just listened to the final Fab 40 on http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/
pleasant surprise was original sound bites from Tommy Vance doesn’t get any better than that, brilliantly edited and compiled produced etc etc etc wonderful show great memories this is the reason I started
biglradiolimerick.com, have to keep kicking myself it’s almost 50 years ago. If you missed today’s Fab 40 You can listen again next Wednesday.
Radio London have started broadcasting the charts from their archives again every Sunday and Wednesday, well worth a listen if your into the era’s music made famous by the ‘Pirates’ This week going back to 14th March 1965. Stream this website anytime for great music and jingles with no DJ’s.
For those of you who missed my little sales pitch for http://www.Biglradiolimerick.com memorabilia here it is again
Boxes first commissioned in 1967 for Borget Mobile Disco in chip board 9” width X 36”
7 off Single (45’s) Record Boxes (Plywood) containing 300 singles each (approx) 2,000 +
2 off Disco Boxes (7” vinyl) 200 each 400 approx
2 off Cd Cases Big L road show CD’s approx 60 CD’s in each
150+ Vinyl 12” club classics
200+ Vinyl albums from Big L Radio Collection including 7 or so box sets
2 off record players with Stanton Cartridges (used on NCW 106 Radio 2002-2005)
2 off Karaoke Laser Disc Boxes containing approx 70 + Laser Discs in total (1,400 Tracks approx)
1 off Laser Pioneer disc player
1 off Cassette/Tuner/Public address amplifier
Assortment of Add Tapes from Radio Big L (Limerick) 1979- 1981
1 off Dennon twin cassette player/recorder
Collection of Mini discs 20 +
1 off Sony Mini Disc Player
Collection of CDG Karaoke discs
1 off Fidelity CDG karaoke Disc player
1 off Broadcast Mixer 3 Microphone i/p + 3 Disc + PC + tape (Radio NCW 106)
1 Off Road Show Mixer for Road Show inputs for Microphone/PC /tape/disc
1off 4 K Light modulator to drive 4 k lighting
1 off 4 k lighting rig Par 56 light units + spares
4 tube lighting units for U/V colour lighting
1 off Broadcast Stereo Encoder
1 off Broadcast Stereo Limiter
1 off 40 watts Exciter Broadcast TX
1 off 140 Watt Slave Broadcast TX( 40 Watts in 140 Watts Out) + spares
1off FM twin Dipole Broadcast Antenna assembly on 20 ft pole approx 4 db gain(300+ watts erp with associated Transmitters) 40 Miles radius Stereo coverage possible with antenna minimum 500ft above sea level(ideally 1,000ft or more)
1 off 3 Terabyte Pc Twin 24” screens with 24/7 fully automated Radio/TV
Control Program Software including 25,000 Mp3 tracks + 5,000 video tracks
Pair Studio Monitors 15”/300 watt RCF Road Show Speakers Very Loud Very Heavy!
After that somewhat brief interlude, and while I do some further research, let’s get back to 1980. I think I could say this was a somewhat pivotal year for both Ireland as a whole and the broadcasting and sports section of the media. Football played a very important part of the year, for both Limerick and Big L Radio Limerick’s Sports Team, with reference to Limerick’s player manager Eoin Hand, fighting in a highly competitive campaign, culminating in a terrific match in Athlone, leading to a 3 year period during which Limerick qualified in European football, much to the delight of Limerick as a whole. However the tone for the eighties was set by an extremely irresponsible budget by the Fianna Fáil Government in 1977 which included amongst other things the abolition of car road tax. Between the following Charles Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald Governments the situation was made much worse, by massive borrowing, and tax rates as high as 60%.
In January of 1980 The American Singing group the Supremes appeared at the Savoy
Savoy Bedford Row Limerick
to a crowd of less than 200, somewhat distressing for Brendan Murray the Promoter and main instigator for the Savoy’s revival during this period. For whatever reason, Brendan went to extraordinary lengths to ‘recoup’ his takings which led to an armed robbery of the group just short of Birdhill traveling back to Dublin. Extremely out of character, he nevertheless wound up doing time for this misdemeanor and returned later in the year to continue the on going success of the Savoy. On the 19th April Johnny Logan wins the Eurovision song contest for the first of his two wins in this competition,(no one else has achieved that), with ‘What’s Another Year’ putting Ireland back on the European Map again since Dana’s ‘All Kinds of Everything back in the 70’s.The Limerick Lady Festival Final was held at the Savoy in May, covered in chapter seven in more detail.
The Music industry as a whole was coming on strong in this first year of the new decade despite England and Ireland being in severe financial trouble, maybe because of people’s spirits needing to be lifted, and the interest in the local Radio scene was sprouting ‘new’ radio stations all over Ireland especially in Dublin, at one time more than 30 stations all vying for listener ship against the new RTE radio 2.
At Big L Radio Limerick the Music coming on line was probably the best since the Rock & Roll era had begun. The Stardiscs Top Ten Show
on Friday Nights was going from strength to strength with continued support from the owner Pat McKenna who had been the first advertiser to come on board in 1978 and remained loyal to the station throughout it’s duration. Here are a couple of sound bites from the show in the ‘80’s
I was approached by the Canadian owners of the Courtyard (situated behind Cruises Hotel) if I was interested in taking on their Wednesday
Cruises Hotel Patrick Street Limerick
night spot. Initial response was negative, as I didn’t need any more commitments to my already stretched work load at the Radio Station.
I was doing the breakfast show 7-10 am
Lunchtime show from 1-2 pm featuring the Birthday person just after one o’clock news where we would play the no 1 record on a chosen listeners Birthday
Personal top 10 show 5- 6.45pm (listeners choice of Music with occasional live call to the lucky listener, the backlog grew to over 6 months waiting list) check out
In Afghanistan: as the Soviet military occupation continues, US President Carter puts on the pressure. The Moscow Olympic Games are threatened…
…but the International Olympic Committee stands firm. The USA and several other Western nations boycott the Moscow Olympic Games. On Big L radio Limerick the sponsorship of the sports Show had passed from ‘Stix’ to Pat Grace, Owner of the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise for Ireland and also a very keen Soccer fan. From the Big L Radio Limerick sports team, Ronnie Long was handling the main reporting and commentary from the games, which led to the first and only confrontation between sponsor and owner in the Station’s history!
After returning from the outside broadcast of the weekly Saturday morning Novena from the Redemptorists Church, I checked in to the Saturday Morning Sports show and handed over to the sound engineer before adjourning to Quinns Pub
Quinns Lucky Lamp Ellen St Opposite Big L Radio Limerick
across the road at Ellen St to meet prospective guests for the show(usual practice for Saturday mornings),which on occasion evolved into a heavy drinking session mixed in with the odd coffee, I digress, on this occasion, barely 5 minutes into the ‘session’, Ronnie Long joined our group very distressed and nearly in tears, blurting out that he had been thrown off his show. Quinns radio did not always tune into Big l Radio Limerick, which left us unaware as to what had been going on in the Studio just across the Road!
