Is Loyalist Radio good for Ulster?

 

The airs that played could be at home in a pub in Dublin, a dance hall in Glasgow, a front room on the Shankill Road or at a festival in New York. Their toe tapping and embracing folk style makes Irish music a favourite all over the globe. The lyrics given to these melodic airs however, are worlds apart, create divisions and have consequences.

‘The Scum in Green will be killed by the UDA. Give my guns to my sons when I am dead.’

Matthew Milliken from the Ulster University wrote on the RTE website,

‘In many divided societies, identities are self-evident (language, skin colour), but the tell-tale reference points that would instantly reveal the crossover teacher in Northern Ireland as an outsider are largely absent. English is generally spoken as a first language by both communities and there are no distinguishing racial characteristics by which Catholics and Protestants can be identified. 

Family names and first names can provide a widely understood tell – those whose name has an Irish origin are presumed to be Catholic whilst those who bear a British name are expected to be Protestants.  Generations of inter-marriage and "faith-fluidity" (the 21st century equivalence of taking the soup) mean that a surname may be a potentially misleading clue to identity. Accuracy increases when both first names and surnames are available.’ 

A Belfast based online radio station in 2021 is perpetuating that sectarian divide between Loyalism and Republicanism and reinforcing the Loyalist’s belief that the opposite side of their community is primed to attack and wipe out them and their traditions. It is reinforcing a stereotype that influences a younger generation through, word, music and radio.

 

‘UlsterScot FM’ is based in Belfast online radio station that is easily accessed through online streams including the Tune-In app. There are no restrictions on who can listen or on content being age appropriate. The songs played are a mixture of celebration and commemoration of Loyalist heroes and atrocities. They celebrate the romantism of proscribed organisations like the UDA and the UVF and they propagate the stereotype of the ‘Fenian Taigs’ being their enemy. Their tagline is,

UlsterScot FM: The home of loyalist music and banter, Accept no substitutes!

 A look at their output on Friday 19^th February 2021 from 3.45pm – 4.30pm was as follows,

Ballad of Noel Kinner (Imprisoned for the murder by the UDA of Brendan McLaughlin in 1980, Died of a heart attack November 4^th 1996)

On Our Way to Ibrox

The Men of the UDA

(Lyrics included The Scum in Green will be killed by the UDA. Give my guns to my sons when I am dead)

Flute and Drum Tunes including Nearer my God to Thee.

The Protestant Boys (Celebrating July 12^th & The Loyalist Irish brigade. Sung to the tune of  "Lillibullero", a march composed by Henry Purcell that became popular in England at the time of the Glorious Revolution in the 17^th Century.)

A Village in County Armagh (Sung by a Scottish Artist) (Lyrics include ‘The Protestant Cause must never be lost) This song is about a young Ulster soldier.

We Will Follow Glasgow Rangers (Lyrics include ‘If they go to Dublin we will follow on’.)

The Lassie of Kelvin Hall (Loyalist folk song) also found on Christy Moore’s website

Pipe and Drums Marching Tunes

No Pope of Rome (sung to the tune of Where the Buffalo Roams) ‘No Pope of Rome, no nuns, no priests and no rosary beads’, ’Every day is the 12^{th of} July’.

We’ll Keep the Blue Flag Flying High (The Parkhead Boys haven’t a clue) to the tune of Oh Camembert.

When You wear the Red and Brown. (The Red Hand Soldier, we’ll take on Gerry Adams,)

UDA UDA All the Way (Marching the Streets on the 12^{th of} July)

 

On numerous nights the station broadcasts its loyalist, and sometimes sectarian brand of entertainment, live on through their Tune-In app and on Facebook Live. On Friday February 19^th the live presenter was DJ Debz (Debbie Smith) who was on air from 8pm to Midnight. On other nights Shirley Lindsay and BrucieBoy were the presenters. The presenters rarely spoke on air but were available to take requests from those interacting on Facebook either through the chat facility or in a private chat room. For the first thirty minutes of DJ Debz show on the 19^th the music tracks were,

Pipe & Drums

Jingle

The Red White & Blue (‘A UVF soldier bold and true’, ‘We have been silent for too long’) Sung to the tune of You are My Hero.

On the Shankill Road

Our Love for The Red White and Blue (‘You’ll never rule over Ulster’)

The People’s Army, The Ulster Volunteers (The 36^th Division and the Liverpool Volunteers)

Jingle

Come Over to Ulster

The UDR 4 (The UDR Four were four members of the 2nd Battalion, Ulster Defence Regiment who were convicted of the murder of Adrian Carroll in 1983. Adrian Carroll was the brother of the Sinn Féin councillor Tommy Carroll. Three of the Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers were acquitted on appeal in 1992.^[1][2] However a fourth, Neil Latimer, had his conviction upheld and served 14 years in prison before being released under the Good Friday Agreement.)

No 1 Platoon of UVF (Lyrics include ‘With a gun in my hand I will fight for my land’.)

Side by Side with Scotland

The Men Behind the Wire (The Loyalist version of The Men Behind the Wire dates from the early 1970s, probably 1972. Its writers are unknown and several Loyalist groups and musicians have performed the song. Like the Republican version it emulates, The Men Behind the Wire is a protest against internment and imprisonment of paramilitary volunteers. Its lyrics are laden with symbolism, mentioning the “Red Hand”, the “Crown” and the “old Red White and Blue”. It also pays tribute to “loyal sons” and their “love for dear old Ulster”. Alphahistory.com)

Jingle

The popularity of the shows on Facebook is evident from the numbers averaging 2,226 per live show. The views on Facebook Live were

DJ Debz February 19^th                        1,800 views                 1,200 comments

DJ Shirley February 18^th                    1,100 views                 781 comments

DJ BrucieBoy February 17^th             2,200 views                 689 comments

DJ Debz February 15^th                        2,600 views                 994 comments

DJ Shirley February 13^th                    3,100 views                 1,500 comments

DJ Debz February 12^th                        2,800 views                 1,800 comments

 

The Radio App was developed by Nobex Partners who describe themselves as the complete digital solution for radio stations and podcasters.

‘We make it easy for you to create your own custom, feature-rich mobile app and provide the most powerful Dashboard to help you engage and grow your listenership.’

According to the data statistics website 42matters.com, UlsterScot FM has over one thousand app downloads alone apart from their availability on Tune-In.

 

The content is sectarian but it is in tradition of the loyalist culture. It is however important that the Loyalist culture should have an outlet whether it’s through social media or broadcast. The Catholic/Nationalist community in Belfast can tune into Radio Failte. The Falls Road located station was originally a pirate radio station before receiving a license from Ofcom, the British regulator. As a licensed station, the content it broadcasts is subject rules and codes of practice. The similar rules do not apply currently to broadcasters online.

