{"id":6249,"date":"2022-05-07T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=6249"},"modified":"2022-05-10T19:13:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T18:13:38","slug":"test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/","title":{"rendered":"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1754\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6249-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/19860300_Radio_Free_Ulster_101_FM_Belfast_PB.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/19860300_Radio_Free_Ulster_101_FM_Belfast_PB.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/19860300_Radio_Free_Ulster_101_FM_Belfast_PB.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\/2022\/05\/19860300_Radio_Free_Ulster_101_FM_Belfast_PB.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=6249-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/19860300_Radio_Free_Ulster_101_FM_Belfast_PB.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19860300_Radio_Free_Ulster_101_FM_Belfast_PB.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"712\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.jpg\" alt=\"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster\" class=\"wp-image-6250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.jpg 712w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 712px) 100vw, 712px\" \/><figcaption>Front page image from The Irish Press, March 3rd 1986 (courtesy Eddie Bohan).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Radio Free Ulster was a paramilitary pirate station operated during the Loyalist general strike called for Monday March 3<sup>rd<\/sup> 1986. The strike was in opposition to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The station carried out test transmissions from above an illegal drinking den between Woodvale and the Shankill Road in West Belfast on Sunday March 2<sup>nd<\/sup> on 101 MHz FM. Radio Free Ulster broadcast throughout Monday and Tuesday afternoon before the transmitter was turned off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Irish government was aware of the broadcasts, which occurred at a time of high tension in Northern Ireland. The broadcasts attracted national and international attention and a chilling photo of Radio Free Ulster was featured on the front page of <em>The Irish Press<\/em> and in <em>The Schenectady Gazette<\/em>, a newspaper in upstate New York. The station was also covered in <em>The Belfast Telegraph<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This recording is of a test broadcast and is presumably from Sunday March 2<sup>nd<\/sup>. Audio quality is terrible with a faint voice breaking through the crackle and hum and eventually announcing Radio Free Ulster. Loyalist marching band music is heard in the background. Thanks to Paul Buckle for the recording and to Eddie Bohan for background information and the image. For more information about stations run by paramilitary groups during the early days of the Troubles, listen <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/the-pirate-ie-podcast-7\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a> to a podcast featuring Eddie Bohan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Radio Free Ulster was a paramilitary pirate station operated during the Loyalist general strike called for Monday March 3rd 1986. The strike was in opposition to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The station carried out test transmissions from above an illegal drinking den between Woodvale and the Shankill Road in West Belfast on Sunday &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster&#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":[536,518,521,586],"class_list":["post-6249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","tag-536","tag-belfast","tag-northern-ireland","tag-radio-free-ulster"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster - 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\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Radio Free Ulster was a paramilitary pirate station operated during the Loyalist general strike called for Monday March 3rd 1986. The strike was in opposition to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The station carried out test transmissions from above an illegal drinking den between Woodvale and the Shankill Road in West Belfast on Sunday &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-07T13:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-10T18:13:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.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\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/\",\"name\":\"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-07T13:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-10T18:13:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.jpg\",\"width\":712,\"height\":473},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster\"}]},{\"@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":"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster - 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\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"Radio Free Ulster was a paramilitary pirate station operated during the Loyalist general strike called for Monday March 3rd 1986. The strike was in opposition to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The station carried out test transmissions from above an illegal drinking den between Woodvale and the Shankill Road in West Belfast on Sunday &hellip; Continue reading \"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster\"","og_url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/","og_site_name":"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","article_published_time":"2022-05-07T13:45:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-10T18:13:38+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.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\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/","url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/","name":"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.jpg","datePublished":"2022-05-07T13:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-10T18:13:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Radio-Free-UIster-Irish-Press-CU.jpg","width":712,"height":473},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/test-broadcast-of-radio-free-ulster\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Test broadcast of Radio Free Ulster"}]},{"@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\/6249","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=6249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6295,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6249\/revisions\/6295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}