With Ronnie in tow I headed back across Ellen St to the studio(in the basement underneath no 12 Ellen St). to find Pat Grace and another person discussing local football on air! I asked the engineer as to what was going on, to which he replied Mr Grace had come into the studio demanding that the Olympic report is of no relevance to ‘His’ Show, and was taking over the reporting with his own guest!
I immediately ‘killed’ the Live Microphone, stormed into studio 2 telling the engineer to put on some music, and demanded a reason from Pat as to why the show had been disrupted. Pat’s response was something very derogatory about Russian politics, to which I replied that his personal view had nothing to do with Big L’s sporting coverage. He maintained that as it was ‘his’ show he had a right to dictate the content.
At this point I reminded him that it was not ‘his’ show, and furthermore to remove himself and his guest from the premises. A lot more was said, but after an un-precedented 2 music track interlude on the mainly Chat orientated show, he eventually left never to return! Ronnie was duly re-installed and continued his coverage of the Moscow Olympics, however the show continued without a Sponsor, and the Saturday Sports show was now to be funded by me, which eventually led to the entire sports team jumping ship to Radio Luimni a year or so later, after I could not fund their demands for more money, rather disappointing as I had backed them to the hilt! We did try, Hayman organized a visit from Max Boyce the comedian/singer with a great welsh rugby content at the Savoy in November however with tickets at 4/5 punts we barely managed to pay his fee, great night though! Maybe playing on the 13th was not a great idea.
In Dublin music fans were disappointed after the powers that be cancelled a boomtown rats concert because of fears over crowd safety. ‘Sir’ Bob rejected the Courts descision and a battle continued over the next two weeks after which the descision to go ahead with the concert at Leixlip castle was eventually granted. Fourteen thousand fans attended and as far as I can remember our own Punk authoritarian Eoin Deveraux was there on behalf of Big l Radio Limerick, but you may have to confirm that with him. I do remember a coveted ‘interview’ with ‘Sir’ Bob that Eoin played at some stage on his show.
A European Cup home match between Limerick and Real Madrid took place in Lansdowne Road on 17 September 1980. The decision was taken to play in Lansdowne rather then Limerick to avail of larger crowd capacity but financially it ended in disaster. It was a great game with difficulty in determining between the Limerick part-timers and the professional Spanish football team. Although Limerick lost they were the better team. It was unfortunate that Johnny Matthew’s goal was disallowed for offside and that Des Kennedy gave Limerick the deserved lead only for the referee to award a disputed penalty to the Spaniards. The final result was a win for Real Madrid 2-1. Two weeks later Limerick traveled to Spain to play in the Bernabeu Stadium in front of 60,000 fans. Real Madrid were comfortable 5-1 winners.
In this outro Eamonn O’connor saying Goodnight at the end of his show and the full close down at 2 am with me making a mistake at the very end announcing our VHF frequency as 94.1…ahh live broadcasting with all the hic-cups??
Noteable Hits of the year were as follows:-
Abba: I Have A Dream
Boomtown Rats: Someone’s Looking At You
Blondie: Atomic
Johnny Logan: What’s Another Year ?
Nolan Sisters: I’m In The Mood For Dancing
The Clash: London Calling
Split Enz: I Got You
U2- Stories For Boys
Brendan Shine: Catch Me If You Can
Queen: Another One Bites The Dust
Bagatelle: Summer In Dublin.
T.R. Dallas: Oh Lord It’s Hard To Be Humble
Queen: Flash
John Lennon: Imagine
A Round table clip from December 1980…….
Other ‘hits’ include Rupert Holmes and the Pina Colada Song, Celebration – Kool & the Gang and who could forget Jona Lewie – And You’ll Always Find Me in The Kitchen at Parties. On a sadder note The Buttevant Rail Disaster darkened our skies on the first of August. At 12:45 the 10:00am Dublin (Heuston) to Cork (Kent) express train entered Buttevant station carrying some 230 bank holiday passengers. “The train was diverted off the main line across a temporary set of points into a siding. The locomotive remained upright but carriages immediately behind the engine and generator van jack-knifed and were thrown across four sets of rail line. Two coaches and the dining car were totally demolished by the impact. It resulted in the deaths of 18 people and over 70 people being injured”. The enquiry afterwards deemed the coaches construction to be horribly out of date, and heralded a refit of the entire rolling stock.
But 1980’s biggest TV question is: “Who Shot JR?”
(Answer: Kirsten, Sue-Ellen’s sister)
Poland: The workers unite against the Communist government. Lech Walesa leads the trade union ‘Solidarity’.
Former Beatle John Lennon is murdered in New York in December 1980, and the Christmas hit knocking John Lennon’s (Just like) starting over again, was St. Winifreds School Choir and their rendition of “There’s no one quite like Grandma” which stayed in the top spot for 2 weeks till John took the top spot again with “Imagine” on the 10th January 1981.
In researching around the web and elsewhere I had overlooked the beginnings of a noteworthy episode that I had forgotten about.
The Limerick Lady Festival.
Dennis Allen’s composition ‘Limerick you’re a Lady’ is the only thing that comes up on the search engines! I managed to contact Shay Kinsella who together with John Loftus, came up with the idea of a festival to rival the Rose of Tralee, to hopefully refresh my memory on this episode of Limericks history. In a brief phone call he mentioned that the Limerick Leader had published a two page article about the event 4 or 5 months ago, indeed another photograph appeared last week of the Big Radio Limerick Studios with Pete Brady and a young fan in Studio One. It became clear very quickly during this phone call that this era is important enough to dedicate a whole chapter to its existence, as there is no real reference on the web about it! There is less than a minute of Mike Murphy hosting the event at the Royal George, what a great disco venue that was!
Now here’s an interesting story….just found this on 14th August 2014
It’s late 1965 Caroline South is struggling against Radio London, whose 266 metre frequency and more powerful transmitter is (Caroline was on 199) giving much better coverage and taking a large share of Caroline’s audience. Plans are hatched for a revamp in format and a new frequency, and a new fifty kilowatt transmitter is ordered from Continental Electronics in Dallas.