 

The support of and the playing of tunes littered with foul language in support of Glasgow Rangers matches the sectarian bigotry of their rivalry with Glasgow Celtic, seen as the Catholic half of the rivalry. Many of the tunes are generically Irish, while other tunes are plagurised from other artists with the words substituted, known in the business as ‘Contrafactum’. Even though it was voted was the World’s Favourite song in a Global BBC poll, the Wolf Tones version of ‘A Nation Once Again’ rarely receives radio airplay due to its overly sectarian connotation, even though it was not written for that purpose. The song though is sung with gusto at events including weddings and funerals yet many who sing it do not know or even fully understand why it is so controversial or why it is offensive to a different community. For some it is just a really fine example of an Irish song.

 

Many of the songs that are aired on stations like UlsterScot FM reinforce the anti-Catholic sentiment that manifested itself throughout over a century of Belfast history. The Falls Road and the Shankill Roads are separated by a wall imposed to protect lives and property and the Protestants and Catholics on either side are living in enclaves with both sides having experienced forms of ethnic cleansing in the early part of the Troubles in the late sixties and early seventies. It is a form of brainwashing to perpetuate the hatred and the divisions that have existed in Northern Ireland even after the Good Friday Agreement that brought an end to the Troubles.

 

The issue that UlsterScot broadcasts sectarian inspired content contravenes the terms of service of Tune-In.

Terms of Service

Acceptable Uses and Objectionable Content. We want Users to have an enjoyable experience when they use the Service. To facilitate that, we have adopted an Acceptable Use Policy, which is hereby incorporated by reference into this EULA. You are required to comply with the Acceptable Use Policy when Posting any User Content to the Service. The Posting of any Objectionable Content, as defined in the Acceptable Use Policy, may subject you to third party claims and none of the rights granted to you in this EULA may be raised as a defence against any third party claims arising from your Posting of Objectionable Content. If you encounter any Objectionable Content on the Service, then please immediately email TuneIn at support@tunein.com. 

Tune In acceptable policy states,

‘Treat fellow members of the community with respect. Act in good faith and assume others are acting in good faith as well. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

We do not permit objectionable content on the Service, which is content that is or could be interpreted to be (i) abusive, bullying, defamatory, harassing, harmful, hateful, inaccurate, infringing, libellous, objectionable, obscene, offensive, pornographic, shocking, threatening, unlawful, violent, vulgar, or in violation of any applicable laws (including laws related to speech); or (ii) promoting any product, good, or service, or bigotry, discrimination, hatred, intolerance, racism, or inciting violence (including suicide) (collectively, “Objectionable Content“)’.

 

According to the Irish Times in December 2020 the Irish Government intends to tackle content such as that broadcast on UlsterScot FM although it will be difficult to police online.

‘The sharing of hate speech on social media is to become a criminal offence under Government proposals to combat racism and bigotry. This will mean that the sharing or retweeting of hateful speech on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter will be a crime, even if the person sharing it was not the author. Under the Government plan, to be published on Thursday by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, there will be protections for social-media companies from prosecution. For example, it will be a defence for a company to show it had existing measures in place to prevent hate speech and was complying with these.’

 

The large social media companies have come under sustained pressure especially in the wake of the 2020 US presidential Election to be more proactive in identifying and blocking hate speech online but this must also apply to so called radio services masquerading as entertainment when in fact they material broadcast is inflammatory and insensitive. The adage that ‘if you don’t like it you don’t have to listen’ rings hollow when in fact the issue is the indoctrination of a younger generation into believing that the opposite side of a divide is the enemy that must be challenged.

 

This is not the first time that stations like this have faced criticism. In an Irish Examiner article in 2005, detailing the story of Loyalist FM (https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30217677.html).

“Internet authorities tonight pledged to probe any fears about an online radio station allegedly glorifying loyalist terrorists. SDLP Assembly member John Dallat has demanded the shutdown of a website he believes is trying to recruit teenage paramilitaries. The East Londonderry MLA has also urged Chief Constable Hugh Orde to move against Loyalist FM.

The site claims to be promoting loyalist culture by playing music and providing entertainment for the 1,080 registered users. But its online jukebox contains songs where a father implores his sons to take his gun and fight as Ulster Defence Association men, and another portraying a 16-year-old taking up a rifle on behalf of the YCV – the Ulster Volunteer Force’s youth wing. Mr Dallat said: “Given the countless massacres that loyalist paramilitaries have been involved in, this is obviously just about incitement to hatred and lawlessness. “I have written to the chief constable, drawing his attention to it and suggesting it was a recruiting agent for the worst kind of paramilitaries.”

 

Loyalist FM’s playlist is still available on SoundCloud with versions of the ‘Deck of Cards’ lauding the exploits of the UVF, ‘Craigavon Protestant Boys’ and ‘I Am Northern Ireland’.[1] They even produced an album featuring the seventeen most requested tracks played on the station.

According to the widely respected Cain Website the importance of the online station’s activities in promoting the loyalist band traditions,

‘The role of the online radio station Loyalist FM, in organising events, sponsoring bands and hosting band websites in 2004 and 2005 provides evidence that online activity has become woven in with the loyalist band scene as a significant new form of alternative media.’

However even within Loyalism, the station was controversial and is yet another indication that online radio stations should be, if not licensed, then registered, In May 2005, The Sunday Life Newspaper reported,

‘Loyalists have fallen out over business dealings at an online radio station, it has been revealed.

A new management team has taken over Loyalist FM after it was discovered a former member had been taking bookings for gigs without telling anyone. The internet station which plays "the best in loyalist cultural music" can be booked for private functions at lodges, clubs and band halls. A new website ‘loyalistfm.net’ was created last month and new managers posted a statement online distancing themselves from the former organisers. The statement reads: "Since the new management team have taken over the running of Loyalist FM, it has become increasingly apparent that there was a lot of business being done by one member of the management of ‘loyalistfm.co.uk’ which no one else was told about. "We would like to make it clear that we are in no way related to the work of the previous management.

 

It appears that (the former member) a lot of bookings and did a lot of business under the Loyalist FM name without telling anyone else. "This has left us in the dark about most bookings for Loyalist FM. "If you have booked Loyalist FM through (the former member) and would like the new team to carry out the booking, please contact lexi@loyalistfm.net". He added: "We cannot guarantee that we will be able to attend your event, but we will make every effort to help you." A spokesman for the station was reluctant to discuss recent developments. He said: "It was an internal issue that's been resolved and the people involved have now left" Loyalist FM DJ’s are in high demand, according to the website, playing functions across the province and further afield.’[2]

 

Other online stations have come and gone including ‘LoyalistShankillFM’ whose online profile said it ‘is a loyalist radio station formed 2014 to bring you the best possible loyalist music that we can and to keep our culture alive.’

