Northern Ireland
During the early 1970s there were several political "clandestine" stations operated by various nationalist and loyalist organisations however most of these were short lived. Later there were several attempts to establish commercial pirates in NI but the authorities quickly moved against these too. (Penalties for pirate broadcasting under UK law were a lot harsher than in Ireland.) Some of these stations subsequently moved across the border and broadcast into Northern Ireland from the Republic.
At one point there were over 15 stations doing so. Surprisingly there were only a handful of (mostly short lived) "political" stations South of the border as it was felt that the authorities were less likely to be tolerant of such stations. One such station transmitted to Fermanagh and South Tyrone during the Westminster election of 1981 that saw IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands elected as an MP. The longest running illegal station in Northern Ireland was Belfast's Irish language station "Raidió Fáilte" (lit. "Radio Welcome") in 2005 the authorities decided to licence Radio Failte. Such an action which would have been unthinkable before the Northern Ireland Peace Process
Read more about this topic: Irish Pirate Radio
Famous quotes containing the words northern and/or ireland:
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