subsequent football final, they would broadcast a soccer game between Ireland and their Scottish counterparts with commentary provided by Phillip Greene, both commentaries relayed by Brazzaville. The GAA however were not amused.

‘The G.A.A. learns with indignation of the plan arranged by Radio Eireann to relay to the world through' Radio Brazzaville on St. Patrick's Day, between 3.15 p.m. and 5.30 p.m., a composite broadcast consisting of national game of hurling and the non-Irish game of soccer. The Association feels deeply insulted at being featured without its knowledge or consent in this hotch-potch of hurling-cum-soccer relayed to the world. The Association objects vehemently to the interlarding of an alien football game with the national game of hurling on Ireland' s National Festival.’

RTE however replied,

"With regard to the overseas broadcast, there seems to be some misunderstanding about this. Radio Eireann has no overseas service, and on these occasions, we depend on the goodwill of the French radio authorities in Paris and Brazzaville. By their generous co-operation we have recently been able to bring occasional broadcasts to Irish exiles, primarily the Irish missionaries in Africa, who listen habitually to Radio Brazzaville. On St. Patrick’s Day, Radio Brazzaville is giving up nearly two hours of its own programme time for our broadcast with the commentary in Irish, which few of their listeners would understand.”

RTE came up with an alternative plan, spilt transmissions, while the Brazzaville element would remain the same, the Gaelic commentaries would be covered by the Athlone transmitter, the Dublin and Cork transmitters would relay the hurling followed by the soccer. In the end the split transmission remained but the relay to the world was abandoned.

 

Without the distraction of a soccer match, the rebroadcast of the finals in September 1954 resumed. Radio Eireann was aware that the Irish diaspora across the Atlantic, while they could at times hear Brazzaville, reception was not perfect. The G.A.A. Secretary, Padraig O'Caoimh, disclosed that the games would be relayed by Brazzaville and also WNYC in New York. Listeners to both stations also heard a specially written pageant "The Four Green Fields" performed at half time.

 

In 1956, Brazzaville became part of GAA broadcasting folklore. Cork’s Christy Ring was a superstar and when he took to the field against Wexford, he was hoping to win an unprecedented ninth All- Ireland. Around the world, listeners heard O’Hehir say,

“Paddy Philpott, standing all alone, 50 yards from his own goal, gets the ball and sends it up into the centre of the field. The clash of the ash as it blocks down there by Terry Kelly. Terry Kelly up there to Christy Ring. Ring in front of the goal is going through. He steadies himself; he takes a shot. It's blocked by Art Foley, and it's cleared out by Art Foley. Oh, a great clearance there by Art Foley”

 

Unusually that hurling took place after the football as it had been postponed for three weeks due to a polio outbreak, but it turned out to be memorable and exciting. The champions started in style, held the advantage for most of the first half. Listeners heard two memorable incidents. One was supplied by Mick Morrissey's goal-line clearance and the other by Bobby Rackard who tapped the ball off Ring's hurl when a goal seemed certain.

 

The match is however remembered for the heroic performance of Wexford's goalkeeper Art Foley, who made that crucial save from Ring in the dying moments. Wexford won, securing their first All-Ireland title since 1910 and denying Ring that record ninth medal.

‘The whole of Croke Park has gone stark starring wild’. announced O’Hehir to his listening public.

So popular were the overseas broadcasts that thousands of cards were addressed to O’Hehir via Croke Park to give shout outs to families scattered across the globe. With the arrival of satellite communications and of course television, the Brazzaville experiment ended.

An In Depth Analysis of Radio Luxembourg's Impact on Irish Radio

 Review

This is a highly well-researched and insightful piece of historical writing. It goes beyond a simple "history of radio" and functions as a socio-economic analysis of 20th-century Ireland. It is an excellent piece of historical journalism. It provides a clear "cause and effect" chain: RTÉ’s conservatism + Luxembourg’s technical power + the invention of the transistor = the inevitable rise of the pirates and the eventual birth of 2FM. It treats the subject with the seriousness of a political history while maintaining the energy of a pop-culture retrospective.