Carolines TX
Meanwhile thousands of miles away, Rhodesia’s Prime Minister Ian Smith makes a UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence), on the 11th November 1965, withdraws from the Commonwealth and breaks diplomatic relations with London. In the House of Commons, responding to MP’s questions, Prime Minister Harold Wilson (who within two years introduced the Marine Offences Broadcasting Act) states on Friday the 13th November that methods of improving BBC World service coverage to Rhodesia are given the highest priority, and that if necessary, the Government will not hesitate in seeking advice from an organisation known as Radio Caroline. Extra transmission facilities for the BBC are desperately required, but as Marconi in the UK have no suitable transmitters immediately available, the government, under the instruction of Mr Wilson, went abroad to see what could be purchased. On the assembly line in Dallas was Continental Electronics CE 317C serial no 12, on order by “Project Atlanta”, at that time the company which was operating Radio Caroline South. Number 13 was also in an advanced state of construction, and by whatever means, the London Government persuaded the two C.E. Customers for Numbers 12 & 13 to forgo their respective positions in the order list, and allow the British Government to purchase the two transmitters which were then shipped off to Bechuanaland (now Botswana) to broadcast the world service into Rhodesia, number 12 (Caroline’s TX), going into service on 30th December1965. Caroline eventually received Transmitter Number 14, and presumably the other customer received number 15. Within eight weeks of all these switching orders the Mi Amigo (Caroline South), finds itself washed up on the beach at Frinton,
Frinton on sea new Arrival!
and then taken to Holland for repairs? As soon as CE 317C number 14 arrives from the U.S.A. and taken on board, the Mi Amigo sets sail for her original anchorage off the east coast next to M.V. Galaxy (Radio London), commissioning the TX as she crosses the sea ready for broadcasting the moment she is able to drop anchor.
Caroline’s new rig and TX
As of 2003 the well travelled Continental Electronics 317C Number 12, originally ordered for the Mi Amigo, resides at Orfordness, a mere short nautical mile or two from the resting place of the Mi Amigo, (Sunk in 1980) and is currently for sale, no reasonable offer refused!
The Real Story Chapter Six August to December 1979
After being at the top of the charts for most of august the Boomtown rats 2nd No 1 ‘I don’t Like Mondays’ eventually gives way to Cliff Richards ‘We don’t Talk Anymore’, Cliff’s 8th Number 1, however a big star was flexing his prowess in the charts. Michael Jackson’s ‘Off the Wall’ album was released in August eventually selling 7 million copies in the US alone, getting us all ready for the BIG one ‘Thriller’.
Researching for this chapter has meant ‘digging’ into what few cassette tapes I have in my possession, and those kindly lent to me for copying and eventually putting up on the web site for you to hear. Photo’s too have come my way from Ian and Ken, who amongst others visited Ireland in the 80’s with loads of memorabilia from around the country’s local stations rather than the ‘Super’ Pirates, loads of stuff if your interested here:-Archive of Irish Pirates check out Waterford, Tralee and Cork stations on their site, fascinating reading! For myself the tapes I am using for research, number about 20 in all, 2 of them are advert cassettes from 1980 to 1981,Big L radio Limerick never used Carts for jingles or adverts. The 8 track ‘cart’ was standard broadcasting format for national stations both here and the UK, and for the Two Super pirates Nova and Sunshine who’s owners, Robbie and Chris Carey were well used to their convenience when working on Radio Caroline.
Cart systems were expensive, I did price them at the time, around £400-£1500 per player, plus the cost of the carts, I just though the money was better spent on records, good quality cassette players and the outside broadcast facilities. In 1979 the record library would have been about 4 to 5,000 singles with over 1,000 albums, eventually growing to 13,000 singles and 5,000 albums by 1985, bigger than most radio stations at the time! Even RTE. They (RTE) relied on their dj’s to bring in records for their shows! as for the cassette library, that went into at least a thousand by 1983, everything of note was recorded, including sports shows, ‘Taste of Irish’, Thursday night program and all of Jim Kemmy’s wonderful History shows with Jim Wallace, not forgetting Eamon O’Connor’s hilarious shows on Monday nights, and of course Tom O’Donnell’s Tuesday night slot. Even the ‘Mad Hatters Ball’ (Friday nights) had its own place in the archives.
I don’t like reminding myself of their, (the archive tapes), demise, but here goes for the last time. I went to England in 1983, hopefully to semi retire from Big L radio Limerick and join forces with Chris Barnbroke, the owner of Horizon Radio in South London. My then business partner Frank Cavanaugh, whom I had misguidedly given control of the advertising agency side of Big L Radio Limerick, was to run the station and send money to me in England by way of allowance/pension or whatever you want to call it. I took about 1,000 records and albums and headed off to London in the Fiat Z100 OBU, and the speakers from Poldarks and amplifiers etc. This adventure will unfold in the time line of this blog, but to cut a long story short for now, needless to say whilst I was in London for about 3 months I never received any money from Ellen St Agency, The Money end of Big L radio Limerick!
Margaret phoned me some time during my ‘escape’ to London to say that the Station was in a mess, Cavanaugh had not maintained any of the Transmitters in the county(FM), and the station was being demoralized by his attitude. His Co-hort in this debacle was the other advertising ‘manager’ a guy named John Davis, who had previously ‘worked’ for Jimmy Saville, too sordid to mention at this stage but suffice to say He knew what was going on even then back in the 80’s!
I returned to Limerick to an absolute mess. I called a meeting of all the staff at the time paid and unpaid some 50 or so crammed into the office above 13 Ellen st. I informed everyone I was back to stay, and had every intention of putting Big L radio Limerick, back on it’s feet again. After the meeting Davis and Cavanaugh, pleaded to stay on, big mistake, but I had enough engineering problems to worry about, to get involved in financing the station so let them stay on!!! Downstairs in studio one 2 of the 4 tape decks were unworkable, but in studio 2 I couldn’t believe what was waiting for me. Everything looked ok at first sight, records a bit awry but I could see there were still about 10,000 in the collection in the wall units. The tape archive looked all ok all the front row neatly lined up so they could be identified. The archive was arranged across the rearwall cabinet containing the albums seen here in this shot from ’83.
The rear Wall of Studio 2 with an even longer Walnut/Glass cabinet (12 feet) behind the camera man.
Each of the 28 cubicles contained 12 cassettes wide by 3 deep to the back of the Walnut and glass cabinets, purchased from a closing Pharmacy in Bury St. Edmunds England. More than a thousand in all, on closer inspection the two rear rows were Missing, gone, I couldn’t believe it, on top of that all the front row cassettes had been emptied, just empty box’s!!!! I was so furious I just sat there in disbelief. As the meeting had been over for more than an hour I wasn’t going to call them all back to point the finger, but heads would roll on this one. I busied myself out in the County repairing the Transmitters and did not spend too much time back in the station. Fleeting visits at odd hours produced my first culprit. Mike Byrnes no relation to Liam Byrne who has a limerick radio nostalgia site on the net, was doing his show some 2 evening’s later, and was recording his ‘show’ apparently common practice while I was away, however the tape he was using was an archive tape of Jim Kemmy show, he was immediately ejected from the studio, claiming he wasn’t the only one, he was lucky to have left with two working legs. I am actually getting angry writing this and I didn’t want to allow this blog to get into the down side of the era, but it is part of the history. Once the word had got out a number of dj’s never showed up for their shows. What a mess. I’m going to take a break from writing for now 13.18 Wednesday the 30th July 2014, I’ll be back
resumed………Thought that would calm the waters not really, still very angry!
