Caroline 199: A Pirates Tale (Followed by a Q&A with Director Peter Lydon- in-conversation with Piers Thompson).

Directed by Peter Lydon

Q&A: Following this screening the Director Peter Lydon will be in conversation with Piers Thompson from Portobello Radio. 

NB: This year is the 50th anniversary of BBC Arena: “The Pirates Tale” was an Arena Production, screened on the BBC 2, on March 1st 1991 

Running Length: 59mins

A special film screening about the maverick Irishman Ronan O’Rahilly, founder of the celebrated pirate radio station Radio Caroline, who became known as the man who changed radio forever!!

Ronan O’Rahilly revolutionised commercial radio, when on Easter Sunday 1964 he set up Radio Caroline, on a ship, outside UK territorial waters and broadcast to the mainland, he took on the British political and broadcasting establishments by launching the UK’s first offshore pirate station.

With the creation of the UK’s first pirate radio station, Ronan took on the British political and broadcasting establishments. At the time the BBC was trying to control this music revolution by only broadcasting one hour a week of pop, on Alan Freeman’s ‘Pick of The Pops’. O’Rahilly, who managed Georgie Fame at the time, discovered a loophole in the strict radio licensing laws. He explains: “if a ship was parked off the coast, three miles outside, the whole f***ing country would tune in and turn on.” – And it did! Overnight Radio Caroline was reaching a music starved audience of nearly 10 million. The station, playing the pop and rock artists of the day, broke the monopoly that the BBC had on radio in the UK and it launched the DJ careers of Tony Blackburn, Simon Dee, Johnnie Walker and Dave Lee Travis….

‘The Pirates Tale’ is a fascinating film which features a great sound track from the 1960’s… Radio Caroline had mass appeal all over Ireland, both north and south, with thousands of young people tuning in, on their new transistor radios, day and night, to listen to the latest Pop songs, American rock ‘n’ roll and country!

The Director Peter Lydon says… 

“Last year I was thrilled when ICC screened my South Bank Show film – “Clear Cool Crystal Streams” which explored the folk and poetic roots of late 80s Irish Rock. That film was made possible by the passion and my connections with Sir Bob Geldof. Sir Bob came back to me to a couple of years later with another film idea about the legendary pirate radio station Radio Caroline. He had been hanging out with its maverick founder Ronan O’Rahilly at The Chelsea Arts Club. There Ronan had filled his head with incredible stories of how he’d created a radio station on a boat parked it off the English coast. And proceeded to blow open the BBC’s strangle-hold over the broadcast of pop music”. 

Ronan O’Rahilly was the Grandson of The O’Rahilly who was a renowned Irish nationalist and died in the Easter Uprising of April 1916.