For many years, RTE held a monopoly as the Republic of Ireland’s sole state broadcaster and the only authorised source of radio programming for the general public. This dominance faced its first major challenge with the introduction of a legal framework that paved the way for independent and commercial radio stations. The move toward legalising independent broadcasting was a direct response to the widespread popularity of pirate radio throughout the 1980s, which had demonstrated a substantial demand among listeners for alternatives to RTE. However, RTE’s position as the exclusive provider of entertainment for Irish audiences had already started to erode much earlier. The process of dismantling RTE’s monopoly began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the Irish public grew increasingly eager for new programming options especially for music listening. This period marked a significant shift in listener preferences, leading to a strong appetite for alternatives to Radio Eireann, which, despite its efforts, struggled to meet the diverse and growing demands of audiences across the country.

In 1953, Radio Luxembourg, based in the Grand Duchy, relaunched when its medium wave and long wave services[1] were merged on 208 metres medium wave. It was a truly commercial station with purchased airtime[2] and sponsored programming. The English language part of the station opened at 6pm and closed at midnight and its powerful 300KW transmitter was clearly heard throughout the British Isles especially during nighttime hours.[3] In 1953 its popularity in Ireland was recognised by the station when the Irish Hour was broadcast with requests once a week, with host Pete Murray.[4] The programme was an instant hit with the younger generation in Ireland who not only heard their own names and towns but the latest music emanating from the new rock and roll scene in London and the United States.

 

There was no escaping Luxembourg as in 1953, the Irish national newspapers were printing the stations daily schedule. On November 11^th, 1953, during a Dail debate on the allocation of funds to cover Radio Eireann, Oliver Flanagan TD said,

“No matter what praise we may have here for Radio Éireann, very few of our listeners listen to Radio Éireann while Radio Luxembourg is on the air. They usually listen to Radio Éireann when they have nothing else to listen to.”

This was the issue for the state broadcaster. The station had no competition during its daytime and evening programming[5] but as soon as Luxembourg opened at 6pm[6], the radios were retuned to 208. Ireland of the early 1950s was slowly emerging from itself imposition international isolation created by the De Valera government. It was still a deeply Catholic country and the national radio service reflected that, plus as a single channel it was attempting to cater to all needs and tastes but the ever growing youth demographic was ignored as conservative Irish listeners and legislators saw the emergence of the new Rock n Roll music with the same disdain they did when American jazz waved across the Atlantic in the 1930’s.[7] For the clergy there was also the emergence of American evangelism on this side of the Atlantic and perceived it as a threat. When a ‘paid for’ religious programme aired on Radio Luxembourg nightly at 11pm, just before closedown, with a significant audience carried over from its earlier more popular shows, the Catholic media in Ireland were upset. The Christian Broadcasting Fellowship aired nightly and promoted its show with advertisements in the Irish newspapers with a contact address of D’Olier Street in the centre of Dublin city, near O’Connell Bridge.

 

By January 1954, Irish advertisers were purchasing airtime on the station, a loss to Radio Eireann. The Bray Holiday Bureau[8] purchased a fifteen-minute slot once a week for three months advertising the town featuring the popular Irish tenor Joseph Locke on its first programme. The pressure on Radio Eireann, which was already cash starved by the Department of Finance continued throughout the 1950’s. Weekly Independent’s radio Supplement gave weekly schedule for Radio Eireann, AFN and Radio Luxembourg side by side. Luxembourg was broadcasting a mix of music along with serials like Dan Dare, Dr, Kildare and Perry Mason.

When an Irish reporter questioned the stations content, gives the answer, " What makes Radio Luxembourg tick?" It's quite simple, he replied, " When the people ask for oranges, we give them oranges. We don't give them bananas." By providing "oranges" (popular music and rock and roll) when the state insisted on "bananas" (traditional and conservative programming), Luxembourg successfully commercialized the Irish airwaves from abroad.

