Paul Davidson Archives - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

Anoraks Ireland featured on Radio Caroline Cork — Generic Anoraks Ireland cassette inlay from our collection.

Many of our recordings are from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson (Tony Donlon, RIP). Tony travelled Ireland throughout the 1980s visiting pirate stations big and small, making recordings and taking photographs. In this recording, he is interviewed on Radio Caroline Cork during a visit just before Christmas 1984.

In the interview, Tony tells station boss Dave Hammond that the aim of Anoraks Ireland is to promote free and independent radio in Ireland. He opposes plans to allow RTÉ control local radio and speculates that if passed, the radio bill will establish just two stations in Dublin and one each in the other cities including Cork. The proposed broadcasting legislation of the time ultimately failed due to ideological differences between the coalition partners and it was not until 1988 that laws were adopted to licence independent radio.

This recording was made from around 1245 on Thursday 13^th December 1984 and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection. No frequency is given.

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Interview with Paul Davidson of Anoraks Ireland on Centre Radio — Anoraks Ireland card and logo with Paul Davidson’s name.

On its final day of broadcasting on 31^st December 1988, there was a serious anorak feel to Centre Radio in Bayside as it looked back at the pirate radio scene and caught up with those who had been involved with it. During his final show, Richard Taylor (John Walsh) interviewed Paul Davidson of Anoraks Ireland who had recorded and documented so much of Irish pirate radio in the 1980s. In the recording above which was made after 8pm, John asked Paul who was still on air in Dublin and got his views about the forthcoming legalisation of local radio.

Earlier at 3pm on December 31^st, Brian Greene interviewed Derek Jones and got his thoughts on the final day of pirate radio. Derek was one of those behind the shortwave station Radio Valleri based in Baldoyle, Dublin 13 and in 1986, he got involved with Big Beat Radio also in Baldoyle. Big Beat was a summer youth station which preceded Centre Radio and many of the same young DJs were involved.

Derek continues to broadcast today and in this extended interview with Brian Greene, he looks back at many happy decades behind the microphone.