Back to 1979
So as not to confuse the issue over the ‘missing’ tapes there were 2 Mike Byrne(s) for a while. The (not really) Unfriendly Mike Byrne had started doing sound engineering on shows like the Saturday Sports Show, Women’s Show (Big W), even the odd stint on Tom O’Donnell’s show when Philip wasn’t available – now that was an experience for any up and coming sound engineer. Tom would have you exhausted by the end of his show, personally drove me around the bend on more than one occasion, he also engineered a Monday evening sports show with Flash Gleeson for a while as well. Much later the other Mike Byrnes arrived calling himself the Friendly DJ which prompted John Ryan and Philip to come with the differentiating Name…to identify the two Byrne(s’)
Early in August due to the increasing frequency of my visit’s to Arena in Askeaton, my Father Jack Sherriff Richardson tried one more attempt to get me to ‘return’ to the fold, but I just couldn’t see myself back in Askeaton! He even offered to buy Dromore Castle in Kildimo for me. This had been one of my ‘pet’ projects in Ireland ever since my first visit back in 1967. The plan had been to turn it into a Hotel and Dance venue, seemed then that the Show Band era would go on forever but the arrival of Disco was killing that off by the late 70’s. First it would have to have been re-roofed, top floor of the main keep would have been executive private suits, next floor down split between casino and 5 star restaurant, next floor standard accommodation with associated restaurant, ground floor and basement kitchen area and Public bars leading out to the courtyard and covered Dance floor area open to the sky except in inclement weather when a sliding roof like no 1 court in Wimbledon would have been utilized. Grand design and wishful thinking on my part, but feasible at the time. The views from this castle over the 3 lakes in the estate are incredible to this day, sadly no longer accessible to the public, but certainly visited by many people when the main gates by the lodge were permanently open. Those of you who have seen High Spirits can get an idea of the Dromore estate although the interior film shots bear no resemblance to the actual layout of the castle then and now, I still like the movie despite Daryl Hannah being slated for her performance. At the time of my father’s offer I had not considered moving the Radio Station to Dromore, although in actual fact it would have been ideal, even though it was derelict then and still was whilst making the movie in 1988. Maybe the fees from the film producers would have covered some of the refurbishment, however I presume it wouldn’t have been for hire, had my plans come to fruition. A castle I was offered for the Radio (Croagh castle), by my Godmother Brett Shanahan of the Ramble Inn in Croagh did not have the height or proximity to Limerick as did Dromore, but that to never came to be either.
All these fantasy ideas came to a very abrupt ending after the incidents of the 27th August 1979. My Father had run away from home in Goole Yorkshire when he was barely 15, and signed up to the eighth Army at that time stationed in Lybia.
8th Army Benghazi Motor Pool
He spent his time there 2 or 3 years before the start of WW2, right through to the invasion of Italy, and saw the army more as his family than the one he had left behind in Yorkshire, and when Lord Louis Mountbatten was assassinated on the waters around his home in Mullaghmore Co.Sligo, he must have just lost all semblance of what his life meant up to that time. I can only imagine what his feelings were at the time, I didn’t even know of his actions until I received a phone call from England from my Mother to say Dad had sold Arena for £37,500 to the Sheehan Brothers, and would never return to Ireland again! The Story was that he had looked for £50K but the brothers said they only had the sum stated, and my father took the cash on the spot. This was before Aughinish
Shannon Terminals
near Foynes had even been mooted for the proposed site to refine bauxite and alumina plant which went into production in 1983, improving the value of all properties in the area. Arena was sold by the Sheehan brothers for €15M around 2010-11, nice one!
Big L Radio Limerick continued to grow through what was left of 1979, up to obvious excitement of the population over the arrival of Pope John Paul II, Gleesons were selling ‘Papal’ fold up chairs for the event at Greenpark, and I do remember on that day covering his arrival by Helicopter from the Nunciature at Maynooth College and celebrated mass before 400,000 people in Limerick. He then left Shannon Airport for Boston in the United States. I had been up most of the previous night presenting shows as well as the Breakfast show, up to his arrival in the Limerick region. Not till I heard the impending roar of the crowd (some 3 miles away did I go out into Ellen st when I heard his helicopter overhead. Limerick was totally deserted, I mean nothing was moving..anywhere. I went back to the studio and put on a music tape (auto-reverse) 2 hours, and got down underneath the record decks and went to sleep! Like me I don’t believe anyone was listening…..sssshhhhh.
I have very few tapes of specific shows not only for the events mentioned earlier but also later on 1n1985-6 of an entirely different set of circumstances which I will divulge later in the respective time line, but some’ gems like this one featuring E.O.C. Eugene O’Connor,
son of Eamon O’Connor, taking over the reigns from John Ryan,(still broadcasting on Clare FM, and sounding just like Big L Radio Limerick would today I might add, thanks for that John!), definitely one of the great talents on the Station.
Star discs ran by Pat McKenna in O’Connell St, right next to the sadly missed Cruises Hotel was the first main advertiser on Big L Radio Limerick. The Star discs Top Ten Show on Friday nights became the anchor point for the weeks evening shows and certainly had a wide audience. As most of the records were bought from him it was a mutually satisfactory engagement. Pat also sold the station most of the tapes required for archiving, some very high quality tapes for the ads (Memorex) were bought in the UK. Two sound clips from Stardoms Top Ten show
this one shortly after we got back on the air after our one and only ‘raid’. The voiceover is done live on the show, this was before we had any separate recording facilities for the advertising production, and the next one almost a year later done off air complete with cue for inserting into the show.
Towards the end of 1979 the Parkway Ballroom was used to host Big L radio Limerick events like the teenage disco on Sunday afternoons and some evening disco’s of which I have very little memory apart from one in particular at which Vincent Hanley from the new RTE 2 radio station was to make a guest appearance. The Parkway was pretty well packed but the stage was pretty poor when it came to supporting vinyl record players. Like most marquee dances in those days the stages were barely more than a couple of sheets of plywood in some cases chip board supported by a few beer barrels. In other words the DJ had to be very gentle on the boardwalk or else the records would go berserk and jump all over the place, embarrassing or what. Most of the audience new this and were encouraged to stay off the stage, or at least be very careful not to bang the stage. Some of course would take advantage of this dilemma and cause havoc, but generally most nights went OK. On this night the stage was very precarious and I was using my two top of the range Thorens TD126 decks (They cost me £420 each from Peter Dand in Dublin) bought for the Shannon Arms Disco back in 1974. Very good Transcription Decks but not suitable for Barn Dances and all the associated problems with wobbly and unsafe stages! The decks in Big L Radio Limerick used for broadcasting were standard Garrard sp25s, good work horse decks but bought for less than £30! Anyway enough of the techy stuff. The night was going OK then Vincent arrived with his tiny box of records (1 actually the 12” version of the Big disco hit of the moment ‘Viola Wills-Gonna get Along Without You Now’ and being the’ Star’ of the night leapt onto the stage and sent the current record being played by Philip Irwin into orbit! Slapping on his one and only record, before even acknowledging his audience he blurted out:-
“Well what do expect from a Pirate radio station but crap gear!”