In August 1954, the station cemented its connection to Ireland with the unveiling of their first ever Miss Radio Luxembourg pageant competition. The winner was announced as Miss Phil Tubridy from Monkstown. Not only did she represent the station at various events including the Radio Review ball in the Hibernian Hotel on Dawson Street but also had a weekly fifteen-minute show on the station that ran until Christmas 1954.

By 1955 in a listener survey[9] Radio Luxembourg was the second most listened to station in Ireland. It reported that 85% listened to Radio Eireann and that 56% listened to Luxembourg, with smaller listenership’s to the BBC light Service and the American Forces Network. The poll also showed that Radio Eireann’s listenership was dominated by those listening before 8pm and in rural areas. This reinforced a survey a year earlier reported by the Catholic Standard Newspaper[10]

‘About one in three of the population over 16 tune into Luxembourg at same time during the evening and although there is less listening to radio in Ireland, listening to Luxembourg is at a higher level than in Great Britain. On an average evening less than two in three of the Irish listens in and of these more than half tune to Luxembourg.’

For a national station these were startling statistics as it leaked a growing number of listeners yearly. 

By 1958 The Irish Requests Show was being sponsored by Jacobs Ireland with quarter page daily ads in the Irish national newspapers on the day of their shows.  In 1960 the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes returned to sponsoring programmes on Luxembourg. With no access to advertising into the UK via radio for their lottery, Luxembourg provided that avenue. In 1935 the Sweepstakes were sponsoring programmes on the pre-war Luxembourg.[11]

After almost a decade of dominance by Radio Luxembourg over Irish radio audiences, its relationship with Ireland featured in numerous debates in the Dail. On February 24th 1960, Dr Noel Browne informed the sitting that,

“One of the sad truths about our society is that one of our favourite stations, outside Radio Éireann, is Radio Luxembourg, which is unparalleled in any society for unadulterated rubbish. Their sponsored programmes are under the control of advertisers and private enterprise products, the standard being the lowest common denominator.”

There were also complaints that the Dundalk based Carrolls firm were advertising their Sweet Afton cigarette brand on Luxembourg rather than Radio Eireann

In a debate of Broadcasting Authority Bill which would eventually lead to the launch of television and the creation of Radio Telifis Eireann, John Belton TD (FG) on March 16th, 1960, told the debate,

“The most popular station for radio listeners in the city of Dublin is Radio Luxembourg because it is producing modern programmes that have a greater interest for radio audiences than other programmes.” 

In May 1960, James Dillon (FG) added,

“I am sorry to have to tell the Deputy that that is not the reason recommended to me. It is usually a passionate desire to listen to "Elvis the Pelvis", and I cannot pretend to enjoy that buck. I recognise freely that there are others who do, and every man is entitled to enjoy what he likes best in the form of music, whether it be Elvis or Ludwig von Beethoven. Certain it is, however, that the net result is that Radio Luxembourg gets immense advertising revenue. If we could command a tithe of the advertising revenue Radio Luxembourg enjoys, we would be able to achieve what I think is the ideal: we would be able to cater on one wavelength for the fans of "Elvis the Pelvis" and, on another, for the enthusiasts for Mozart and Beethoven. Perhaps the Minister would explain to the uninitiated amongst us.”

Michael Hillard TD[12] replied,

“We would have to put the "Jolly Roger" up.”

James Dillon TD,

“There is something to be said for the "Jolly Roger" in certain circumstances. Great Empires have been built through the profits derived from the "Jolly Roger". In the old days, they were called privateers. If you got caught, you were a pirate; if you came home successfully with the loot, you were a privateer.”

This created a paradox in the Dáil, where politicians simultaneously decried the "unadulterated rubbish" of commercial radio while admitting the state could not afford to compete without adopting the "Jolly Roger" tactics of its competitors.

 

In June 1960, as the debate on the future of Irish broadcasting continued in the public domain, Maurice Kennedy writing in the Irish Independent,

“The rural cinemas, the Rock n Roll output of Radio Luxembourg and the car, on the family farm, all mean that rural teenagers are subject to the same influences as their city cousins.”