 Another station was Shankill Radio which says that it ‘is a community based radio station which delivers two FM broadcasts a year one in July and the other at Christmas Shankill Radio also have internet broadcast in between their FM broadcasts. All the people at Shankill Radio are volunteers and give up their free time to help keep the radio running. Shankill Radio is a charity based organisation which is in constant need of funding. I have listened to Shankill Radio myself and have found if very enjoyable and the DJ's and staff of Shankill Radio are very friendly. 

 

The Ulster -Scot connection was reinforced for a time by a Scottish based Loyalist/Orange Order online station based in Scotland known as Radio 221 /Radio Calton[3]. According to their website,

‘Only songs portraying our Protestant, Orange and Loyalist culture will be played! Some songs may be construed as offensive and unfortunately the listener cannot choose which songs they want played’.

In his book ‘Unionists, Loyalists and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland’ by Lee A. Smithey, he wrote,

‘Websites such as PULSE, formerly Calton Radio, based in Glasgow, exemplify the revanchist quarters of loyalism where zero-sum mentalities are perpetuated. PULSE caters to bands, paramilitaries and their supporters, hosts online discussions, publishes newsletters and streams a radio broadcast of loyalist and Orange tunes. The materials available on the web typify the defensive and studiously anti-Republican views of working class Protestants who feel ‘under siege’ and question whether the war is truly over. Paramilitaries figure prominently in the music that the site broadcasts.’

 

The Ulster Loyalist tradition of following Glasgow Rangers is an extension of the sectarianism of Belfast onto the sporting fields of Glasgow as Rangers seen traditionally as the Protestant team facing down their rivals annually, the Catholic based Glasgow Celtic. The song ‘The Fields of Athenry’ written in 1979 by Pete St John is a traditional favourite at sporting fixtures in both rugby and soccer and has a communal feel to it as most people at least known the chorus but when listening to ‘True Blue Loyalist Radio’ with their tagline ‘We are the People (WATP)’, the words had been adapted to the tune, the chorus now boasting,

‘Remember, our fathers brave and bold, As they fought for Ulster's cause in far off lands’

Almost every tune played each night 8-11pm (except Tuesdays) referenced the connection between Scotland and Ulster and Orangeism and loyalism. They too promote and reinforce the sense of isolation for their culture and a sense of its their backs to the wall, they must stick together and they idolise acts of violence and hero worship Ulster protestants who fought in World War One with scant reference to any Ulsterman who may have lost their lives in any other war. The music is well produced and has a certain appeal, one song about a song remembering his father who died in the fields of celebration during the 12^th of July parade was particularly good.

During the Covid19 pandemic, when July 12^th festivities including parades were banned in Northern Ireland, the Orange Order developed a pop up radio station to keep their brethren informed and entertained. According to The Journal.ie in July 2020,

‘At the centre of the celebrations will be ‘Radio Boyne’ – a pop-up radio station that will begin broadcasting on 10 July. With music, chat and a thought-for-the-day section, the Grand Orange Lodge is hoping that people tune into shows such as the ‘Twelfth Request Sunday Show’ and ‘Auld Orange Ballads’. 

 

The freedom of speech should not be impugned but the content of some of these online radio stations should be monitored. It is important that traditions of culture and history are respected and embraced but to prolong and encourage sectarian bias and a belief that violence against another community can be legitimatised, is unacceptable. It should not be tolerated online on social media or broadcast either via analogue transmissions (pirate radio) or online radio stations. Some of the music is very engaging and enlightening and it is important to respect the music that Loyalists generations have enjoyed in the past. It assists in healing if we can understand opposing views. Words and music matter. Radio can be a healer or it can continue division. Radio can work.

---

[1] https://soundcloud.com/loyalist-fm

[2] Journalist Sinead McCavanna

[3] Began broadcasting in March 2007 later to rebranded as PULSE, Protestant Unionist Loyalist Social Education

Donegal Radio Pirates in the 1940s

Donegal has had a rich pirate radio history especially due to its proximity to the Northern Ireland border and the city of Derry. But the county's spot in pirate radio history stretches back to the early days of radio. Here are two stories from that early period.

In 1945, as the Second World War ended and the Emergency as it was known in Ireland was wound down, Radio Nuala was reported to be broadcasting on medium wave from the Beehive public house in Ardara in Donegal. Part of their complaint was that the Radio Eireann signal was poor in the area and that they were being 'bombarded' by the signals of the BBC's Six Counties Service. 

Some years later in 1947 a row between Donegal fishermen and a private fishery business about who had the rights to fish on the Irish side of the River Foyle from the Sea to Lifford would end with a High Court Case.  The local fishermen in an attempt to raise the finance to fight the case in Dublin and to highlight the issue within the community operated a mobile radio service to broadcast their message. They even managed to cross the border briefly to broadcast in Strabane in County Tyrone

. 

An Irish Pirate Radio Pioneer - AN OBITUARY

In July 2019, the esteemed and world renown pioneer of renewable energy Professor Godfrey Boyle passed away. But not only was Mr. Boyle the professor emeritus of renewable energy and the director of the Energy and Environment Research Unit in the Open University's Faculty of Mathematics, Computing, and Technology, he was a pioneer in pirate radio broadcasting.

On a number of pirate radio forums there was some scepticism and questioning that a pirate radio station could broadcast from a telephone box, but Professor Boyle and his then student friends were the pirates behind these broadcasts.

In February 1968, using a homemade transmitter, a tape recorder and an aerial attached from the roof of the phone box  to a nearby tree, their station was on the air broadcasting from the corner of Lennoxvale and Malone Road in Belfast (there is a telephone box still located on the site). The tape recording began with "You are now listening to an illegal broadcast and are committing an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act. We will now allow you a few minutes to switch off.' The operators knew and indeed hoped that it would be discovered by officials from the detection unit of the GPO in Belfast and used it as a publicity stunt in an attempt to liberalise the airwaves in Belfast. Their station broadcasting on 242m was known as Radio SRCIS and these initial broadcasts began a cat and mouse game with the authorities throughout 1968. 

The Belfast Telegraph reported that

‘No action likely over kiosk radio THE GPO were to-day investigating the finding of pirate radio equipment in a Malone Road telephone kiosk, but there is a possibility they may decide to drop the whole matter. A spokesman said to-day: "If this is the end of the illegal transmissions I doubt if we will pursue our inquiries. But if it should start again, we would have to give the matter further thought." The transmitting equipment. including a tape recorder and aerial wire extending from the kiosk to a tree, was discovered by engineers who toured the city yesterday using monitoring equipment. According to the spokesman, the equipment found in the 'phone box was a lot of "old stuff" of little value. It was probable the GPO would dispose of it.’

