{"id":3472,"date":"2021-01-18T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=3472"},"modified":"2025-02-19T15:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T15:44:10","slug":"community-radio-drogheda-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_889\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3472-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/19810914_CRD_Gavin_Duffy_int_Niall_ODowd_EC.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/19810914_CRD_Gavin_Duffy_int_Niall_ODowd_EC.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/19810914_CRD_Gavin_Duffy_int_Niall_ODowd_EC.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/19810914_CRD_Gavin_Duffy_int_Niall_ODowd_EC.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=3472-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/19810914_CRD_Gavin_Duffy_int_Niall_ODowd_EC.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19810914_CRD_Gavin_Duffy_int_Niall_ODowd_EC.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981-1024x385.jpg\" alt=\"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco\" class=\"wp-image-2686\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981-1024x385.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981-300x113.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981-768x289.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981.jpg 1445w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>Community Radio Drogheda sticker (courtesy of Ian Biggar). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In September 1981, a Donegal man attempted to rescue his daughter from a compound owned by the Unification Church (the &#8216;Moonies&#8217;) in San Francisco. After they were refused admission, James Canning and about 30 Irish-American supporters tried to break into the building and remove Mary Canning. Drogheda journalist Niall O&#8217;Dowd, who worked with the <em>Washington Post<\/em>, was the only reporter to witness the incident and was contacted by media all over the world for comment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowing that a local man was on the ground, Community Radio Drogheda (CRD) wanted to cover the drama and on his lunchtime show on 16<sup>th<\/sup> September 1981, Gavin Duffy interviewed Niall O&#8217;Dowd about the incident. No doubt it helped that Niall&#8217;s brother Michael was news editor at CRD. Niall O&#8217;Dowd went on to become a high<em>&#8211;<\/em>profile figure in Irish America, founding the <em>Irish Voice<\/em> Newspaper and <em>Irish America<\/em> magazine as well as the website <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishcentral.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Irishcentral.com<\/a>. Another brother Fergus became a Fine Gael TD for Louth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community Radio Drogheda broke away from Boyneside Radio in July 1981 and operated a separate service until May 1982 when the two stations merged again. We thank Eddie Caffrey for his donation of this recording, which begins with an ad break before the interview. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In September 1981, a Donegal man attempted to rescue his daughter from a compound owned by the Unification Church (the &#8216;Moonies&#8217;) in San Francisco. After they were refused admission, James Canning and about 30 Irish-American supporters tried to break into the building and remove Mary Canning. Drogheda journalist Niall O&#8217;Dowd, who worked with the Washington &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco&#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],"tags":[486,161,160,154,544],"class_list":["post-3472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","tag-486","tag-community-radio-drogheda","tag-gavin-duffy","tag-louth","tag-northeast-series"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco - 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\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In September 1981, a Donegal man attempted to rescue his daughter from a compound owned by the Unification Church (the &#8216;Moonies&#8217;) in San Francisco. After they were refused admission, James Canning and about 30 Irish-American supporters tried to break into the building and remove Mary Canning. Drogheda journalist Niall O&#8217;Dowd, who worked with the Washington &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-18T07:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-19T15:44:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981-1024x385.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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/\",\"name\":\"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981-1024x385.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-18T07:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-19T15:44:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981.jpg\",\"width\":1445,\"height\":543},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\",\"name\":\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"description\":\"Open Free Radio Archive\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\",\"name\":\"John Walsh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a5b6baea2fd739c3be046233f2ad61?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a5b6baea2fd739c3be046233f2ad61?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Walsh\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/author\/john\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"In September 1981, a Donegal man attempted to rescue his daughter from a compound owned by the Unification Church (the &#8216;Moonies&#8217;) in San Francisco. After they were refused admission, James Canning and about 30 Irish-American supporters tried to break into the building and remove Mary Canning. Drogheda journalist Niall O&#8217;Dowd, who worked with the Washington &hellip; Continue reading \"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco\"","og_url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/","og_site_name":"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","article_published_time":"2021-01-18T07:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-19T15:44:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981-1024x385.jpg"}],"author":"John Walsh","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Walsh","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/","url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/","name":"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981-1024x385.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-18T07:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-19T15:44:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CRDsticker1981.jpg","width":1445,"height":543},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/community-radio-drogheda-rescue\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Northeast series: Community Radio Drogheda covers rescue in San Francisco"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/","name":"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","description":"Open Free Radio Archive","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00","name":"John Walsh","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a5b6baea2fd739c3be046233f2ad61?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a5b6baea2fd739c3be046233f2ad61?s=96&r=g","caption":"John Walsh"},"url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/author\/john\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10633,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions\/10633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}