In the early sixties the new music of the increasing number of showbands were breaking through but with so many bands travelling around the ballrooms of Ireland and many of them recording tracks, an outlet domestically was lacking, and Radio Luxembourg was ready to fill the void. One of the most popular showbands in Ireland was the Capitol Showband, led by singer Butch Moore had their own show beginning in October 1963[13].  Their success was created by an enterprising manager, who himself would go onto a stellar career in broadcasting.  The Capitol’s manager was County Louth born Jimmy Magee who would dominate sports commentating on both RTE radio and television for decades. In December 1963 just as the Capitol’s run of programmes was coming to an end, The Cadets Showband took over with the Marlowe Dry Cleaners sponsoring their fifteen-minute show.

But in the sixties the strength and power of Radio Luxembourg and ergo their advertisers weakened not because RTE began addressing the younger listener, but the arrival in 1964 of Radio Caroline, the pirate-based radio ship. Caroline by 1967 had two ships, one operating off the coast of Essex on England’s east coast and a second ship anchored off the Isle of Man covering the west coast of the UK and all of Ireland. By the late 1960’s hobby weekend pirates were appearing on the Irish airwaves from Dublin to Cork to Wexford and Newry.

The younger listener, who by the end of the sixties had access to cheaper transistor radios, had been acclimatised to hearing the music they liked, not what their peers listened to. The new music of rock and roll, led by Elvis coming from America and the rise of the Beatles music in the UK, sidelined the Irish traditional music and even the showbands, consigning them to the older generation and Radio Eireann. While Radio Eireann and later RTE Radio had, like Luxembourg, sponsored programming, it was the type of music that was being played on the commercial stations that encouraged listeners to return time and time again. The commercial stations also attempted to replicate American broadcasting styles which offered a tantalising taste of other possibilities.  It was the ease of access to listen to Radio Luxembourg and later Radio Caroline that made them attractive to the young listener and therefore to the advertisers who were purchasing their sponsorship of the stations.

 

The growing demand for pop and rock music in Ireland, coupled with limited access for musicians and bands to Radio Eireann, led Irish artists and voices to seek alternative platforms. This quest for exposure resulted in many finding a place on the newly developing pirate radio scene. While pirate radio in Ireland during the 1950s primarily consisted of paramilitary style political broadcasts[14], the landscape began to shift. Hobbyists and amateur engineers started constructing their own medium wave homemade transmitters and basic, affordable studio equipment. This movement sparked a new era of pirate radio, paving the way for further growth in the following decades. As the influence of stations like Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg waned in the seventies, the reach and popularity of Irish pirate radio expanded. The impact of Radio Luxembourg on Irish listeners was substantial, significantly affecting RTE's audience and advertising revenue. In response to this shift, some of the lost revenue to RTE was redirected, with advertisers opting to place ads in Irish newspapers promoting Radio Luxembourg's programmes. While Luxembourg started the erosion, the arrival of Radio Caroline in 1964 and the subsequent rise of Irish pirate ships ensured that the monopoly could never be fully restored to its pre-1950s state.

Appendix 1: Some of the various programme sponsors on Radio Eireann and Luxembourg in the 1960’s

Luxembourg

EMI, Decca & Capitol Records, later Phillips (In 1968 all replaced by individual commerical brand sponsors)

Frys Chocolate

Elida Shampoo

Silvikrin Shampoo

Brunitex Shampoo

Racing Blue (Sports Newspaper)

Curry’s Limited

Raleigh Industries

Pye

Top Rank Bingo

Irish Hospital Sweepstakes

Beechams

Sweet afton

 

Radio Eireann

ESB (1950s – 1960s)

Lyons Tea

Associated Ballrooms

Knocknagram Chicks (Jan 1962)

VG Shops

Bulmers Cidona (6am Saturdays Only 1960)

Irish Hospital Sweepstakes

Hygeia

Andrews Liver Salts

Loxene Hair Cream (Men)

Waltons

---

[1] Radio Luxembourg One on longwave was aimed at British audiences while Luxembourg 2 was aimed domestically on 208m medium wave.

