Caroline 199: A Pirates Tale (Followed by a Q&A)

Directed by Peter Lydon

Q&A: Following this screening the Director Peter Lydon will be in conversation, along with other guests. 

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 in 1964 when 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, Radio Caroline, on Easter Sunday 1964.

The station, which played the pop and rock artists of the day, broke the monopoly that the BBC had on radio in the UK. At the time the BBC did not take the pop and rock music revolution seriously and only broadcast an hour a week of pop music programme. But O’Rahilly discovered a loophole in the strict radio licencing laws at the time and changed radio forever! O’Rahilly told BBC Arena “a small survey on the south coast of England has been carried out and it was established that 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, and so Radio Caroline was born!!! The Pirates Tale features a great sound track from the 1960’s.

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.