I was on the floor whilst all this was going on at the time and on hearing his outburst which was directed directly at me, I just saw red and ‘rushed’ the stage ready to deck him. Lucky for him and I guess for me I was physically restrained by Michael Howes, Philip Irwin and possibly a few more, who had anticipated my reaction! I never spoke to Vincent at that time or any other time what a stupid man. To his credit he introduced MTV to Ireland, and died later of aids or something, I didn’t go to his funeral. Interestingly another ‘climber’ at the time was Buggles-Video killed the Radio Star’ what a prophetic record.
On December 3rd eleven fans were killed during a crowd crush for unreserved seats before The Who rock concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. And two days later December 5thJack Lynch resigned as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland; he is succeeded by Charles Haughey. The penultimate clip from 1979 is a snippet from the breakfast show on the 9th November with Ingrid Kelly on News.
On December 6thThe world premiere of Star Trek The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. It was the Studios response to the enormous success of Star Wars and was to be the first of many Star Trek movies although at The time the actors thought there would be one only Movie of the TV show.
On December 25thVietnam invaded Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime which begins the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin, which begins the war. The Christmas No 1 is Pink Floyd and Another Brick in the wall, and we’ll end this particular year with the fact that it has been the worst year ever for industrial disputes in Ireland, costing the economy over 1,460,000 working days. The last radio clip is from the evening of the breakfast show above with E.O.C. handing over to me on the Stardiscs top Ten Show…………
Chapter 5 January 1979 to July 1979 Updated 27th July 2014
We knew it was coming, but what were going to be the consequences? RTE Radio 2 was going to launch this year, despite no regulation against the ‘Pirates’ being introduced. Would we be wiped out by Big Brother? I don’t think so. Even the two ‘boys’ from radio Caroline didn’t think so, and had there eye on the Irish Radio scene, and would eventually launch Sunshine Radio and later Radio Nova, and blow RTE radio 2 out of the water, sorry Dublin, never really to be able to compete with the Independants in Dublin ever again! More of that later. In January the Whiddy island disaster at Bantry Bay captured the news headlines, Fifty people were killed when an explosion destroyed the French oil tanker Betelgeuse and the decision was forced upon me to start a News service for Big L listeners.
So using the powerful Russian radiogram in Studio Sound, Philip Irwin and myself started ‘compiling’ news from around the world, from every news feed we could receive. Big L Radio Limerick’s first news broadcast was over 20 minutes long, we had enough to do nearly 45 minutes, but decided that at 20 minutes we had done more than enough to satisfy our critics, from no news to 20 minutes a bit O.T.T., but anyway it had begun, but the early start at 5.30 am to get ready for the first news at 7 am was heavy going. Eventually the news service settled down to the usual 3 minutes or so, when Ingrid Kelly came on board the news team and later Trish Long, which survived well into 1984. as far as I can remember, the Boomtown Rats were the first group to be played on Radio 2’s new pop station, later on in the year, but in January an event inspired Bob Geldoff to write their classic no 1 “I Don’t Like Mondays” taken from the words, by way of justification, of Brenda Ann Spencer, who killed 2 faculty members and wounding eight students at her school in San Diego.
Other news we carried in February was the downfall of the Sha of Persia and the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Tehran after 15 years in exile, whilst in New York City Sid Vicious is found dead aged 21 of a heroin overdose the day after being released from a 55-day sentence at Rikers Island prison on bail. In March Scotland Voted narrowly for home rule, which was not implemented, looks like it might be this time around, and the John F. Kennedy Space centre received the first fully functional Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle Columbia
‘Columbia’ on March 25th.Space Shuttle Columbia launching And whilst Jim Kemmy minority vote brought down the Government here later in 1981, in Britain, Jim Callaghan’s minority Labour government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election which saw the election of a new Tory Government with the first ever female Prime Minister in Margaret Thatcher on May 4th. However the first of the IRA’s devastating Assassinations’ of the year happened on March 30 when Airey Neave, World War II veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, was killed in the British House of Commons car park. On the same day Ireland ended Irish pound parity with sterling on joining the European Monetary System. The next evening on March31st Gali Atari and Milk and Honey won the Eurovision song Contest with Hallelujah.
The 2 Boys at Radio Oxford
Timmy Mallet & Martin Stanford At BBC Radio Oxford 1979 Approaching
Easter of 1979 saw the release of Monty Python’s the Life of Bryan. The Film was banned here in Ireland for eight years from it’s release on April 4th until 1987, and on Good Friday, with fuel becoming ever more scarce, Peter was finding it difficult to come up from Fermoy, even with help from my Father supplying fuel from Arena in Askeaton. So for something exciting to liven up the holiday weekend as well as fill in the impending gap in ‘on air’ presenters, I decided to go for the World’s non stop broadcasting record which at that time was held by Martin Stanford and Timmy Mallet of BBC Radio Oxford at 28hrs. Not knowing anything about their ‘record’ I decided that I would do as much of the normal programming as possible. Including the ‘Mad hatters Ball’. So I started on Friday 13th , (yes I know!), with the Stardisc’s Top Ten Show, with the intent of raising Money for the 40 Hour attempt, for charity similar to Radio Oxford. We phoned the Guinness book of records,(Postal Strike), and were informed that BBC radio Oxford were going to go again for a 40 hour session!
So to be sure of getting recognition 60 hours was set as the target. With 3minutes per hour break allowed which could be accumulated, meant that I could take a break of 30 minutes every 10 hours, or an hour every 20 hours broadcasting. As far as I can remember I went for 30 hours straight off, giving me my first break of an hour and a half at 11pm Saturday the 14th. When I came back at 30 minutes past midnight I presented a ‘Soul’ special featuring Atlantic records which ‘filled’ the airtime till around the breakfast show on Sunday 15th. It’s hard to describe my mental state at this point but it was starting to deteriorate exponentially! By Mid day on Sunday achieving the potential 40 hour stage (the target attempt by the then record holders, BBC radio Oxford), I was pretty well much exhausted, and considered taking 30 minutes break, (the in studio photo of Margaret myself and Hyman), was taken around this time,would explain why I look so shattered!
