Most of us know that Ireland has a long history of radio piracy but few people realise how long ......

https://ibhof.blogspot.com/2020/05/dubl ... y.html?m=1

The rebroadcasts of BBC broadcasts were particularly interesting. The phenomen of "Deflectors" apparently predated television.

In the early days in Ireland there was certainly some distribution of BBC radio by mini-wired systems in neighbourhoods, rather than radiating. the newspaper reports may sometimes have muddied what exactly was going on.


I'd question the last sentence

"up to the present days with many pirate radio stations still taking to the air."

Is it really the case that many new pirate stations have taken to the air during this decade in Ireland ??? Its much more a case of stations becoming extinct during the 2020s rather than any new ones appearing

The television 'deflectors' were something else. They picked up UK television on the east coast of Ireland (usually from Presely, Blaenplwyf or Llandona) and then relayed them using terrestrial UHF across the island to places such as Cork where they would be distributed locally on UHF. Viewers had to pay a fee to watch the service and those who provided it would walk around the town and if anyone had a TV antenna pointing at their deflector site but was not paying fees, they would get a (not very) gentle knock on the door.

Those who lives on the east coast could usually get the signal direct from the UK, however it required quite a set-up with at least 2 stacked yagis and a reasonably tall mast. I guess in the VHF days it was somewhat easier.

What largely put paid to the TV deflectors was a combination of satellite TV and digital terrestrial TV.

reverend wrote: ↑Mon Jan 19, 2026 1:55 pm Those who lives on the east coast could usually get the signal direct from the UK, however it required quite a set-up with at least 2 stacked yagis and a reasonably tall mast. I guess in the VHF days it was somewhat easier.

Likelyhood of ghosting or the picture going a funny color, used to happen quite often on the yorkshire coast, they do still loose their tv even though its freeview now, interesting would of though most txers would of been turned off over in other countries, i'm guessing it might be other txers from further south in the uk, crossing a sea path. I suppose aerials on the east coast of ireland I suspect would of had the same problem.

I am 7 miles south of Dublin and an auld fella. When I was growing up every house had a 4 elelment band I and an 8 element band III Yagi on a 20 foot pole pointed at the Divis transmitter near Belfast. You could also get a fuzzy 405 line HTV on band I from St. Hillary. RTE from three rock would come in on a wet bit of string, so you didn't need a separate aerial for that.