The incident was even raised in the British House of Commons when Sir Knox Cunningham, MP for South Antrim asked the British Postmaster-General Edward Short what steps would be taken to prevent the use by radio pirates of Post Office equipment in Ulster. The PMG replied "The apparatus was traced and removed by Post Office engineers" and added. "I do not propose to take any special precautions against a repetition".

Not deterred by the loss of their transmitter Mr. Boyle and his fellow students at Queens University just a short distance from Malone Road set up a rag week pirate station in March. Broadcasting on 235m, Rag Radio was on the air. The station’s signal was heard over three miles from the station’s transmitter located near the University. At one stage the police laid siege to the Students Union headquarters in the mistaken belief that the pirate transmitter was located there.

On April 19th 1968, the Belfast Telegraph under the headline ‘Ulster Radio Pirates, A Year on the Air’ reported that,

‘Northern Ireland’s radio "pirates" were on the air again last night and to-day a spokesman disclosed that they have been making illegal broadcasts in the Belfast area sporadically for a year. It is now believed that five or six young men in their twenties, mostly students, are behind the broadcasts and that their equipment is home-built. "The broadcasts began as series of experimental transmissions by people interested in radio. Then we formed the idea that we should be allowed to make broadcasts legally." said the spokesman for the group who. call themselves the Northern Ireland Citizens' Band Action Group. Recent broadcasts have mixed records with demands for new wireless telegraphy legislation to make available a waveband for the use of private citizens and to set up commercial stations. The spokesman claimed that the situation which allows the Government-run BBC radio monopoly is undemocratic. "People are entitled to run their own newspapers as a means of communication and there are commercial television stations. Why not commercial radio?" He said that incident' some weeks ago when transmission equipment was found in a phone box on the Malone Road was designed to draw attention to their ideas.’

Professor Boyle was born in Brentford, West London, to Kevin Boyle, a quantity surveyor, and his wife, Phyllis. The family moved to Belfast when Professor Boyle was a baby where he and his sister, Mary, grew up. His early education was at St Malachy’s college before he enrolled for an electrical engineering degree at Queen’s University Belfast, where he ran societies, published alternative magazines, and was part of radical activities in the University in a province that was on the brink of the Troubles.  In 1975 his influential book ‘Living on the Sun’ was published, which advanced the then novel idea that industrial countries could make a transition to renewable power.

Professor Godfrey Boyle, a pirate radio pioneer, May He Rest In Peace

A Couple of Slides from NORTHERN IRELAND PIRATE RADIO Lecture

'A Century of Irish Radio 1900-2000' Book Launched

A Century of Irish Radio 1900 -2000

This 595 page book tells the story of how a medium with much of its early history centered in Ireland, has revolutionized and changed Irish society more than any other medium.

This comprehensive story begins with Ireland became the first nation in the world to be declared by radio during the iconic events of the 1916 Easter Rising. It charts the birth of legal radio in 1926 which is shrouded in scandal and reports of corruption with fatal consequences. Irish radio while born in the twenties, the evolutionary 1930's would change how the Irish listener consumed and interacted with the wireless. The book tells how Radio Eireann’s revenue in 1932 was £220 but a year later they reported revenues of £22,000. In the 1930’s you could learn to swim on the radio or listen to commentaries on the International Fishing competitions held on the rivers and lakes of Ireland. You can learn about an anti-Jazz movement whose legal ramifications are still felt today. How the Church and State battled both for and on the airwaves. We unravel an urban myth that the first ever radio broadcast of ‘The Saint’ was on Radio Eireann in 1940 and acknowledges the real success of Radio Eireann as it transforms rural Ireland on limited resources and offers women a new independence and perspective. The book tells the story of the first man in the world to die on hunger strike having been convicted of pirate radio broadcasting. The book .

The Irish language was relegated to third place for a time on the official airwaves but the radio battle for our native language to have access to the ether has been long, protracted and eventful. Irish radio has been a conduit for propaganda and has become Americanized with men like Bill Cunningham changing how we consume radio, the giveaways, the profits and even the success and failure of longwave station Atlantic 252. Discover how Ireland interacts with the rest of the world through radio and how ironically it was two Englishmen Leonard Plugge and Chris Cary who revolutionized radio in Ireland.

For the first time ever, the book lists and offers station histories of over one thousand illegal pirate radio stations from the first conviction of Michael Madden in 1935 to the commercial successes of the so called super pirates such as Radio Nova, ERI and Kiss FM. The book examines the impact of political pirate radio in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the troubles and how paramilitary pirate stations brought down a Government and accelerated the end of a major political career. How pirate radio and TV both threatened Government policy and led to dramatic change. As an avalanche of pirate radio stations across the country forced new legislation for legal independent radio and television, commercial interests would dominate and cause further controversy with stories of fraud and corruption.

Learn about the good and evil within pirate radio, how this illegal activity created a fledgling radio industry, created border blasters, frequency hijackings, the characters and the presenters from Larry Gogan to Gerry Ryan to Andy Preston leaders in personality driven radio. 

Click on this link to order your copy.

ON SALE NOW

Northern Ireland Pirate Radio 1969 - 1975 Lecture

The following is an except from a 2019 lecture I delivered on Northern Ireland pirate radio 1969-1975.

PAGE ONE

This is a lecture on the Northern Ireland pirate radio stations 1969-1975. My name is Eddie Bohan and I am a broadcast historian involved in the Irish Pirate Radio Archive and I have published two books ‘Rebel Radio, The Easter Rising Broadcasts’ and ‘A Century of Irish Radio 1900-2000’. This lecture is accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation and I will make the slides available on the University website.

SLIDE

By the late 1960s the demand by the Catholic/Nationalist community within the six counties of Northern Ireland for electoral, employment, housing and social equality with their Protestant/Loyalist neighbours brought protests out onto the streets of the major cities of Belfast and Derry/Londonderry.

In October 1968 a Civil Rights march through Derry was attacked by the police who were seen by many Catholics to be doing the dirty work of the Unionist led Northern Ireland Government based at Stormont. Marches in Belfast ended in rioting and police baton charges. Between August 12th – 17th 1969 serious rioting took place across the province which was both political and sectarian. The Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O’Neill who had been attempting to appease the communities was replaced by James Chichester Clark and on August 14th he requested assistance from the British Government in London and British troops were deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland in support of the police force the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) for the first time. Catholic homes and business were targeted and burned down forcing Catholics to flee many towards the border where the Irish Government of Jack Lynch had set up field hospitals and refugee camps. The IRA who had been dormant since 1962 re-emerged and Loyalist paramilitaries encouraged by the incendiary rhetoric of Reverend Ian Paisley attacked each other and both in turn attacked the British Army.