If I did take the break, I can’t remember but assuming I did I would have reached the 50 hour stage at 1 am Monday morning, time for my next 30 minutes ‘rest’. I wouldn’t call it sleeping at this stage I was so shattered after being woken up, the break hardly seemed worth while. Ann Sullivan the antique dealer appeared at some stage in the early hours, of Sunday with a salmon Platter and I think a glass of wine(not sure about that item) but it was all received very thankfully at that point. The shop at no 13 Ellen st had been kept open most of the time during the broadcast, to facilitate donations(about £600 at this point) and people asking for requests, and the occasional visitor to the studio Jim Kemmy for one as he was my moderator for the Guinness Book of records, and friends and well wishers. In the early hours of Monday, between the records I was definitely experiencing weird ‘visions’. One minute the back wall of studio 2 was 16 feet away, the next moment it was in my face, and then 50feet away, then people would appear and disappear as quickly as they had arrived, some through the wall! The Studio started to get very busy with visitors(real & imagined), and at 1 pm Tom O’Donnell appeared with the entire St. Mary’s Pipe band, all 40 of them, to end my ‘ordeal’. I was so exhausted at this stage I was not very receptive to all the commotion around me, I didn’t know which was the greater desire, to sleep or eat! Sleep prevailed, but I was up again around 7 pm and went to the Granary for a BIG T bone and chips courtesy of the then manager Pat ………….., I don’t remember much of the night after that, I do know that my attitude to broadcasting changed significantly afterwards. I remained presenting the breakfast show for the next few years, (nobody would get up at that hour), but I relinquished the lunchtime show and the evening personal top ten show, as more DJ’s came on board. I did manage to continue with the ‘Elvis Show’ on Sundays at 4pm, but sharing it eventually with Eric Mitchell.
Eric had come to the station by way of sending his personal Top Ten (mostly Elvis), which sat in the in tray for almost a month without any one else submitting their entry’s. Despite asking for more ‘personal top ten selections’ no other entry’s came into the request box so I decided to play Eric’s submission on a Friday night before the Stardiscs Top ten show, to give us the weekend to work out what to do with the ‘slot’ by Monday!
The Personal Top Ten show came from Capital Gold in London, where it had become very popular, but with no particular time slot, so I thought the idea would work well in Limerick despite not having every record made, even Capital got caught out with the odd stinker that they either didn’t have in the Library or wouldn’t play for whatever reason! As we announced the show Eric rang up proclaiming his delight at being the first ‘PTT’(Personal Top Ten), to be aired. Despite the apprehension over the follow up we received two more PTT’s, on Saturday, one in the shop in Ellen St, the other in the competition entry ‘box’ at Stardiscs in Patrick street. After these two PTT’s were played the following week, the entries came thick and fast, eventually building up to a 2 month waiting list!
After the 60 hour broadcast we attempted to verify the occasion with the Guinness book of records, which they wanted by mail. Unfortunately the postal strike was in force and despite a vigorous protest by Jim Kemmy over the phone, our attempt was deemed unofficially ok, but no recognition from the UK! It didn’t really matter anyway BBC radio went on to break theirs and Big L Radio Limerick’s attempt within the month, however as you may have noticed from earlier in this epistle there were two of them and because of needle time restrictions, most of their show was by way of phone in’s and chat shows, not quite the same!
Anyway by the end of May more important agenda was on the horizon notably the launch of RTE’s pop station Radio 2 (lot of imagination there!) on 31st of May, first request was from shall we say a mature lady from the north looking for a mention for her family to which Larry Cogan allocated the Boomtown rats, not very appropriate at the time, but then that was RTE nothing changed there then! Listening to the new station from RTE, we began to think that we had nothing to worry about too much. Unlike the UK in the 60’s the Labour government had got rid of the Pirate Broadcasters first and employed nearly all the off shore DJ’s en masse for the new Radio One. The one main exception being Jimmy Young who took on the après breakfast show slot,
T W
pioneered by Tony Windsor on Big L Radio London, virtually identical in format. Tony Windsor never made it to the main stream broadcasting platform in the UK, big shame. Summer approached and Big L radio Limerick settled down to a format dictated by listenership and a growing list of DJ’s willing and eager to ‘learn’ the ropes, not available from National Broadcasting Facilities.
With the sports team up and running on Saturday mornings, and DJ’s coming to the door looking for a chance on the airwaves, I created a ‘First Chance’ spot for them immediately after the Stardisc’s Top Ten Show and before the Mad Hatters Ball, so I could keep an ‘eye’ on these first timers. Some of them never made it to the air time on a permanent basis, mainly because of space and time available, but also because of their respective talent’s. Some of the participants were naturals like Declan Copues, and Philip Irwin. Others had enormous talent like the Finn brothers and Eugene O’Connor, but at least I tried to give everyone a chance, and I like to think that a few of those potential presenters passing through the doors of Big L Radio Limerick, are still working in the media. They certainly wouldn’t have been able to get on the ladder by any other means! John Ryan came to us as a very shy boy from the sticks (Murroe I think), and is still broadcasting today on Clare Fm, as is Francis Jones who is still with Radio Kerry. I actually rejected Francis after his ‘audition’, but after a couple of very pleading letters and I think a little pushing from Tom O’Donnell, I relented and allowed him on air, we can all make miss-judgments I guess, more on Francis later. I was still playing music at ‘Clouds’ on the third floor of the Savoy in Bedford row Limerick on Saturday nights, through into August. On the 6th Pope Paul VI died which were going to have far reaching effects for both Ireland and Limerick over the coming months, and the second event was the 1st Anniversary of Elvis’ departure from this planet on the 16th.
I was resident in Poldarks at the 2 Mile Inn when the untimely news came to all his fans, of which I confess to not remembering too much, this time I can remember a lot more around the night. Even though Big L Radio Limerick was beginning to consume more and more of my time, I had time to prepare what I thought would be a good night and go on to run another 7 Elvis Conventions up to the last one on January 8th 1985, the last at the Granary on an atrocious night,
the roads were freezing bad but the fans still came from all over the County. As it was a Wednesday I wasn’t sure how well it was going to be attended, and I hardly had time to set up the disco myself I left it in the capable hands of my roadies. Working at Ellen St till late and just about making time to grab a bite to eat, I made it to Bedford row, just about 9 pm expecting to have the place to myself,(as usual), to do the warm up, for me anyway. The usual crowd, (around 30-70), on a Wednesday night didn’t arrive till after the pubs closed around 11-11.30, and as I had only just started the ‘Elvis Show’ on Sundays a couple of weeks beforehand, I wasn’t expecting the sight as I walked through the venue’s doors on the second floor, (it alternated between 3rd and 2nd floors depending what had been booked by the Savoy management). The equipment had been set up ok but was silent, unlike the ‘buzz’ in the room from at least 300 fans chatting away amongst themselves. I asked my crew why they hadn’t put any music on and they just said “Dunno we thought we’d wait for you”. I walked across the floor and the crowd fell silent not knowing what to expect. I didn’t recognize any faces from either Poldarks, the Shannon Arms ,or even the Franciscans, now a good 5 years older than I would have recognized them anyway! I stepped up onto the makeshift stage grabbed the Mike and and said “ we all know what we’re hear for………Let’s Dance”, and so we did and rocked and rolled for the rest of the night to my first disco ever dedicated to one artist “The King of Rock & Roll” , that was some night, I don’t think I’ll forget that one. Later on in August(28th), the actor Robert Shaw died near his home in Ireland of a heart attack, so many people famous and otherwise have passed on by these events that I know so well. Check out a Cautionary Tale on this site. All these people were just in the wrong place and the wrong time, including my Grandfather, who also died before he was 60, I was lucky to have my doctor so close at hand, she (Dr. Blanead MacCurtain), was with me within 5 minutes of getting home after enduring my ‘attack’ on the way back from a school run in 2013.
