Saor Raidió Chonamara first appeared on Easter Sunday in 1970 to huge publicity. Based in a caravan in Ros Muc, the station was an Irish language pirate formed by a civil rights movement who were frustrated at the lack of media in the native language. They sought help from Michael Healy who was responsible for Cork’s Radio Juliet.
The original broadcasts lasted for three days (March 28th-31st) on 188m but it returned in November 1970 to protest the moving of a festival celebrating the Irish language to outside the Gaeltacht area.
The station was a direct influence on the decision to launch a national Irish language service by RTÉ, which appeared on Easter Sunday (!) in 1972.