23 May Bere Island’s ambi­tions on the right wave­length

Bere Island Com­mu­ni­ty Radio held their third broad­cast last Sun­day May 19^th, broad­cast­ing on 100.1FM local­ly and world­wide on the Inter­net.  The three-hour show was co-pre­sent­ed by two island women, Eileen Mur­phy and Angela Sul­li­van.  As Ire­land has local and Euro­pean elec­tions on May 24^th the pro­gramme fea­tured inter­views with local can­di­dates, with par­tic­u­lar ref­er­ence to how their man­dates will influ­ence the island, and wider Beara com­mu­ni­ty.  The pro­gramme also fea­tured reg­u­lar fea­tures such as local news reports, Post­cards from the Past and My 5 Favourite Songs.  Mem­bers from the local com­mu­ni­ty on the Beara and Sheep’s Head Penin­su­las were also involved with Castle­town­bere res­i­dent Issie O’Donovan host­ing a music seg­ment.  The pro­gramme also fea­tured the island’s youth with the nation­al school chil­dren pro­vid­ing a playlist, intro­duc­ing their favourite songs and a reg­u­lar music seg­ment from teenagers Mol­ly Sul­li­van and Amy Orpen.

Bere Island Projects Group are con­tin­u­ing to work with Grass­roots Wave­lengths to and Rootio to test the Rootio sys­tem, and plan to broad­cast using Rootio in the com­ing weeks.

The radio sta­tion is now becom­ing an intrin­sic part of island life, and we are start­ing to see increased inter­est in the sta­tion, par­tic­u­lar with peo­ple express­ing an inter­est to take part in, and present the var­i­ous seg­ments.

Bere Island Projects Group are con­tin­u­ing to work to set up a sec­ond radio sta­tion, and held fur­ther dis­cus­sions regard­ing this at the recent West Cork Islands AGM held on Sherkin Island.

With Bere Island and the wider area start­ing to get busy with the start of the tourist sea­son we are busy plan­ning con­tent for the com­ing months, record­ing more seg­ments for the Post­cards from the Past fea­ture, and plan­ning for live broad­casts from fes­ti­vals on the island and main­land.

One of the most pos­i­tive impacts the radio sta­tion has had to date is its role in doc­u­ment­ing the island’s oral his­to­ry.  To this end, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Bere Island Projects Group and UCC will present a paper the Oral His­to­ry in a Dig­i­tal World con­fer­ence being held in Lim­er­ick in June.