{"id":1874,"date":"2020-06-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=1874"},"modified":"2025-12-01T19:15:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T19:15:36","slug":"womens-sceal-radio-radio-pirate-woman-galway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/womens-sceal-radio-radio-pirate-woman-galway\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpts from Women&#8217;s Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman (Galway)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8239\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1874-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WSR_RPW_idents.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WSR_RPW_idents.mp3\">http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WSR_RPW_idents.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WSR_RPW_idents.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=1874-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WSR_RPW_idents.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"WSR_RPW_idents.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/St-Bridgets-Place-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Excerpts from Women&#039;s Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman (Galway)\" class=\"wp-image-2221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/St-Bridgets-Place-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/St-Bridgets-Place-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/St-Bridgets-Place-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/St-Bridgets-Place-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/St-Bridgets-Place-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">St. Bridget&#8217;s Terrace Lower in Galway, from where Women&#8217;s Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman broadcast (photo by John Walsh). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Women&#8217;s Sc\u00e9al Radio was an intermittent pirate station broadcasting in Galway from 1986 to 1988. It was run by the peace activist and feminist campaigner Margaretta D&#8217;Arcy from her home at Woodquay in Galway City. &#8216;Sc\u00e9al&#8217; is the Irish for &#8216;story&#8217; and the aims were to allow women free access to tell their stories on radio and to campaign against censorship. The station continued in 1989 under the name of Radio Pirate Woman and continued to operate intermittently until about 2010. In 1996 Margaretta D&#8217;Arcy wrote about her radio philosophy in a book called <em>Galway&#8217;s Pirate Women: a Global Trawl<\/em>. This video, produced by Radio Pirate Woman, gives a flavour of an anarchic and unique station, undoubtedly the most distinctive in Galway pirate radio history. The voice of Margaretta D&#8217;Arcy announcing both stations can be heard on the audio track above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Radio Pirate Women - Margaretta D&#039;Arcy\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N8h7mdMG3mg?start=2&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Technical standards were not important and equipment consisted mostly of a microphone and tape recorder with women sitting around the kitchen table. One of those involved, Maureen Maguire, can be heard <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/maureen-maguire\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. Margaretta D&#8217;Arcy boasted to the <em>City Tribune<\/em> in 1988 that it had cost her only \u00a350 to go on air. The station generally broadcast for a few hours during the day and again from midnight, and also played tapes from or linked up with women&#8217;s radio stations around the world. As well as defying broadcasting legislation, particularly after 1989, it also gave out information about abortion and interviewed members of Sinn F\u00e9in, both of which were also prohibited at the time. Flyers for Radio Pirate Woman said it could be picked up only over a two-mile radius of Galway city centre. Frequencies mentioned over the years were 102 and 106 FM. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20180807_183947-1-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Excerpts from Women&#039;s Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman (Galway)\" class=\"wp-image-1883\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20180807_183947-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20180807_183947-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20180807_183947-1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20180807_183947-1-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20180807_183947-1-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Flyer for Radio Pirate Woman, 1990s (courtesy Eddie Bohan). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>In 2014, Margaretta D&#8217;Arcy, then aged 80, served two prison sentences over her opposition to use by the US of Shannon Airport for military purposes. In 2017 she donated her papers and those of her late husband, playwright John Arden to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nuigalway.ie\/about-us\/news-and-events\/news-archive\/2017\/november2017\/nui-galway-receives-archive-of-margaretta-darcy-and-john-arden.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">University of Galway<\/a>. These included hundreds of cassettes containing recordings of Radio Pirate Woman. The launch was featured on <a href=\"http:\/\/wirelessflirt.radio.ie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wireless on Flirt FM<\/a> which included an extract from D&#8217;Arcy&#8217;s speech describing the importance of pirate radio to the women&#8217;s movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20171124_Margaretta_Darcy_Wireless_15.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women&#8217;s Sc\u00e9al Radio was an intermittent pirate station broadcasting in Galway from 1986 to 1988. It was run by the peace activist and feminist campaigner Margaretta D&#8217;Arcy from her home at Woodquay in Galway City. &#8216;Sc\u00e9al&#8217; is the Irish for &#8216;story&#8217; and the aims were to allow women free access to tell their stories on &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/womens-sceal-radio-radio-pirate-woman-galway\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Excerpts from Women&#8217;s Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman (Galway)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,98],"tags":[536,322,320,331,134],"class_list":["post-1874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","category-features","tag-536","tag-galway","tag-margaretta-darcy","tag-political-pirate","tag-radio-pirate-woman"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Excerpts from Women&#039;s Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman (Galway) - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/womens-sceal-radio-radio-pirate-woman-galway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Excerpts from Women&#039;s Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman (Galway) - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Women&#8217;s Sc\u00e9al Radio was an intermittent pirate station broadcasting in Galway from 1986 to 1988. It was run by the peace activist and feminist campaigner Margaretta D&#8217;Arcy from her home at Woodquay in Galway City. &#8216;Sc\u00e9al&#8217; is the Irish for &#8216;story&#8217; and the aims were to allow women free access to tell their stories on &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Excerpts from Women&#8217;s Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman (Galway)&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/womens-sceal-radio-radio-pirate-woman-galway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-07T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-01T19:15:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/St-Bridgets-Place-1-1024x768.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Walsh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Walsh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/womens-sceal-radio-radio-pirate-woman-galway\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/womens-sceal-radio-radio-pirate-woman-galway\/\",\"name\":\"Excerpts from Women's Sc\u00e9al Radio\/Radio Pirate Woman (Galway) - 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