That’s Ireland

Some pirates applied unsuccessfully for local radio licences. Chris Cary, who told the IRTC that young people turned on radio stations and old people turned them off, then moved back to England with his partner Sybil Fennell. Sunshine boss Robbie Dale moved to Lanzarote to run a holiday apartment complex. >>>

Pirates in the Stocks

Though nobody was jailed—or indeed fined more than £25—during the great pirate era, two former station bosses have since been convicted of other crimes, as has the Minister who shut most of them down.

Chris Cary

In 1998 Chris ‘Spangles Muldoon’ Cary was jailed for four years in the UK, having made millions counterfeiting Sky satellite decoder cards. He escaped from prison and was recaptured in New Zealand, moving to the Isle of Man on his release.

Captain Cooke

In 2003 Eamon ‘Captain’ Cooke, then in his mid-sixties, was jailed for ten years for sexually assaulting underage girls, one as young as six, while he ran Radio Dublin. He appealed his conviction in May 2006, but his appeal failed.

Rambo Burke

The hat-trick was completed in 2005 when Ray ‘Rambo’ Burke was jailed for six months for breaking tax laws that he himself had helped to pass. Three years previously, the Flood Tribunal had found him to have received corrupt payments from businessmen, including the £35,000 from Century owner Oliver Barry.

Atlantic 252

As a final irony, when the new law came in, the UK had no legal national commercial station. Being very familiar with such a scenario, RTE joined with Radio Luxembourg to launch Atlantic 252. This was a long-wave Irish-based pop station, aimed exclusively at the UK market, and staffed by former pirate DJs.

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