Easter week 1916 the Rebels from the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers took over the wireless teleraphy station in O’Connell street Dublin, they took a transmitter to the GPO and declared to the world on shortwave radio that Ireland is now a Republic.
In what was probably the first clandestine/pirate broadcast in the world, the rebels transmission reached America where the papers printed headlines “Revolt in Ireland” while the British press operated under a information blackout about the Rising in Dublin.
the code read–
“Irish Republic declared in Dublin today. Irish troops have captured city and are in full possession. Enemy cannot move in city. The whole country rising.”
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Ireland has a vibrant clandestine/pirate radio history. Ronan O’Rahilly launched Radio Caroline from Greenore port in Co Louth Easter Week 1964, because the BBC and other stations wouldn’t play a band he managed because the music they played was associated with black music. 48 years earlier in 1916 Ronan’s grandfather died in the Easter Rising on Moore street as rebel troops tried to escape with the transmitter to a safer location on Parnell street as the GPO was on fire.
