Irish Freedom Radio 1958

 

Ireland has a long tradition of pirate broadcasting and while the majority of the stations that aired were entertainment stations, there have been a number of politically motivated stations. From the anti-apartheid Freedom Radio in 1969 and H-Block protest stations of the 1980’s to Referendum supporting broadcasts during Divorce and Abortion votes, the illegal transmitters have been in action. There has been a number of IRA supporting stations and this is one of the stories.

 

At 1pm on Easter Sunday April 6^th 1958 Dubliners were treated to the first broadcast from Radio Saor na hEireann or Irish Freedom Radio. The IRA sympathisers who operated the station on 209m MW began their broadcast by reading the Proclamation that had been read by Patrick Pearse on the steps of the GPO in 1916 in both Irish and English. Their transmitter which was capable of being heard over a thirty mile radius had been ‘expertly assembled from American parts’. The station stayed on air until 2.15pm. The station broadcast on various occasions over the next two weeks early around midnight or Sunday mornings as Radio Luxembourg’s powerful 208 transmitter would have made listening almost impossible due its close proximity on the medium wave band.

 

The following Thursday night the station opened at 11.30pm after Radio Eireann had closed and announced itself as ‘Irish Freedom Radio operating in Occupied Ireland. The media reported that a team of three men and one woman were heard on air and the broadcast lasted just seven minutes.

Shortly after 7pm on April 16^th, a large force of Gardai raided a set of apartments at 7 Harcourt Terrace, owned by Treasa Ni Aodhain. The studio location was on the ground floor with the aerial connected to a television aerial on the roof. The station was located almost directly across the road from Harcourt Terrace Garda station. Also found in the search was a Bren gun, revolvers, ammunition and a large quantity of propaganda and paramilitary literature. No arrests were made.

 

Within days on the Northern side of the border the RUC raided a house at Leckpatrick, near Strabane where they seized another transmitter that had been used to rebroadcast some of the Dublin transmissions and was assumed would be moved to Dublin to replace the captured transmitter. The Monaghan transmitter on 209m had been operated in March as Freedom Radio during the Northern Ireland General Election.

The paramilitaries behind the station were back on air in August with a homemade low powered transmitter but reports in the Dublin city area stated that reception was poor. Their transmission on August 12^th began at 11.15pm and the single broadcaster ended with the slogan ‘Long live the Republic’ and a patriotic song ended the transmission. The Gardai and Post Office officials using detector vans located the station and it was raided. Just after seven in the morning a large force of plain clothes Gardai and officials raided a house in Windy Arbour and seized a transmitter with the arrests of three men and a woman in connection with the station. They were questioned but released without charge. On January 18^th broadcasts from a similarly named station were heard in County Monaghan. Taking to the airwaves at 10.30pm at night, they broadcast on 216m medium wave. The broadcasts from this station spoke out against the introduction of internment with trial in Northern Ireland. In February Gardai traced the broadcasts to two miles outside Monaghan Town and seized the transmitter. In October residents of Clones reported hearing a pirate radio station broadcasting ‘patriotic songs.’