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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
April 1978. Dublin's most successful pirate radio station had suddenly and dramatically been brought to its knees when its captain, Eamon Cook, was accused of child abuse. My reputation as such certainly has been rubbed into the ground and made mud up, but that is of minor consequence.
Chapter 2: What allegations were made against Eamon Cooke and how did he respond?
The most important thing is that this radio station as such survives. Denying all the allegations live on Radio Dublin, Eamon Cook totally twisted the truth. They have brought the whole radio movement of Ireland into disrepute. The only ones who regained from this are, of course, the Department of Custom Telegraphs and RTE.
By the time Cook took to the airwaves with his DARTRAD, Siobhan's family already knew the truth because the local priest had heard her recorded testimony of Cook's abuse. The tape had gone to the clergy.
There was a priest called Father Jimmy Nolan. And he'd gone to my parents to say that he had suspicions that I might be interfered with down in Radio Dublin by M Cook. My parents then called me in to ask me questions. I was absolutely terrified. I thought I was in trouble.
Siobhan's mother believed her immediately.
My mum didn't know what to do, so she brought me to have an examination in a doctor's. Now, they asked me a lot of questions about touching, and I explained everything. My mum collapsed into surgery. She had to be carried out.
Siobhan's mother wanted to go to the Gardaí, but the doctor advised her not to.
And he said it wouldn't be a good idea for my mum to go to the police. That would be very hard on me and that none of my friends would play with me and nobody would talk to the family. And it's a child's word over an adult's word.
All of this happened by the time Cook took to the airwaves with his now infamous broadcast. The week was spent then in attempting to disprove or improve the allegations, whichever could be done. Knowing what I know now, listening back to Cook actually takes my breath away. The arrogance and denial, all in plain sight. There was little point in myself going around here and there.
But if they say to the local guard, the station or the local priest and asking them what they thought of me, they'd probably have said, good lad or you're a great lad and goodbye. Eleven-year-old Siobhan and her mother both listened in to Cook.
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Chapter 3: How did the local community react to the allegations against Cooke?
He gave me money at the time, I remember. I think it could have been 30 pence or 40 pence. And I remember vividly putting it in my white communion sock.
And now Mary and the other children were sitting by the railway line in Inchicore with Anne and they were filled with fear.
And it was now in the public arena.
We didn't know if we were going to be sent to a home and lose our families and our parents.
So there was a group of us sitting on the steps. We were planning on running away. Because we were so frightened. And we felt it was us who were going to be into trouble. So we had a plan.
We were all going to go home and get our fetcher bags and our sandwich to survive. And we were thinking we'd run away to Memorial Park and live in the trees there. Even the running away is so childlike.
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Chapter 4: What impact did Siobhan's testimony have on the situation?
But it was deadly serious for us. We were truly in bits at that point. Meanwhile, because Cook was blatantly denying the allegations, DJ James Dillon, the man behind Siobhan's recordings, had to uncover the truth for himself.
I said the only way I'll know is to go up and talk to Siobhan's parents and see where exactly this is at now. When I went up, her mother said, I don't want to talk to you.
James Dillon came to the house. My mum, she didn't respond very well to James Dillon. Get away from the house. And I don't know what she said to him, but she was very angry. And he was trying to help.
And almost tried to close the door. And I said, please, we're after... pulling down at House of Cards, the biggest radio station in Ireland, only because we think your daughter has been abused. She reluctantly said, we believe that she was. So I went back to Cook and I said to him, Cook, you're a paedophile and you're going to pay for it one day.
And with this, he says, James, I'll see you six foot under. And I said, are you threatening me? Are you threatening to kill me? He said, no, James, you're mistaken. I think you worry so much you'll put yourself in an early grave.
After the mutiny at Radio Dublin, James Dillon led a walkout of virtually all the staff to start a new station, The Big D. The alternative. Only the video. Only the best. Best music. The big D. But Eamon Cook and Radio Dublin were not finished. You know, there was questions about him being a very threatening individual. No, he wasn't to me.
That's Dave Moore, one of the disc jockeys that jumped ship with James Dillon. But I think he could be, you know, he was a feared man, you know, like he could be very, very nice. But at the background, he was quite a strategic thinking guy, you know. Dave can recall a Gartha regularly visiting Eamon Cook, a remnant of Cook's Alpha Seven days when he assisted Garthy at crime scenes.
Though he'd long since stopped his Cape Crusader work, Cook clearly maintained his Gartha connections. I came in one day and there was this guard sitting in the chair. Big, big burly guard, the waistcoat off. And I was introduced to a guy called Bimbo. That was his nickname. I have no idea what his name was. And Bimbo was over the communications in Dublin Castle.
And he knew him really, really well. But he would communicate to Cook about various different things. Bimbo? was the nickname of a well-known garter called Jim Ward, and he even got a shout-out on Radio Dublin on New Year's Eve 1977.
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Chapter 5: How did DJ James Dillon investigate the truth behind the allegations?
Mrs Catherine Richardson of Sarsfield Road in Chicor said today she had arranged for stay wires on the station's 60-foot aerial, which were on Mrs Richardson's boundary wall, to be cut, resulting in the aerial falling down across Back Gardens and Sarsfield Road.
This was the first time someone successfully stood up to Eamon Cook, and even though she was a child, what Mrs Richardson did wasn't lost on Mary.
We looked at her with different eyes then. And we were always saying to Peter, she couldn't go in and cut up. Mel's belonged to Eamonn Cook, but that's the truth. Yeah, we were in awe of Mrs. Richardson. And she just said, enough's enough. But absolutely delighted when that happened because for the first time it showed us that somebody, which showed me, that somebody could be bigger than him.
Throughout 1978 and 79, Eamon Cook built up an immunity, shielded by those around him. Even on the occasions he was caught, he always found a way to keep his predatory behaviour on course. You know, he'd be creeping around the house. DJ Sean Meaney again. I mean, there was one particular day that I mistakenly opened the door upstairs beside the toilet.
And he was in there, and he was on top of a young girl, you know. So the girl, as it turned out, I knew that she had been downstairs on the phones, answering the phones. Eamon Cook was 42 years old at this time. She was 15 years of age. He just said, get out, you know. And I did, and I didn't open my mouth. I didn't say anything to anybody. I was quite shocked, actually, you know.
And two or three weeks later... I suddenly got dropped from the station and I can only conclude that that was the reason. James Dillon and all those who'd left Radio Dublin spent the following months and years wondering, when was Eamon Cook going to be stopped?
I thought from time to time, how come we didn't hear anything? Maybe quietly in the background he's been arrested or something's happened.
Cook must have by now felt invincible. His abuse of children was endemic, almost daily it seems, and no one could stop him.
And time just went on and on and on and yeah.
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