[2] North American Evangelists

[3] Marnach transmitter was a broadcasting facility of RTL near Marnach in the commune of Clervaux, in northern Luxembourg.

[4] Murray joined Luxembourg in 1950 and was based in the Grand Duchy unlike many presenters who recorded their programmes in London and despatched to Luxembourg.

[5] There were a small percentage of daytime urban listeners who tuned into the BBC

[6] The station broadcasting in 5.30am – Noon, German Noon to 5.30pm, Luxembourgish 5.30pm to 6pm

[7] That led to the anti-jazz movement of the 1930s led by Father Confrey from Mohill Co. Leitrim

[8] A seaside resort on the border of Dublin and Wicklow

[9] A Poll of 7,000

[10] January 22^nd 1954 by Social Surveys Limited

[11] The Radio Pictorial magazine

[12] The then Minister for Posts & Telegraphs with responsibility for broadcasting

[13] First show 7.45pm October 9^th 1963

[14] Several incarnations of ‘Irish Freedom Radio’ were based in Dublin and along the Northern Ireland border

My Journey Researching Sectraian Pirate Radio in Belfast with Insults for Free

 

In 2018, I began researching a book on sectarian pirate radio in Belfast and I had an article appear in a number of newspapers asking for anyone with information and providing a contact email address. On August 18^th, 2019, I received an email from an account titled ‘the beer society’ but signed c/o Michael Steven. I responded and there was a back and forth with emails and eventually I agreed to travel to Belfast and said I would met up perhaps in a hotel in the centre of the city.

 

On August 20^th I received an email asking to meet with Stephen Caves at his home which I was informed was off Tennant Street which is off the Shankill Road near the Spectrum Community Centre. I told Michael to tell Stephen that I would visit Belfast and on 27^th August I travelled north from Dublin, staying at the Maldron Hotel located to the rear of the famous heritage pub The Crown Liquor Saloon.

 

On the morning of the meeting, while I perhaps should have been nervous or apprehensive, I was in fact excited and looking forward to the meeting and gaining a valuable insight into pirate radio in Belfast. For someone born in the early 60s, I was aware of all the events that made up the Troubles propelling it to front page news around the world, but being from the South, I had little understanding of what it was like living in that maelstrom of sectarian violence and paramilitary activity. There was no sense that I perhaps was entering ‘enemy territory’.

 

I stepped out onto the street and jumped into the back of a taxi at the rank. I told the driver ‘Coniston Close, off Tennant Street, please’. There was a moment of silence, and the driver turned to me in the back seat and calmly enquired

‘With that accent?’

This was a reference to my obvious southern, Dublin accent and here was I asking this driver to take me into what would be seen as the heart of unionist/loyalist life in Belfast. I said yes and he moved off. After two sets of red traffic lights, we reached a third and eventually the driver asked the obvious question ‘why?’ I dd not want to go into too much detail so I said that visiting a radio engineer as a radio historian. We drove up the Shankill Road, the rows of union jack bunting, union jacks on every lamppost and the infamous UVF, UDA and British military murals decorating several gable walls.

 

I arrived at the house and the driver, I think out of concern, asked me if I wanted him to wait, I said no as I did not know how long our conversation would last for but in fairness gave me a card with a taxi number on it. I knocked on the door after asking a couple of neighbours exactly where Stephen Caves flat was, each one looking me up and down suspiciously. I eventually entered a flat designated for Stephen who was wheelchair bound, missing part of a leg from the knee down.

 

He introduced himself as did I likewise and explained my research into the thorny subject of (a) Illegal broadcasting and (b) the sectarian use of those broadcasts. Stephen’s friend and what appeared to be a carer, Michael arrived dressed in a grey suit and obviously had a hearing issue as he had aids in both ears and an unusual way of speaking that took me a few minutes to get a hold of to understand.

 

Stephen Thompson Caves was born in November 1951 in Belfast. He was just 18 years old when the Troubles began in August 1969. The Troubles would continue until 1998 when a peace agreement known as The Good Friday Agreement eased tensions, saw paramilitaries disarm and installed democracy at Stormont. In January 1971 Stephen, described as 19 and unemployed of Tate Street, was charged with riotous assembly with 22 others at Urney Street on January 24^th. The following month was sentenced to six months in prison for both the original offence and failing to turn up in accordance with bail conditions.