Robert Shaw in Jaws
Robert Shaw was the Skipper of the boat that went after the Great White in Jaws, he also appeared in a Bond movie, great actor should have stayed with us, he had plenty more films to do. Kieth Moon, the lunatic drummer with the ‘Who’ passed away at a very early age, born the same month and year as myself, great pity, I don’t think the group were ever the same afterwards. And again another Pope dies, this time Pope John Paul I on September 28th,
in what may have been suspicious circumstances! I like Dan Browns evaluation!
Pope John Paul I
I have mentioned the Popes during this year not only because of the impending ‘3 popes in one year’ scenario, but also of the link with Big L Radio Limerick. What Link? I can hear you all asking. Simples. In the early days when we used to switch off the MW transmitter at closedown, up would pop a station on the original frequency we used namely 194 Metres or to be more technical 1548 Klcs. Namely Vatican radio broadcasting from Rome.
Vatican Radio Masts… very powerful! 95 mtrs high erp in excess of 100,000watts
Most radios then (small domestic ones anyway), couldn’t receive this transmission, but as we were used to scouring the airwaves for any ‘interference’ around this time, our big Russian radiogram in the shop at 13 Ellen St, was more than able to receive this ‘Holy’ channel.
The Russian Radiogram In Ellen St with My eldest Son Alex 1982
Sorry to have to admit we were blocking out ‘his holiness’ words from Limerick during this time. In the beginning I did move the frequency on a regular basis to try and get away from this ‘interference’ , to no avail, but on occasions I did move away from the Vatican Radio Frequency we did get the occasional reception report from as far away as Scotland, once even from a Monk in the North of Sweden, with a huge piece of ‘kit’ no doubt to pick up his Holiness, sorry about that! I hope we made up for that with broadcasting the Novena from the Redemptorists Church every Saturday before the Sports Show through the guidance and permission of Father Kavanagh, no relation. I can however lay claim to another inspirational Priest in the ‘family’ namely Monsignor Edward Kavanagh of St. Rose Parish in Sacramento. CA. Uncle Bernie’s Brother, who was a brilliant fund raiser, should have had is advice for collecting advertising monies, he even helped to set up the church’s own radio station KSMH 1620 AM, a kindred spirit! As The year moved on more experienced people wanted to become involved with the Station, including Eamonn O’Connor (Eugene’s father), who had a very successful Monday Night show with some very interesting guests from his years in showbusiness, and an even more interesting playlist. His show eventually spawned Tom O’Donnell’s show on a Tuesday night, similar but not quite,Big L was beginning to shape up into a good all round community Radio Station. Despite a new television Channel (Network 2) coming on line on November 2nd, Big L’s Listenership was apparently growing quite substantially, judging by the number of advertisers wishing to take out airtime, this outake from Eamon’s show with ‘Mary Manertney’ ?
and our increasing number of ‘Live’ calls to the stations relative show’s, staged or otherwise. Remember Ireland was in a severe depression at the time, with England falling headlong into the same situation.
As more and more DJ’s came into the fold, there seemed to be no stopping Big L Radio Limerick’s Growth. By the end of 1979 it was virtually a 24 hour radio station, pending the opening of RTE’s 2nd ‘pop’ station, with good old Larry Gogan in the top spot, nothing changed there then! But they still couldn’t broadcast beyond midnight and had no independent news service at his time. They even tried having a “good news” slot only. I think they realized like the rest of us that it’s a nasty world out there, take away the (Bad) everyday news and your left with……………..not a lot.
Mind you Big L Radio Limerick had no news service at all! This had to change. But not just yet. I thought we could survive without a news service ‘interfering’ with the music output.
I put in a couple of more trips to the UK for transmitter ‘bits’ before the end of the year through the now frequented rat run through Eniskillen running the gauntlet of both the British Army patrols and the IRA, never really thought about the danger, I just like driving, and still do. The cars used on this run over the years were :-
Lancia Beta
Lancia Beta,……..1979
I had two of these cars. they were severely prone to rusting and on more than one occasion were known to have had bits falling off particularly engines! only thing I ever lost was the front bumper and the number plate. pulled by the guards for having two different Number plates….embarrassing or what.
Peugot 604
Peugot 604 (my favourite cruise animal)……..1980-82, had three of these models. all automatics, dream to drive and very comfortable over long distances, only got 22 mpg. Nobody seemed to keep spares for them though. The third one was just kept for ‘bits’, doors and windscreens etc. the engines lasted though
Fiat 1500
Fiat 1500 (My Fathers car)
who was still running Arena in Askeaton up to 1979 had to borrow this once, to go to the Midlands,(Birmingham) I was trying to track down some of my old Mining engineering friends, as well as doing something for my Father, can’t remember what though. Later he brought over his 2 door White Ford Fairlane. This replaced The Blue Fairlane used at Red Wings
Datsun Laurel………………………1982-1983 Horrible car,
Datsun Laurel
bounced all over the place, was big and clumsy, reasonably fast, but not something you would consider for a long trip. For it’s size returned about 25-28 Mpg, not bad for a ‘Big’ car, but generally not a good ride.Given to Frank Cavanagh’s Wife Nora, as a runaround after I left for England. She managed to clock up over a £1,000 in parking fines, but left the car registered to me!
Iveco Z100 Outside Broadcast Unit
Iveco Z100 Van 1981-1985.This one bought from new from Pat O’mara motors at Ballysimon, replaced the transit Box Van,and became Big L Radio Limericks OBU. Originally white , got it resprayed for £180. The White stripe copied from an American Ford Ecoline I liked the look of. For it’s size returned 22-25 mpg but the front screen kept fracturing. Had three screens replaced in all.
Datsun 180B………………..1980, briefly before being impounded at
Datsun 180B
Mary St Garda Barracks Limerick for being used on English registration plates. This was all I got from my father from the sale of Arena. It was a parting gift from Him after the sale of Arena to the Sheehan Brothers for £37.500
Triumph GT6 …………………1984-early 1985
Triumph GT6
used whilst down in Kerry working on Rocky103. Got stolen once in Tralee whilst staying overnight with a friend, returned the following morning un-harmed. PJ O’neil, (Rocky 103 DJ) was probably behind it, I reciprocated many times,it was the easiest car in the world to nick. Abandoned in New Ross after rear bearing failure.had to get a lift to the Ferry to get back to England. Never reclaimed the car! still there maybe? here’s PJ and Mike Dean talking about me (Animal), on air
Alfasud Coup……………….most of 1985
Alpha Romeo Alfasud Coupé
This Alpha-Romeo replaced the Triumph for a few months before I bought an XJ6 in St. Clears,Wales Not a bad car but I just didn’t like it, economical though about 32MPg ,used at Banna Beach for the Horizon Radio transmitters and hardware, crashed at the main road junction from Ardfert to Banna Beach).