The result of the instability and the violent discrimination was the creation of no-go areas in Belfast and Derry with the famous white gable wall in Derry proclaiming that ‘You Are Entering Free Derry’ with the Catholic areas barricaded offering a sense of both isolation and independence. The two major cities were polarized into Catholic and Protestant areas with each barricading themselves from attack by the opposite community and by the police and army. The situation was tense and fluid and information was hard to come by.

News was often nothing more rumour and conjecture, falsehoods creating fear and misinformation causing tension across the island of Ireland. For most people access the news was via newspapers and the radio and television. Newspapers were often slanted towards one side of the other and when the rioting began newspaper production and deliveries were badly disrupted. Locals turned to the radio for updates, often simply to discover if it was safe for them to leave their homes to venture to the shops to buy much needed supplies.

Their reputed listenership was in excess of 70% and they were often the sole outlet for news. They gave voice to the oppressed, they challenged the Government’s official positions, they provided morale boosts, they rallied their foot soldiers into action. They were the pirate radio stations of Northern Ireland 1969 – 1975. Who were they? What was the impact on their communities and the course of the Troubles? Why was there a vacuum that required their existence? How extensive were their operations and how did the Government attempt to tackle the issue?

As the ‘Troubles’ began in 1969, The BBC Northern Ireland controller Waldo Maguire said that the ‘BBC should modify the presentation of news in a way to avoid extreme provocation’. The news from the BBC would appear to have been sanitized from the very early stages of the Troubles.  In an editorial in the Nationalist Newspaper on August 29th 1969 it said ‘inaccurate reporting has made the BBC at times akin to a purveyor of British propaganda’. Access to news was limited. Northern Ireland was served by BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Television Northern Ireland who operated an opt out facility for short news bulletins after the main BBC News programmes and some limited programme production from within the province. The commercial IBA[1] franchise was Ulster Television and it too provided limited programming from within the province relaying the main ITV networked programming instead. BBC Radio and TV NI provided eight news bulletins for the entire day each totalling five minutes in duration and UTV added two more often overlapping with their BBC counterparts. For those able to receive RTE Radio and Television from south of the border had access to 25 news bulletins each day[2]. By the end of 1969 as the violence escalated RTE opened a news office in Belfast. There was a void for up to the minute news and news that was aimed not generically but at specific communities and this void was about to be filled by illegal, clandestine pirate radio stations that would have a major impact on the direction of the Troubles over the following years. 

PAGE TWO

Between 1969 and 1975 when sectarianism was at its ugliest and deadliest, local communities of Protestants and Catholics relied on their local pirate radio station to provide news and occasional entertainment. The stations also reinforced the feelings in both communities that they were under attack from the opposite side. These stations broadcast mainly in Belfast and Derry. Their diet of propaganda caused incitement to violence and the authorities battled to get them closed down. These stations were illegal and broadcast as pirates, but they were more specifically clandestine stations as were political pirate radio stations. Clandestine stations are classified as either black or grey. Grey radio refers to stations operated by dissident groups within a country. Black stations are broadcast by one side disguised as broadcasts by the other.

Almost as soon as the barricades went up along the Shankill Road and the Falls Road, two pirate stations were broadcasting to their respective communities. The Irish Independent reported on August 26th

‘While there is a lull in the rioting, a propaganda battle is raging in Belfast. Broadcasting from behind the barricades in the Falls area ‘Radio Free Belfast’ is sending out a stream of anti-Government propaganda interspersed with patriotic songs and pop record requests. ‘Radio Free Ulster is conducting an equally vigorous campaign for the other side from the Shankill area. Both stations operate on very similar wavelengths and at time deliberately make attempts to interfere with one another, by cutting in during transmission.'

SLIDE

Radio Free Belfast was located above the Long Bar on the Falls Road utilising a homemade medium wave transmitter began broadcasting on 244m before jamming forced it to move to 300m. In a memorandum prepared by An Garda Síochána for the Department of Justice on events in Northern Ireland on 5 September 1969 it reported.

‘Radio Free Belfast, The Radio of Revolution, was on the air on Friday night; it had been operating for two or three days previous to this. This is a pirate radio station operating on 240 to 245 meters on the Medium Wave Band. The radio is on the air twenty-four hours a day. It has been set up by the Peoples' Democracy and the Belfast Citizen's Defence Committee. The transmitter is situated in the Catholic, Falls Road area and has a radius of about 4 to 5 miles. At times it is blotted out for long periods. The announcer said that it was set up to boost the morale of the men manning the barricades and urged them to make the barricades higher and thicker.

It plays requests for these men and appeals for food and necessities. Radio Free Belfast makes four demands off the Stormont Government

(1): To release the men interned in Crumlin Road Prison and revoke the Special Powers Act.

(2)  To disarm and disband the 'B' Specials.

(3) Disarm the R.U.C. and sack its Senior Officers.

(4) Suspend the Stormont Government.

The radio dwells mostly on the interned political prisoners and states that there are about 30 in Crumlin Road Prison. The requests played are a mixture of 'Pops' and 'Patriotic Songs', i.e. 'Sean South', 'Boys of Wexford, etc. The radio also transmits messages such as the numbers of privately owned police car's operating in the area with the names of the police officers in same. It gives details of property lost and found and transmits messages to parents and relatives of refugees in the South. It is manned by an English Disc Jockey at night and by men with Northern accents in the daytime.

On Saturday evening, 23/8/1969, there was a message read over Radio Free Belfast from the National Solidarity Committee, Gardiner Place, Dublin. It called on persons from all walks of life in the 'Free State' to force the 26 County Government to take further action in regard to the problems in the Six Counties. There are two other pirate radios operating in the Belfast area at the moment. There are "Radio Peace" and "Radio Ulster". They are believed to be in operation in the Protestant Shankill area and are very amateurish in comparison with Radio Free Belfast.’

PLAY CLIP

In a further ‘secret’ document in September 1969 from the Department of Justice to the Taoiseach Jack Lynch it stated that,

"The Long Bank", 59 Leeson Street, where Radio Free Belfast was in operation, is a Licensed Premises. The Station which was manned by a staff of eight (8) - six (6) men and two (2) girls - is used ' to announce any developments to the residents in the locality. Between announcements record requests are played for those persons manning the barricades. This station was on the air for twenty-one (21) hours of the 24. It goes off the air from 9am to 12 noon. daily, to give the equipment an opportunity of cooling. There is a notice to this effect on the 'wall of the studio.'

It also band scanned the Belfast airwaves revealing the following station information

NAME                        FACTION                   LOCATION

 (1) Voice of Ulster                 Protestant                    Barnsley Park, Shankill Road.

 (2) Radio Orange                   do                                do

(3) Radio Shankill                  do                                "The Hammer" Shankill Road.

(4) Radio Sundown                do                                do

(5) Radio Free Belfast            Catholic                     "The Long Bank" 59 Leeson street.

