There are many colourful stories from the golden era of Irish pirate radio
but one of the most remarkable stories was how two young female pirate DJ’s from
Radio Dublin found themselves in the midst of a war in the Middle East along
with Phil Coulter’s wife. In 1978, the Irish Government agreed to allow the
Irish defense forces to be part of a peacekeeping force in the Lebanon created
by the United Nations, known as UNIFIL[1]. In
1979 illegal pirate radio station Radio Dublin was expanding its schedule and
one programme developed that would challenge the state broadcaster RTE.
There were 700 soldiers on rotation in Lebanon, part of a multi-national peacekeeping force between Israel and Palestinian forces in Southern Lebanon. The soldiers were based at Camp Shamrock near the Lebanese town of Tibnin. It was a dangerous mission and by its end forty seven Irish soldiers had lost their lives on active duty. As a small nation with forces a long way from home, communications, in a pre-internet era, was limited. Larger nations had military radio stations to entertain the troops and keep them in touch with home, stations like AFN[2] for the American forces in Europe and BFBS[3] for British forces, which included a local station in Northern Ireland for the troops there who had been sent to the province in 1969.
WikipediaDublin born members of the Irish Army in Lebanon began to send tapes
home with recordings of greetings for family and friends but as the state
broadcaster had no outlet for these tapes, once citing poor quality, the troops
then sent their tapes to Radio Dublin broadcasting from Inchicore. A new show
was created by the Inchicore based pirate station hosted by DJ Sylvie (Sylvia
McClelland). The Sunday Independent[4]
reported in 1978,
‘Behind the show is the pirate station’s leading lady, Sylvia McClelland who is a pin-up sweetheart of the troops. Sylvia is proud of the fan mail she gets from the Middle East especially one letter signed by 50 men of the mainly Dublin ‘A’ Company’
In March 1980, the Irish Government decided to send an entertainment
party to the Lebanon to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Leading the entertainment
was singer Geraldine Brannigan[5]
and her band. The visit of Brannigan was sponsored by British Airways. RTE’s
lack of interest or perhaps respect for the soldiers serving with UNIFIL can be
demonstrated by the report in the Irish Army magazine 'An Cosantoir' in April
1980[6],
“the travel arrangements were made by British Airways
which was just as well, because of venerable journalist on RTE announced that
Miss Brannigan was ‘setting out for the Congo to entertain Irish Units there’”
Somehow Eamon Cooke[7],
the owner of Radio Dublin managed to get seats on the British Airways sponsored
flight that was taking Brannigan and her team, an RTE news crew and officials,
for Angie and Valerie Coffey. In an interview in 2013 on the TV series
‘Dublin’s Pirate Days[8]’,
Coffey recounted her experiences. When asked by Eddie Bohan what was her
highlight of her time at Radio Dublin, she said her trip with the then eighteen
year old Angie to Lebanon.
Coffey recalled that she remembers vividly,
‘Seeing Yasser Arafat[9] at the airport on their arrival and saying to Angie, ‘isn’t he gorgeous’’
She also recalled how the Government did not want them to travel citing the dangers of the situation in Lebanon rather than the fact they were representing a pirate radio station. They were greeted by Sean Whelan[10], from the Irish Embassy in Lebanon, and transported from the Airport to a Beirut Hotel under heavy guard. The two Radio Dublin women were provided with their own personal bodyguards for their protection. They were initially not allowed to travel to the Irish contingent’s headquarters as they were not part of the official party and spent St Patrick’s Day at a reception given by the US ambassador in their Embassy in Beirut. The following day they managed to get onto an Irish army truck, painted in the white of the UN, and headed to Tibnin and visited troops at Camp Shamrock. They were warmly welcomed. On their return journey the road was bombed and they were forced to stay in a hospital overnight for their safety. They were told not to do any press interviews on their return to Dublin.
Shortly after their return to Dublin, the dangers of the mission became
all too apparent when Privates Patrick Smallhorn from Dublin and Thomas Barrett
from Cork, were shot dead on April 18th 1980 by Christian militia
supporters of Major Haddad.
A collection was made by the colleagues of Dublin born Smallhorn. The
donation was collected by Captain Donal Bracken and a cheque sent to DJ Angie
Meier at Radio Dublin who then passed it onto the widow of the late Irish
soldier.
‘This small token of our sympathy could never do
justice to his memory but it may alleviate in a small way some of Mrs Smallhorn’s
casual expenses, £150’ (The Irish Independent 21/8/1980).
The Lebanon request show hosted by Angie continued for many years after
with the Sunday Mirror in June 1983 describing her as the ‘forces sweetheart’. The
show by then had been expanded from sixty minutes to ninety.
RTE itself began to include the Irish forces in the Lebanon with a show
presented by the late Treasa Davison who died on Sept 4th 2001.
According to Irish Times
‘A huge part of her broadcasting life was her association with the Irish Army and her annual forays to Lebanon, where she was officially the forces' sweetheart and had a tank named for her. On her retirement, she was "promoted" and made a special presentation.’
The first Davison show was prepared by RTE Radio
and broadcast on August 10th 1978 over Cyprus National Radio, which
could be heard in Lebanon. The show contained requests from family in Ireland dedicated
to loved ones serving in Lebanon while Radio Dublin’s show was different as it
included requests from soldiers in Lebanon for family back in Ireland, it also
included taped messages which was new in the late 1970’s. According to the
Irish Press[11],
‘RTE Radio is preparing record
request programmes for the Irish troops in Lebanon and these will be
broadcast over Cyprus Radio weekly, each Thursday as from August 10.
Lebanon Requests will be presented by Treasa Davison and will be heard in Lebanon from
9.15 p.m. to 9.45 p.m. local time on 498 metres medium wave (602 kHz) and on
94.8Mhz on VHF. Those wishing to have requests played, or to semi messages to
the Irish troops should send them to Treasa Davison.‘
[1]
The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon
[2]
The American Forces Network as part of the American Forces Radio &
Television Service
[3]
The British Forces Broadcasting Service
[4]
November 5th 1978
[5] Later married to singer songwriter
Phil Coutler
[6] ‘Geraldine’
An Cosantoir Vol. 40 No. 4 April 1980
[7] Later convicted of child sex crimes
and died in prison
[8] Broadcast by Dublin Community
Television and available on Vimeo
[9] Chairman of the Palestinian
Liberation Organisation (PLO)
[10] Died suddenly in 2004 when serving
as Ambassador to Turkey
[11]
July 29th 1978
