Dublin's Pirate Radio Stations of the Early Twenties

The Irish Free State authorised 2RN to become the State’s official radio station and on January 1st 1926 it would officially go on air. Irish listeners, especially those on the East Coast, were already avid listeners to the new medium of radio. The sales of wireless sets had blossomed, with businesses like Hogan’s in Henry Street, Dublin supplying imported sets to those who could afford them. For those who could not afford them, a homemade crystal set gave them access to the airwaves. Listeners were entertained to broadcasts by London, Newcastle, Cardiff and Manchester amongst others. Following the formation of the new state, there was a divergence from the British laws that governed life in the country. Many of the laws were embraced by the Government including the British 1904 Wireless Telegraphy Act. Then in February 1924, the Irish Government implemented a licensing scheme for radio sets which was to be collected through the post office.

For many listeners south of the border, the arrival of 2BE in Belfast in September 1924 increased the urgency of having a Southern voice but there was division within Government circles as to whether the Free State’s venture should be commercially and privately run or State operated. In the end 2RN was a State body.

Many amateurs were building crystal sets to listen-in, but some inventive radio engineers were discovering that it was easy to turn their listening devices into transmitting devices. These amateurs were warned by newspaper columnists like ‘Radio Rex’ and ‘Jack Broadcaster’ that this was illegal and they should desist.

The so-called experimenters who were in actuality ‘pirate radio stations’ outside the law, were rebroadcasting British stations received on sophisticated sets in order that the amateur built crystal sets would be able to pick up a signal. This too was referred to in the newspaper columns with one declaring that,

‘Now I am informed that some people in what may be described as misplaced kindness are endeavouring to re-radiate received broadcast from their aerials to those of nearby crystal users. This is absolutely illegal and must on no account be attempted. You are not allowed to transmit. I shall be glad to assist those who try to locate offenders.’

On January 18^th 1923 in The Evening Telegraph, readers with an interest in radio was left in little doubt as to the legalities of ‘broadcasting’ rather than listening. It advised,

‘The position of the Free State in regard to the question of broadcasting, it may be taken for granted that broadly stated (1) Broadcasting of any kind is not legal yet in the Irish Free State. (2) That any instruments for the purpose of broadcasting are illegal. (3) That any attempt to bring in such instruments would be frustrated, the instruments of discord on-route would be sequestrated.’

Despite this information, an unusual pirate broadcaster turned out to be an attempted fraud and was exposed on the front page of the Evening Telegraph in November 1923. An authorised radio set dealer became aware of fraudsters who were selling sets at an unbelievably cheap price, purporting to receive all the British stations. He made an appointment to view the set and when the seller turned it on, he said that they were tuned into the Manchester station 2ZY. They listened to gramophone records and an announcer. After a period of listening the scam unravelled as the authorised dealer said that the announcers voice had a distinct Dublin accent. All was then revealed. The scammer and his confederate had set up a pirate transmitter nearby and was broadcasting the records and using a crude microphone to deliver the announcements pretending to be 2ZY. The ‘wireless set’ that they were trying to sell would barely be able to pick up a station that was just twenty miles from the receiver, it only contained a single value.  The uncover businessman remarked to the reporter that

‘The amusing part was that he had a rather clumsy contraption fitted up with the idea of humbugging innocent people into believing that the results obtained on his 'single valve set with a frame aerial were better than any of the demonstrations by the big wireless firms.’

He added

‘This kind of work is very good for experiments, but when it is done for the purpose of leading people to believe that they are listening to an actual station broadcasting, well it does general wireless work harm, first by making people suspicions and secondly by disappointing them by bad results.’

One pirate station seemed to make a genuine attempt to become the ‘Dublin station’ in advance of any officially sanctioned station. In May 1924, ‘The Grand Central Station Dublin’ was heard on the airwaves of Dublin on 390m medium wave. Reports said that on some of its broadcasts it suffered from interference from 2NO in Newcastle. The station broadcast from 9pm – 9.30pm. The ‘Dublin Studio’ as it deemed itself was located Northside of the city and introduced its pirate transmission with the announcement ‘calling Dublin, Glasnevin and everybody’. One writer to the newspapers wrote a critique of the broadcasts and offered some advice,

‘I would recommend that he is again whistling ‘Father O’Flynn’ for broadcasting that he should not blow directly into the microphone, as the result last night was more rushing wind that musical.’

The station carried on intermittently throughout the rest of the year with various reports appearing in trade magazines. They appeared to be coming from the one station although there were many experimenters as the frequency used was regularly on 390metres. In January 1925, The Radio Digest magazine in the United States reported in its ‘European Notes’ section that,

‘broadcasting is being carried out nightly from an unknown location near Dublin, Ireland, much to the annoyance of the Irish post office authorities who have been unsuccessful in their attempts to locate the illegal station’.

Pirate radio would be a thorn in the side of the authorities throughout every decade up to the present days with many pirate radio stations still taking to the air.