(6) Radio Peace,                     Neutral                        Springfield Park off Springfield Road.

John McGuffin was one of the main men behind the station said that the station broadcast ‘from behind the barricades’. The station would later move frequency due to British Army jamming to 300m.

Radio Free Belfast delivered a message to their loyal listeners

“The Protestant workers are the poor dupes of the junta of effete aristocrats and hard-faced capitalists that have for fifty years divided our country and have divided the working class on a sectarian basis.'

On the opposite side was Radio Free Ulster (often referring to itself simply as Radio Ulster) on 242m MW also began broadcasting in August 1969 with DJ’s named Lord Orange, Roarin’ Meg, Sad Sam, Cameronian Kid and Orange Lil. They galvanised the stereotypes of the Catholic community that the loyalist paramilitaries were promoting. Radio Free Ulster was one of a number of Loyalist pirate radio stations including Radio Orange operating as the ‘Troubles’ began.

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PAGE THREE

Another loyalist station was Radio Shankill or alternatively known as Radio Ulster began broadcasting with a transmitter built by Johnny Doak from Tigers Bay in Belfast. The station’s broadcasts added to the tension in the city and threats were directed at ‘the Republicans of the Falls Road’ and jeering that Catholic owned public houses had been targeted and destroyed by loyalist mobs.

When a twenty-three years old Protestant Jack Todd was shot dead from a speeding car on September 7th, the underground Protestant pirate station urged loyalist vigilantes to move against Roman Catholics. Belfast seemed to be on the brink of outright civil war. On Sunday September 7th tensions at the interface between the two communities were heightened. The Irish Independent reported

‘The action of the army only angered them more and in a short time they gathered again; this time the crowd swelling by several hundred. Then the Shankill pirate radio, station broadcast a message calling on every able-bodied man to report to Percy Street where, the- broadcaster said, an attack was being made on "the Fenians." "Will all units please report immediately," said the announcer, as if there was a prearranged plan. "This is a republican plot. The British troops are guarding the Falls. We are asking for the Royal Ulster Constabulary to man our barricades. This is no reflection on Her Majesty's troops. " We plead to all loyalists not to be provoked by retaliation against Her Majesty's loyal forces. 'This is what the Republicans want. Don't fall into the trap."

The Fermanagh Herald reported that on the night of Friday September 12th

‘A crowd, estimated at between 2,000 and 3,000, massed at Boyne Bridge menacing Durham Street with ten truckloads of soldiers separating them from a small crowd at the bottom of Albert Street. The Sandy Row crowd turned out after a call over " Radio Ulster " the Shankill Road station for " loyalists " to come out and defend their homes. During the night broadcasts by Radio Ulster resulted in crowds gathering in Protestant districts at several points. At one time a woman, broadcasting over Radio Ulster was declaring that the Irish Republican Army, with Tricolour in front, was advancing on the Shankill Road.’

One writer described the output of the Belfast pirates as

‘From Free Belfast’s eloquent political homilies full of wit and passion alternating with passionate witty folk songs to Orange Lil tongue snared bluster alternating with the Sash and God Save The Queen repeated like an incurable stammer.’

The equipment was crude and the transmitters often cobbled together from ex-army transmitters. A turntable and a microphone and these stations were on the air. They were breaking the Wireless Telegraphy Act and liable to a £400 fine for a first offence or £400 per day on air if discovered by the GPO detection inspectors. A raid by the Army in October 1969 netted the authorities the transmitter for Radio Ulster on the Shankill Road.

Not every commentator believed that the pirates in Belfast had any influence. Justin Hale in his book ‘Radio Power, Propaganda and International Broadcasting’ said

‘Both the IRA and Protestant extremists are an amalgam of fragmented group who would find it hard to maintain a consistent line of propaganda. But above all the radios are on the fringe because there is no essential need for them. Other means of communication exist, the area is small, the aims of the participants are widely known even if the tactics sometimes need some explaining to the faithful and the outsiders alike.’

SLIDE

Across the province at 7.02pm on January 10th 1969, Radio Free Derry broadcasting on 1388khz medium wave came to life. The Derry City station broadcast with a 25watt transmitter originally operated by the Socialist Resistance Group control later passing to the Official IRA. With studios and transmitter located in the Rossville Street flats, one of the main movers behind the station was the socialist campaigner Eamonn McCann who would later become a member of the Stormont Assembly. In his book ‘War in an Irish Town’ McCann wrote about the radio station

It was installed in an eighth-storey flat in Rossville Street with the aerial on the roof. We began broadcasting, describing ourselves as ‘Radio Free Derry, the Voice of Liberation’. The only people more appalled than the government by the situation were the leaders of the CAC. They had never intended barricades. But blood was up and there was nothing they could do about it. By chance the radio transmitter had been presented to Dermie McClenaghan and me. We used it to make propaganda encouraging the people to keep the barricades up and the police out and to ‘join your vigilante patrols’. We were perhaps erratic. On one occasion Tommy McDermott, who believed in the revolutionary potential of underground music, was left alone with the transmitter, an opportunity which he used to treat the populace to two hours of the Incredible String Band interspersed with whispered injunctions to ‘love one another and keep cool’. But for the most part we played rebel songs, and White, McClenaghan, Melaugh and I and some others delivered regular harangues. Reception was good, the listening audience vast.

Radio Free Derry nightly bombarded the area with pleas to ‘keep up the resistance’. We failed to swing the population round completely to this point of view, which possibly was not a bad thing because at the time we had neither the organization nor the means to put such resistance into effect. By the end of the week nervousness and uncertainty had replaced the excitement of Sunday night. The CAC had kept on the side lines. Late on Friday night Hume, Cooper, Canavan and a few others descended on the area and with a series of perfectly pitched and brilliantly timed speeches convinced the vigilantes that the barricades ought to be dismantled. They were gone by the morning. Any attempt to re-erect them would have been a frontal challenge to the CAC, and the revolutionary disc-jockeys of Radio Free Derry were in no position to do that, most of them, after all, being members of that body. (Citizens Action Committee)

PLAY CLIP

The radio transmitter, now operating from Eamonn Melaugh’s house in Creggan, was pumping out Republican music and exhortations to ‘keep the murderers out. Don’t weaken now. Make every stone and petrol bomb count.’ The police were making charge after charge up Rossville Street. In a 2010 interview on BBC Radio Ulster, Jimmy Porter remembered his involvement in Radio Free Derry and said that while the station was located in the flats, the transmitters was put into the lift shaft meaning the station drifted in and out as the lift moved up and down fooling the British Army engineers into believing that the station was on the move possibly in the back of a van.

