Songs that became hits in Ireland solely due to pirate airplay

I don't think there would be many. The sweet spot would be in around the 90's when there were still a few small pirate stations and the rise of bedroom DJ mixes etc. such as the Sound Crowd. Earlier stations played more commercial stuff and any dance stuff would have come from clubs more than the pirates. I do seem to recall that the Ska mix of Damien Dempsey's Dublin Town started out locally before being pushed by Gerry Ryan. It seems to have vanished from online and I think he said himself he hates it.

Chris Rea's career was in decline by the early 80s, his latest album was not released in Ireland.

By chance Jason Maine got a copy while in Belfast (iirc) and Novas music 'director ' thought one particular track was a perfect fit for Nova,

That track was 'I can hear your heartbeat ', the original album version ,not the one played on radio today ,has a great guitar riff intro

tracks becoming hits because of pirate radio was more a UK thing then a here thing really, and even then it was a london pirate thing.
the few grime and the few garage artists who made it big were either involved in, or had their tracks broken on london pirate radio and some of those tracks ended up here.

Agreed on both. Chris Rea, Fool if you think it's over, was a big AM pirate hit here, before it caught on in the UK, likewise later with I can hear your heartbeat. David Gray was championed by pirates here that had him packing out Dublin venues, before he hit it big. I believe he actually credited the Dublin pirates of the time at one of his gigs, saying that it was the reason most people were there.

I recently listened to an interview of Declan Meehan on pirate.ie, talking about this aspect. He mentioned Give it up by KC and the Sunshine Band. Apparently it was an album track that Nova started playing and the Dublin record label office got it released locally here, before it was then released in the UK, because of the Irish success.

Thanks Ger, that is correct ,KC and the Sunshine Band were in the twilight of their career and again the 'Give it up' track taken from the album (it was nkt released as a single)fitted the Nova format ,was added to the playlist ,went on high rotation, and the rest is history.

I don't think I would associate David Gray with the Irish pirate stations, if so which ones - the mid 90s ones ??. My memory of David Gray's rise in popularity was him playing Galway Arts Festival in 1994 and lots of video airplay on No Disco on Network 2 around this time, presented by Donal Dineen.

so it was the mid to late 90s pirates ??

Whispers its a love thing ,

MJ & Paul Mc Cartney The Man , never released as a single

And as mentioned above KC & the Sunshine band

Terry Wogan pushed the track on his morning show.

Another 'Nova ' track that was on very high rotation was Paul Ashfords - One in every town.

Stepasides - Last Resort was also on high rotation and was re-recorded with the lyrics 'Radio Nova shes my radio Queen ,got my latest 45's........Radio Nova rock'in the Bay '

I picked that Charlene song as a RD Channel 2 powerplay when it was released … it got played every top of hour, for a week. It was the first Ch2 powerplay to reach No1 in the charts. We obviously played no part in its success (no one was listening)… you just reminded me of the time. 😂

Michael Franks 'when sly calls' and 'Island Life' featured a lot on Nova ,favourites of Chris Cary.

Sixth Season by The Sound Crowd, or The Sound Crowd Orchestra if you prefer, was heavily promoted in 1994 on certain pirates, especially dance pirates. It had more or less entered the Irish Top 30 before 2FM were really playing it. The two guys behind The Sound Crowd were Tim Hannigan (these days known as Mr. Spring on 2FM!), who had a show on dance pirate Sunset FM, and Mark Kavanagh, who had a much acclaimed dance show on mixed music pirate DLR.

I forgot to follow up on that specific reference in the first post!