 

Stephen told me that he was a loyalist and was involved in Radio Shankill in the early years of the Troubles. But once he imparted that part of the story to me what followed was quite remarkable as his involvement in pirate radio continued.

 

He told me he ran numerous pirate radio stations usually broadcasting on 101mhz FM. One of the longest running stations was Speak Your Peace. He described the station as a community instruction station, grassroots radio giving voice to his community. When I asked him was any of the stations ever raided by the RUC (now the PSNI), he told me once. I asked if it was for illegal broadcasting or interference to legal broadcasters he said no,

‘They knocked on the door one Friday evening, cause we, I had a friend who knew how to identify and dismantle a pipe bomb that may have been placed under your car. And the coppers believed that if this person knew how to dismantle one, he knew how to build it. But they were in hard luck as we only used a tape to play the information, he wasn’t there in person on that occasion’.

He went onto also tell me that they would broadcast a comparison style show, not for petrol, insurance or foods but where to find, how much to pay and what was the best drugs to buy in Belfast on any given weekend. I was shocked but he reassured me that the show that followed that was a ‘gardening show’, which he explained was someone telling listeners how to grow their own drugs like marijuana.

 

Speak Your Peace first went on the air Sunday 2nd October 1994 from 9am to 8pm. The transmitter would be fired up every Sunday for as they said, ‘up to Christmas to give a voice to the oppressed and depressed’. However, the station was raided on Monday December 12^th 1994.

 

Over two hours, I asked questions and I listened to him telling me tales of the various stations he ran interspersed with questions about how safe I felt visiting ‘enemy territory’ just off the Shankill Road. I was in no doubt from what was said, names discussion and at times what was not being said that Stephen had loyalist paramilitary links.

 

As the conversation continued, he told me that one of the stations he was involved with was known as ‘Out 101’ in 1995 which was on the air supporting LGBT rights in Belfast. This seemed such a dichotomy, on one hand the Christian conservative ‘anti-homosexual’ Loyalist and Orange Order and the other a man who was definitely Protestant and loyalist in leanings but was a supporter of something so opposite to what I had been led to believe was hard to take in.

 

Other stations in the 101-fold were ‘BARC, the Belfast Autonomous Radio Collective’ and one of the first uses of the transmitter in 1986, Radio Free Ulster, described as broadcasting.

 ‘With an undiluted programme of loyalist music and songs.’

That station operated during a loyalist workers strike in March of that year.

 

Towards the end of April 1994, the station was opened identifying itself as May Day 101 in the run up to May Day. The city was still in the grip of sectarian violence and one presenter stated that in the three days since the station came on the air, nine people had been murdered in the city. He added,

‘As we listen to the soundtrack of Belfast (the sound of Army helicopters flying overhead outside the window of the secret studio) we’ve got the RUC, the British Army, the UDA, the UVF the IRA and the INLA claiming to be our protectors, but we are hostages. MAY DAY 101 is a boil on the bum of broadcasting, the acne of the airwaves.’

 

In advance of my contact with Stephen, with the help of a friend I interviewed to another gentleman in the Spectrum centre, known as ‘Graham’. He too was involved in pirate radio in the early 1970s in Belfast and had a fascinating story to tell but it was the after that visit that I was to relate here. My colleague asked me if I wanted him to call me a taxi or would I like to walk down the Shankill Road towards the city centre. To me I felt it was a chance I would never get again, so along with a friend of his, we began to walk down the Shankill Road, I was taking in every shop window, every business, every SUV with well-built men with loyalist tattooed arms intimidatingly leaning out the open windows. Halfway down the road, they asked if I wanted to have a beer, and I felt this was a now or never moment. We went into the pub, unions jacks hanging from the ceiling, pictures of the then Queen Elizabeth II on the walls. We sat at a round barrel in the middle of the floor, and they ordered a pint of Tennent’s for me. We chatted quietly, encouraged to keep my southern accent on the down low.