Jaguar XJ6
The XJ6 never came to Ireland,(lowered suspension), I would have lost the exhaust on the road from Cavan to Athlone, the road was very bumpy, and at high speed……..? Anyway was in the garage at Archway North London,more than on the road, great looking car, easy to drive, but expensive to run, had 2 new petrol tanks before the garage owner convinced me to take his Alpha Romeo GT6 in part exchange.
Alpha Romeo GT6
I reluctantly agreed as I had to get to Ireland, but thought it was too similar to the Alfasud. Was I wrong or what, the fastest car I have ever owned, the police pulled me over the same day I had bought it on my way up to Stranraer Ferry doing 123mph outside Preston in a convoy I had joined just past Birmingham on the M6. The rest of the ‘convoy’ passed sheepeeshly me by at a very conservative 70 Mph, much to the grins of the Police who said they had enjoyed the ‘chase’ and let me go,This Time,promising to keep an eye out for me in the future, they’re not all bad! Had a good year and a half without any expense,(1 Set of Spark Plugs),before I crashed near Ardfert after a visit to Mick Flaherty’s Pub to pick up an advertising cheque.
You might think these trips were extravagant, but bear in mind the cost of fuel was just 16 shillings a GALLON then, that relates to 3 shillings per litre not that anybody knew what they were in those days.(15cents per litre, against todays price of €1.47). Cost of fuel to London and back around £25 + ferry about £40!
Soon there didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to play all the music that the listeners wanted to hear. One by one new programs were introduced along with the new DJ’s and prior to starting the news service the Sports show arrived following an introduction to Tommy Hines who started the first show exactly where John ‘the Man’ Frawley had sat, looking for the Breakfast show on his terms, and through a kind reader of this epistle it turns out the ‘cheque’ for £2,000 may have come from the Madden Family, who made such a mess of broadcasting in Limerick after buying out Limerick Radio ONE in the 90’s, courtesy of Ger Madden, who doesn’t merit a mention on this or any other page.
Tommy soon gathered a talented sports team for Big L Radio Limerick, and Hayman managed to get sponsorship for the team from Stiks the premier snooker hall in Limerick who had recently hosted a great night for all snooker fans with Hurricane Higgins as the main attraction, what a night! The current charts from that time had a very interesting mix everything from the Stones and “Miss You”, to the Smurfs, not forgetting Guy Marks and his hit “Loving You Has Made Me Bananas” . Also in the mix for the year were some tracks you don’t here of too often these days. Andrew Gold
and “Never Let Her Slip Away” was a favourite of Christine’s as I remember, whilst Plastic Bertrand and “Cá Plan Pour Moi” clocked up more than a few requests? Boney M did very well especially with the Christmas Hit of 1978 “Mary’s Boy Child”,which John ‘the Man’ Frawley played the ass off.
I had met John many years before, not that he remembered, when he was playing with Tommy Drennan’s Monarch Showband at the Silver Slipper Ballroom in Kenmare for “La Fruits de la Mer” annual fishing contest in 1967, which my Father brought every member of the family over for a few years running to enjoy the ‘fruits’ of the river. He was always immensely popular with locals and competitors alike, who came from as far away as Australia and Hong Kong to take part in the Competition. A particular good friend was the ‘Commodore’ who controlled the Event in Kenmare, who would encourage my Father to sing the Yorkshireman’s anthem “Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at or On Ilkla Moor bar tat (Standard English: On Ilkley Moor without your hat)” which of course my father would oblige after a couple (or more) whiskeys, to appreciative applause. Despite having garages in England at Stibbington,
Stibbington Forecourt looking North 1959
Hardwick
Hardwick Service Station Looking West 1960
and later Red Wings at Alconbury, my Father had been intent on having another in Ireland.
I think these trips were undertaken to soften us up to owning a Garage in Ireland and enjoying the slow pace of life here, despite being sternly advised against any such undertaking by Mary’s (Jacks wife, my Mother), Uncle Bernie Kavanagh in Urlingford. Uncle Bernie ran the Kavanagh
Redwings Looking North with my Ford Zephyr (look closely for Pegasus on the drivers door) 1965
‘Empire’ and was dead against my Father arriving in Ireland. On a trip in 1954 Jack & Mary(I was left behind that year on my Mum’s sister Kate’s farm in Lincolnshire, packaged off from King’s Cross Station with My Bike and my name on a lable, bit like a war refugee),
Uncle Bernie showed my parent’s, all their (The Kavanagh’s), property
Uncle Bernie & Joan outside their Shop(Headquarters) in Urlingford
in Urlingford relating to them the woes of running a Garage in Ireland. In one Garage was an entire fleet of Brand new cars and Vans that only came out on Sundays to meet the Mail Ferries from England, from which they delivered the newspapers all over Ireland, returning to Urlingford in the wee small hours of Monday morning to be serviced and locked up till the following Sunday. At another garage recently aquired at the other end of the village(Urlingford), a large hole was being prepared for fuel tanks. My Father retold the story to me that there must have bee at least 40 men working their socks of, twenty feet down in this mud and granite hole. On enquiring my father said to Bernie things must be good if you’re paying all these men to work so hard for you?
Kavanagh’s Garage Urlingford around 1954
“Paying” says uncle Bernie? “They get a good meal on Sundays, and are very grateful for it” ……….ummmhh enough said, My Father was still intent on coming to Ireland, and eventually bought a 2.1 acre site (with planning permission),next to the GAA pitch in Askeaton Co. Limerick off of Michael Sheehy for £2,100 late in 1969. My mother named the site ‘Arena’ and building commenced in ernest in 1970/71. I was to run the Garage/ Restaurant until my Father was able to come over after
Arena Forecourt with dad standing on the corner with his usual cup of tea 1976,White Fairlane behind the 2 Morris Minor’s.
deciding what to do with his own little ‘Empire’ in the UK. After more than a year and with my family installed in rented accommodation just outside the Village, along came “Bloody Sunday”,in January 1972, at which point my then Wife freaked out and wanted to return home to Cambridgeshire with our two girls, I was going to follow as soon as my Father could arrange someone to take over. That never was to happen, I fell in Love with a local girl and moved into Limerick, where ‘the action’ was, although disco’s were very much for the ‘kids’ in those days.
Arena Forecourt looking Northwest 1976.
There is much more to this little episode in my life and maybe I’ll fill you in at a later stage, but I just needed to explain why and how I landed in Ireland.
Arena in Askeaton with my Father now running the Garage/Restaurant was to be key in keeping the station,Big L Radio Limerick, running with the impending fuel shortage approaching due to the unrest in the Middle East, Peter could no longer get fuel in Co. Cork, irrespective of the cost, to make the trip to Limerick. Despite my Father being estranged from me at the time, I went cap in hand to ask for fuel in a five gallon ‘jerry can’ (Highly irregular), to help my staff out. He obliged and considered our feud to be more or less buried , once he started supplying the fuel, not only for Peter but also for my own transport. But 1978 had yet to run it’s course and the events in 1979 we’re even more devastating.
