A newly unearthed recording of the first programme broadcast on Raidió Fáilte 38 years ago will be among the highlights today, Friday 11 August, at the Raidió Fáilte Annual Lecture.  

The lecture starts at 2.00pm in An Lonnan in Raidió Fáilte 30 Divis Street.  

Co-founder of Raidió Fáilte, Eoghan Ó Néill will deliver the lecture in Irish ‘Gaeil Feirste, 1981-1991’ which will also be broadcast live at link above. 

It was while researching a new book on the language struggle of the eighties that Eoghan stumbled upon an old cassette tape which contains a recording of the first programme broadcast on the unlicensed radio station back in 1986. At that time, the radio operated via a rickety transmitter on the roof of Conway Mill.

"I was amazed to find it for sure," says Eoghan. "The recording is a decent quality and it’s Gearóid Ó Cairealláin presenting his first on air show.  

FAOI AGALLAMH: Gearóid Ó Cairealláin interviewing Gerry Adams in the Raidió Fáilte studios in 2022
2Gallery

FAOI AGALLAMH: Gearóid Ó Cairealláin interviewing Gerry Adams in the Raidió Fáilte studios in 2022

"It’s interesting as we had just moved into Conway Mill and the mill was blacklisted by the British Government at the time and all funding denied groups operating in the premises.  

"So Gearóid refers several times to the chance that he may have to go off the air if there is a raid.  

"It’s just another of many hidden stories of the Irish language here in the 1980s and I hope the lecture will start us talking about what worked and was learned in those days and what might be used now to inform the Irish language movement as we go forward."

Veteran Gaeilgeoir Eoghan was a co-founder of Irish language daily newspaper Lá in 1984 and went on to head up the news service at Raidió Fáilte.