Previously With Offshore Pirate Radio, Still with Irish Radio (as of 2024)

Declan A Walsh

Offshore pirate radio had a major influence on Irish radio over the years, with the advent of the superpirates in the 1980s being an obvious example, as they were started by people who came from that scene. A number of the major players who came here have left these shores, and some have sadly passed away since.

That said, there are still some people, who went through offshore pirates, that are still involved in Irish radio. Given that some of the examples are Irish, it is less surprising.

The only definite examples that come to mind were all involved with Radio Caroline during the 1980s. They are: Steve Conway of 8Radio.com, Gareth O'Callaghan of Classic Hits Radio and Stuart Clarke of Hot Press who is a frequent contributor to various talk shows. Stuart is an example of an English person who stayed here.

I am struggling after that. I am including Irish online stations (such as 8radio.com above) and community stations, as it looks like there would be very few examples otherwise. What about Andy Green, aka Andy Ellis? He used to be involved with Waterford's online station Zenith Classic Rock. He had done a stint with The Voice of Peace before his involvement with Tramore Waterford pirate ABC. I am even less sure about Andy Lipton, aka Dave Hunt, also of Zenith and previously ABC, as I do not know if his previous shortwave pirate Radio Zodiac International was even offshore in the first place!

Any other examples of people still involved with Irish radio who previously were part of the offshore pirate scene?

TheBMG

Nick Richards in Cork comes to mind.