 

Fifteen minutes in and just about to leave, an older customers, late fifties or early sixties stood beside me and uttered,

‘it must be terrible being a Southern Catholic’

I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me, my embarrassment for the two lads was churning. They reassured him that I was with them and that I was OK!

 He continued,

‘What a southern catholic Fenian doing in a decent pub like mine?’ even though he was just a customer and not an owner or management.

Another few comments and I reached the end of the tether.

‘How do you know I’m a southern catholic, I could be Protestant, atheist, or even a Jehovah’s Witness?

‘I know by the look of you you’re catholic.’

‘OK you’re right, I am a southern Catholic from Dublin, but I know what I am. I’m like a box of corn flakes, you know what you are getting, you are the multipack of cereals, Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist, Free Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, Church of England or but I know one thing for sure, you’re the box no one likes.’

There was an uneasy silence, I was either going to be flattened or run like a hare being chased by a greyhound out the door. It seemed like ages before he said anything.

‘Hi, fair play to you kid’ and with that he tapped my back and actually sat down and joined us while we quickly finished what was left in or pints. I eventually arrived at the end of the Shankill, said my goodbyes and thank you and returned to the Maldron to muse over what had happened and begin to transcribe the notes I had made.

Soon after as I continued my research on the opposite side of the divide, including a very informative and generous visit to Radio Failte's headquarters,  I stopped into a pub near the Falls Road, the nationalist side. I ordered a pint and off handedly remarked to the bartender that his pint was 10p dearer than a similar pint on the Shankill Road. He paused, had a good look at me, leaned down slightly and queitly said,

'Once you finish that one it's time to head off pal.'

 My Dublin accent accounted for nothing here.

Then on February 9^th I received this message from Michael.

Dear Eddie,

Stephen Caves died on 2nd February 2020 from terminal cancer. We both knew he did not have long to live when we met you. 

 

Stephen wanted his pirate radio show recordings to be sent to you on audio cassette. I have also noted that he has some pirate radio advertising leaflets that he wanted to send to you as well.

 

I am currently putting Stephen’s cassette tapes into a pile for illegal transmissions and another for legal transmissions.

 

I hope through sending you these recordings, a wide range of people will not only be able to hear Stephen’s pirate radio recordings but remember Stephen as well.

Thanks from Michael Steven

 

Stephen’s passing was announced to the Belfast community,

 

‘It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Stephen Caves, Director of Trans Pride NI, who passed away this morning. A long-term activist, human, disability and environmental rights campaigner, he will be sorely missed.’

Michael wrote in tribute,

It was lovely to see my old comrade resting in peace yesterday. He was wearing the grey waistcoat that I gave him, when he was an amazing groomsman at my wedding in 2014. I was also pleased to see that he was wearing the purple Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood tie, a Society that he was a member of right up until his death. Stephen took great pleasure in handing out leaflets from this Society and many other human rights, disability and environmental groups he was involved with. In his later years, he even instructed his dog walkers to collect money they found on the street to Hearing Dogs for the Deaf! His kindness and caring nature will be greatly missed.

 

I was devastated and saddened. Michael had offered to post the cassettes to me but when in subsequent emails told me there were over forty tapes, I suggested that I would travel once again to Belfast to collect the donation to the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.

I arranged to meet Michael in the MAC in the Cathedral Quarter. He asked if his partner could join us for lunch while we completed the handover, I said no problem and as a gesture I would pay for lunch. Adrianne joined us and I honestly became confused, to the point when as I drove back to Dublin later that day, I had to stop at a services station just to put everything into context.

The life in Belfast that I had been brought up to seemingly know and understand was a different and more diverse city that I ever could have imagined. Michael Steven, Stephen’s friend, had been born female and known as Lindsay while his married partner Adrianne Elson, they were married in 2014, was born a man named Adrian. In 2022, it was revealed in the newspapers that the couple had given birth to beautiful twins named Mavis and Christin.