Radio Free Derry was joined on the air by Radio Saoirse operated by the Provisional IRA based on Rathlin Drive in the city. The station also air checked as The Voice of The Second Battalion. In September 1969 another station appeared on the medium wave calling itself ‘Radio Bogside’ and operated by the Citizens Defence Association.

Radio Free Derry was back on the air on August 23rd 1971 and according to the Socialist Resistance Group who set up the station it was using a 180 watt transmitter located on the southside of the border in Donegal but audible as far as Strabane.

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PAGE SEVEN

The Stormont Government met on September 9th 1969 to specifically discuss the issue of pirate radio and how to put them off the air. The consensus was that if the British Army, who were now patrolling the streets, and the RUC forcibly entered that had become no-go ghettos the spectre of violence and bloodshed was all too imminent. The following day British Army engineers began to jam the broadcasts of the three main stations in Belfast, Radio Shankill, Radio Free Ulster both Protestant stations and the Catholic Radio Free Belfast. What followed was a cat and mouse game as the stations moved up and down the medium wave band, this also caused interference to the legal broadcasters in the province and they often ended up jamming each other’s frequencies. This had an affect and while the stations continued to broadcast their signals were almost inaudible.

As the violence escalated across the province and the two sides became more entrenched more stations emerged often using transmitters previously used. Radio 3 Belfast was located on the Falls Road, the station mimicked the fact that there was already a BBC Radio 1 and 2. Broadcasting to the nationalist community the station lasted a couple of weeks in October 1970. On the opposite side was Radio Orange on 242m MW which began broadcasting in September 1970 and the rhetoric included announcing

‘loyal citizens of Belfast buy nothing from the Republic, no Kerrygold, no Donnelly’s bacon, no Gateaux cakes, no perri crisps.’

After serious rioting in Belfast in October 1969 with Radio Orange inciting the Loyalist communities to attack Catholics the station was raided and closed by the British Army. In June 1970, the station was back on the air and this time the British Army jammed its signal.

 A call ' for the silencing of pirate radio stations was made in a blunt editorial in the "Belfast Telegraph". It said that this was a new and sinister factor in the conflict that now smouldered in Belfast, and the authorities had chosen to turn a blind eye to it for too long. In Derry "prompt action might have stamped it out at birth, but the authorities clearly did not recognise its influence' on events ". In Derry opposition was minimal and largely ineffectual, the paper said, but in Belfast the freedom of the airwaves had led to an unprecedented state of propaganda which had shown that it could influence people and events. The paper went on to ask: "Who can doubt that much of the dangerous build-up of Protestant feeling that took place in the Shankill and Sandy Row yesterday was the result of a hysterical call to arms through the Protestant radio? At the same time the naming of members of the B Specials over Radio Free Belfast is highly inflammatory." Stating that the military and police had a difficult enough job to do without interference calculated to make it more difficult still, the "Telegraph" said: "The radios must be silenced or someone will have a lot of explaining to do for refusing to act in time"

SLIDE

Armagh Resistance Radio on medium wave was believed by the British Army to be located in the Slieve Gullion area of Armagh and began broadcasting at Christmas 1971. The station was reported to be broadcasting advice to listeners about the ‘Rent and Rates’ strike that was taking place as a form of resistance to British rule in Northern Ireland at the time.  The station was picked up in many of the border counties and included requests for Republican internees.

One of the bigger stations in Loyalist Belfast was Radio Free Nick on 244m MW. The station opened in 1972 with a twenty watts transmitter operated by the Ulster Defence Association, the station was often ID'ed as The Voice of the UDA. Their transmitter had a range of twelve miles and broadcast for up to 16 hours a day. A house on Ceylon Street off the Shankill Road was raided by the British Army and the stations equipment confiscated. No arrests were made.

The station was one of the most listened to in Belfast at the time for the loyalist community as they broadcast coded messages and calls for people to man barricades in their area. The station became required listening and while much of their broadcasts were anti-Catholic and anti-Nationalist, they kept their own local community informed. In July 1972 most Protestants and especially Loyalist paramilitaries were getting all their information from Free Radio Nick. At one stage it told all UDA units not to move from their areas until further notice as it announced that an alleged statement asking units to move to Legadoon was false propaganda. The station broadcasts a mix of appeals for Protestants to join the UDA and music including Loyalist songs such as The Sash and Our Flag interspersed with music from the likes of Jim Reeves. One female presenter known on air as ‘Our Sal’ urged Catholics to ‘take in your tricolours and put out the flag of Ulster, you are daughters and sons of Ulster too.’

PAGE EIGHT

On Saturday July 22nd the newspapers reported that an IRA pirate radio station had reported that fifteen IRA active service members had been killed, ten of them in Belfast. The station added that 58 of their men had been injured. This newspaper report of the pirate stations claims came the day after what became known as Bloody Friday in Belfast when the IRA exploded nineteen bombs in 90 minutes that killed nine including five civilians. While according to Sean MacStiofan, who masterminded the bombing offensive, the intention of Bloody Friday was to damage infrastructure and not to cause loss of life but now with the loss of life the IRA in the eyes of its supporters needed to reclaim the moral high ground and to emphasize that this was not an attack on civilians but part of an all-out war. The pirate stations claim was that these IRA men were killed since the ending of a short-nlived IRA ceasefire that lasted from June 26th – July 9th.  In the aftermath of the bombs, 2000 British soldiers began raiding houses in Belfast arresting 58, the same number as used in the broadcasts to claim the number of IRA members injured.

July 1972 became one of the deadliest months of the trouble with 96 deaths. 1972 was the worst year of the troubles with 476 deaths including 249 civilians, 149 security forces and 78 paramilitaries.  Sources on the casualties for that month show that from the time of the end of the ceasefire and Bloody Friday, the IRA lost 4 men to British army fire while in the same period the security forces lost 12 men. The truth was becoming a casualty of war. 

Some of the short-lived stations in Belfast included Raidio na Phoblachta on 208m MW that made Marxist broadcasts while Radio Northern Ireland on 194m MW broadcast Unionist propaganda. Radio Saoirse on 246m MW was first heard in August 1971 broadcasting to Republican areas of Belfast with the station playing a selection of republican songs that announce called for the support of a ‘Dáil Uladh’, a provisional government for Ulster and said that they called ‘on all bodies representative of the area to commence a campaign of civil disobedience and declare the area an independent territory.  When the First Battalion of the Parachute Regiment entered the Whiterock area of Belfast early on the morning of August 11th to locate the pirate station and to dismantle barricades, the IRA opened fire and a two-hour gun battle followed which left three men dead.

The unusually named Gnomes of Ulster on 1556khzAM was located in South Belfast. GNU opened on June 20th 1972 and the name referred to Dutch Orangemen known as ‘Kabouters’. This station seemed to have no political motivation the operators of the station found the name for the station from a Dutch anarchist group. Also known as GNU Radio. Radio Ajax on 247mMW was a Pro-Unionist Belfast station of the early seventies as was also known as Radio Big Jim on 227mMW and went on the air after BBC Radio One went off the air from a location in Belfast.

