Greenore, Ireland: 1960-1963, part 2 ....

The answer to yesterday's Blog editorial about C.I.E. is in part bound-up with the reason why we have taken a microscopic-media approach to explain how Greenore became so important, and why Radio Caroline was created, and who created it. The problem we have faced is three-fold.

---

First, the books and magazines and newspapers, as well as the television and radio documentaries that all want to tell the world about Radio Caroline, have had no concern for the facts = NONE!

Some, like Paul Rusling have actually stolen our research which we paid for in time and money, and then he rushed ahead with a vanity publication called 'The Radio Caroline Bible'. Because Rusling did not understand the subject; nor was he interested in research and the tedious study of old documents; he married fact with existing fiction to keep the silly story of 'Jimmy Ross' alive, while propping up lies and distortions about a con man named Ronan O'Rahilly.

Second, the people who have a specialized interest in both the histories of Ireland and Northern Ireland, have also mixed fact with fiction in order to tell their versions of a story. They have relied upon generalizations but they have not paid attention to details. In so doing they have also made a total mess of history.

Third, another story, a back-story which is really key to understanding the origins of British offshore radio, has become obfuscated by Dutch anoraks. They have tried to deal with offshore broadcasting off Holland as if it was a self-contained national story, and in so doing they have also concealed the revelation of what is undoubtedly the biggest factor of all: international law. Yes, they have addressed that issue, but they have done so with a limited perspective, but the key to understanding that subject was published by an industry unrelated to offshore broadcasting. We will will have a lot more to say about this in the book 'Dial 999 for Caroline' which we still intend to publish before the end of this present year.

But in addition to all of the above is another problem. It has to do with the promotion of a story about Ronan O'Rahilly's grandfather and the seizing of a 1916 series of events, and marrying them to a 1964 series of events. The two are not connected in any way.

However, Ronan was assisted in his storytelling by his father who wrote a book about his father, who was of course Ronan's grandfather. By mixing that distant fable with the fable created by Ian Cowper Ross concerning his father, to which was added yet another fable about a 5 years-old girl called Caroline Kennedy, the entire story of Radio Caroline has been totally obliterated from view.

Now add one more (there are actually several more) layer of misinformation to this pile of total deceit, and this one concerns yet another book published by yet another son and grandson of two individuals who are at the core of the true story about Radio Caroline.

It is no wonder that no one knows what really happened on February 27, 1964.

We now have a pretty good idea, which is not to say that we know all of the fine details, because we don't. But we now do have access to enough details that form the central theme of the true story.

Finally, there is the man Aodogán O'Rahilly and the manufacturing company that he managed called Weatherwell, Limited.

Aodogán was born in England and he married an American citizen. He dallied at school with communism, but not to the extent that he got himself barred from going to the USA in the aftermath of World War II when the Cold War was just getting ramped-up. Aodogán was seeking U.S. financial help which was being dished-out to nations under the Marshall Plan.

Aodogán O'Rahilly was a capitalist. He was not a nationalist who got blinded by a political cause that precluded him from seeing the wood for the trees. There is no doubt that Aodogán O'Rahilly became a loyal supporter of an independent Ireland, but then, so are we. Our academic monologues have spelled-out the ruthless domination of the British Crown which has attempted to rule the world from London, England. But Aodogán O'Rahilly was also an astute businessman who could see that he needed to stay on the politically correct side of all of the governments that he was deaTing with, and they included the Republic of Ireland; Northern Ireland; the United Kingdom ruled from London, England, and the United States of America.

Aodogán O'Rahilly received money to buy property and the working capital that came with it, from government-backed loans. For Aodogán to attack any government connected to that money would have been financial suicide. His son Ronan may have been stupid, but his father was not.

When Aodogán O'Rahilly discovered what was really going on at Greenore concerning the two radio ships, which seems to be after the mv Fredericia had departed, he told Harry Spencer who was still working on the mv Mi Amigo, to get out. That situation was agrevated by a Granada TV film crew who upset the locals even more when their program called 'World in Action', was televised.

This preamble brings us back to the question we raised yesterday about C.I.E. because it gives the impression that everything began on July 30, 1960, when that story about C.I.E. was published by the press. In reality, the year is right, but there were important events that led up to July 30 which we will also address in tomorrow's Blog.

However, we promised to explain what C.I.E. was in 1960, and we will do that now by letting C.I.E. provide their own answers which you can also find in more detail at:
https://www.cie.ie/Who-We-Are/History-of-CIE

"Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), was founded on 1st January 1945 under the Transport Act 1944.  It united the Great Southern Railways (GSR) and the Dublin United Tramway Company (DUTC). The GSR operated rail, bus and lorry services.  It had come into existence in 1925 when all the railway companies lying wholly within the Free State were amalgamated into one concern.  Under the Transport Acts of 1932 and 1933 the GSR was given the right to compulsorily acquire its road competition. It’s most notable acquisition was the Irish Omnibus Company - the ancestor of Bus Éireann.
 
The DUTC was established in 1896 and rapidly established a network of electric tram services throughout the capital city.  From the early thirties it built up a network of bus routes which gradually displaced the tram services.  To this day most Bus Átha Cliath routes between 1 and 30 are former tram routes. CIÉ ran Dublin trams until 1949, when the last trams were replaced by buses. The DUTC became the Dublin City Services sector of CIE and its route network expanded with the city.

CIÉ commenced operations on 1st January 1945 as private company with shares traded on the Dublin stock exchange.

The Transport Act 1950 transformed CIÉ into a semi state body, and in the process absorbed the Grand Canal Company. 

In 1958 CIÉ absorbed the road and rail services of the Great Northern Railway, which lay within the republic.  This company had previously operated as a cross border body jointly managed by the two governments.
 
The fifties and sixties witnessed a mixture of modernisation and downsizing. The railway replaced steam locomotives with diesel locomotives, being one of the first companies in Europe to do so. The bus fleet was modernised. Some railway lines were closed and replaced with CIÉ bus and lorry services."

Tomorrow: Unfolding the interwoven interests in Greenore during the year 1960 ....