SLIDE

The Voice of Free Belfast broadcast on 213m MW and was operated by the Socialist Alliance of Peoples Democracy with a 25watt transmitter from Anderstown, Belfast. Workers Radio on 232m MW (later 242m) opened Sunday April 2nd 1972 operated from the Falls Road Belfast by the Official IRA. Just two weeks later the station was closed when members of The Provisional IRA raided the house where the station was located and the man and woman on air were warned not to interfere with the transmitter destruction or they would be shot. The Official IRA claimed the house was owned by a pregnant woman. Another station was Radio Ronnie on 546khzAM and Radio Peace who broadcast for five hours per night from 11pm. A spokesman for the station Geoff Harden said that while the other Belfast pirates were sectarian their aim was ‘to provide something therapeutic to take peoples mind off the situation. Our role is spreading an atmosphere of calm.’ The theme tune for the station was ‘Give Peace A Chance’ by John Lennon. Geoff Harden (8th July 1943 – 4th September 2006) was a journalist, broadcaster, recording engineer and folk music promoter. Born in Kent, Harden moved to Belfast in 1966. He became well-known on the music scene in Belfast after setting up the Sunflower Flower Folk Club on Corporation Street, and consequently for his work as a folk music columnist in The Belfast News Letter and as a presenter on and contributor to numerous local radio stations.

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PAGE ELEVEN

Radio Sunshine according to Danny Morrison[3] who would later become a major force in the Sinn Fein organisation, this station was run by a ‘Dave’ and ‘Heather’ and was located near Belfast University. The station would go on air after BBC Ulster closed down. The GPO engineers began to track down the station and one Sunday evening their equipment and were getting ‘hotter and hotter’ and were disappointed when they discovered the station was located unattended in a telephone kiosk with a cheap homemade transmitter and tape recorder with the power source coming from the light fitting in the roof of the kiosk. Sunshine came on the following Sunday poking fun at the engineers.

Two songs both made the charts in part thanks to the Belfast pirate stations. Harvey Andrews ‘Soldier’ charted in 1973 after one of the Shankill stations continually played the tune. The song banned by the BBC and RTE, was based on the true story of Sergeant Michael Willets who was killed as he shielded children from a bomb thrown into the Springfield Road Police station. Andrews spoke later about the influence pf the song on the Loyalist community despite the fact that the song was not written to encourage sectarianism,

‘It seems that it was taken to be a pro-Loyalist song, which was never my intention. Years later it was released as a bootleg single by a Loyalist band and I have been told it was sold in pubs and out of car boots at Ibrox the home of Glasgow Rangers to raise money for paramilitaries. I was strongly opposed to this but was powerless to stop it. A song I had originally intended to once again mirror man's inhumanity to man has somehow become a vehicle for more of the same, something I regret’

The British Ministry of Defence advised their soldiers not to sing the song in pubs where it may incite strong emotive behaviour.

On the opposite side Paul McCartney’s song ‘Give Ireland back to the Irish’ was released on February 1972 and recorded with his then band Wings. It too was banned by the BBC and Radio Luxembourg but it did not stop it reaching No.11 in the British charts and No.21 in the USA. The song was written as a response to the events in Derry on Bloody Sunday. McCartney said,

‘From our point of view, it was the first time people questioned what we were doing in Ireland. It was so shocking. I wrote "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", we recorded it and I was promptly 'phoned by the Chairman of EMI, explaining that they wouldn't release it. He thought it was too inflammatory. I told him that I felt strongly about it and they had to release it. He said, "Well it'll be banned", and of course it was. I knew "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" wasn't an easy route, but it just seemed to me to be the time to say something.’

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PAGE TWELVE

Not every station took to the airwaves to air sectarian propaganda but took advantage of the authorities’ concentration on closing sectarian pirate stations. Harmony Radio was set up in Belfast by Good Vibrations Records founder Terri Hooley as an entertainment alternative to the hardcore vitriol of the political pirate stations. Then Radio 99 on 199mMW opened in April 1971 and set up by four friends to broadcast a non-political content with a diet of country and western music. The station was originally located in a disused house just inside the County Fermanagh border and was on air three hours Saturday and Sunday nights from 9.30pm opening each night with their signature tune Slim Whitman’s ‘What’s the World a Coming To’.

The station provided a postal address for requests of 6, Millbrook, Clones, County Monaghan but after just a couple of weeks on air the station was closed by loyalist paramilitaries who intimated the young broadcasters forcing them to close and move their transmitter south of the nearby border.

The station operators moved to Dunsrim near Scotshouse in County Monaghan with studios now housed in a caravan. The transmitter was built by Clones man Sean McQuillan using an ex-army transmitter. The station had three small transmitters two located south of the border and one north of the border across the River Finn.

 They periodically broadcast over the next four years with a name change to Radio Caroline North but it would all come to an end on November 21st 1975 when the Gardai raided the station. Three men Owen Smyth (aged 24) Charles Smyth (23) both from Knox, Scotshouse and Andrew Slowey from Cootehill, Cavan were found guilty of illegal broadcasting and each fined ten pounds each.

SLIDE – PLAY CLIP

A TV repairman by profession, McQuillan would maintain an interest in pirate radio and would assist Pat McCabe in 2006 to set up Radio Butty for a local festival with that station located in a VW van.  North of Belfast was Radio Antrim    on 1395khz AM. Test transmissions from this Belfast station began in July 1973 broadcasting on 215mMW with D.J. Richard Black introducing the station to the listeners of Belfast. A sixteen-watt transmitter broadcast non-political, non-commercial radio with a music format and local news and although it was not sectarian much of the news related to loyalist matters. After some initial successful broadcasts, the station went off the air only to return in 1974 using a Solihull, England mailing address. The station added a new voice to the airwaves, Paul Hamill and the station broadcast a mix of top twenty and C &W music. The station moved frequency to 224mMW and often relied on pre-recorded programmes. The station never achieved a sufficient level of support to stay on the air and the final broadcasts were heard in November 1975.

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In April 1974, close to the border with the Republic was Radio Free Newry broadcasting nationalist propaganda. Radio Woodvale was a loyalist paramilitary station linked to the UDA which was raided and closed by the British authorities in December 1974.

CONCLUSIONS NOT INCLUDED

Thank you

Questions

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[1] The Independent Broadcasting Authority

[2] This included 5 ‘Nuacht’ bulletins of between 1minute headlines and a 10 minute bulletin in Irish at 9.45pm

[3] www.dannymorrison.com

(c) The Irish Broadcasting Hall of Fame 2019