If you’re going away on holiday and need someone to feed the cat, if you run out of milk and desperately need a cup of tea, if you lock yourself out on a frosty winter night, where do you go?
Well, to your neighbour, of course.
In small, close-knit communities, people believe they can trust the person next door with their life, or that of their children’s…
In 1960s Ireland, there was only one official radio station – Raidió Éireann, so anyone under the age of 50 had to look elsewhere for audio inspiration.
Pirate radio stations were all the rage for decades, with one in particular speaking to the youth of that time, Radio Dublin, anchored by a man named Eamon ‘Captain’ Cooke.
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Cooke broadcast his show out of his home in Inchicore, where he was already known to locals as an aloof figure who allowed local children to frequent his garage, which was filled with old TVs and other oddities.
He was not only a neighbourhood fixture but a low-level celebrity – people thought they knew Cooke, but what they did not know was that he was using his status to become one of Ireland’s most prolific child predators.
When documentary maker Peter Mulryan was an ambitious teenager, he set about writing a book on pirate radio and ended up interviewing Cooke multiple times.
By the time his book was published in 1989, he had moved to London and left this story behind him. That is, until he returned to Ireland decades later to discover his source had become a convicted paedophile.
A vintage newpaper article on ‘Captain’ Eamonn Cooke
It’s taken over 40 years, but in the new podcast Pirate Predator made with the help of the award-winning RTÉ Documentary On One team, Mulryan will strive to get to the bottom of how one of this country’s worst sex offenders got away with it for so long, and allow survivors to tell their story.
To find out more about the first instalment of this podcast, keep reading or save time and just hit play above. And remember, like all Doc On One series, this is an open investigation, so we want any tips or information you may have on Eamon Cooke.
Radio Rebel
You might be wondering how documentary maker Peter Mulryan ended up spending decades of his career chasing this story. Well, to answer that question, the podcast takes us back to 1981 to set the scene.
Mulryan was a plucky 19-year-old who wanted to write a book about Ireland’s pirate radio scene, which began in the 1960s at a time when the only radio station permitted to broadcast in Ireland was Raidió Éireann.
So, if you wanted a bit of Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones, you had to tune into illegal radio stations.
These underground gateways into a world outside conservative Ireland are where Mulryan discovered one of the biggest pirate radio stations in Ireland – Radio Dublin.
The Radio Dublin studio in Inchcore
Like any curious writer, he set up a meeting with the man behind the music, a kind of cult hero known as the ‘Captain’ to his listeners, a man named Eamon Cooke.
Cooke was a small, shabby man who smelt like cigarettes, according to Mulryan, who went on to interview him many times for his book.
It was not until years later that the truth would emerge that Cooke was not just another pirate radio broadcaster, but in fact one of Ireland’s most prolific serial sex abusers. And his radio station was more about gaining access to vulnerable children than breaking the broadcasting mould.
But to understand this predator, the series rewinds even further to revisit the childhood of Cooke…
I’ve wanted to make this series for a long time to understand how one of Ireland’s most prolific ever abusers got away with it for so long?
– Peter Mulryan
The Beginning
In a strange coincidence, Cooke and Mulryan grew up in the same area, Glasnevin in North Dublin. But their experiences were slightly different; for one, Cooke was convicted for the first time at 13 for theft.
He stole lead, likely to convert into easy cash at a scrap yard, except he got caught.
Two years later, he was back in front of the same judge, but this time he tried to blow up O’Connell’s monument in Glasnevin with a pipe bomb… he was 15.
Much to the relief of his parents, a carpenter and housewife, he only got 12 months’ probation.
In another odd twist, which this story is filled with, Cooke later attributed some of his childhood delinquency to republican beliefs, but to discover what links Cooke had to the IRA, you need to press play.
Let’s just say it led to an attempted murder charge and a prison sentence…
A court-appointed psychiatrist once recommended that a young Cooke “receive prolonged psychological treatment” based on the team’s research that never took place, and by 1961, he moved to Inchicore in south Dublin, where many of his crimes against children would occur…
He was actually charged with attempting to shoot four civic guards with a revolver in Bray – Researcher, genealogist Damien O’Sullivan
Helena
The podcast not only digs into Cooke’s childhood and the serial sexual abuse he perpetrated, but it also uncovers some dark mysteries from his past, like the sudden death of his first wife, Helena Holland.
She was 27 years old, and the couple had been married for less than three years.
But here’s where things get murky: Cooke said in interviews that his wife died of a heart attack in 1965, but he allegedly told her family she fell down the stairs and broke her neck.
Helena’s father was a wealthy man who owned multiple shops and properties; he even ran for the senate. When his daughter died, her husband received a chunk of her inheritance.
Helena’s nephew reveals to the podcast that some members of his family felt Cooke murdered his young wife, while others claimed they had a happy marriage.
To find out what really transpired, the team found a copy of Helena’s inquest in the National Archives, which they examined with the help of the former head of the Garda Cold Case Unit.
To find out what they discovered decades later, hit play.
That’s what we always thought, that he murdered Helena, you know?
– Nephew Helena Holland
Neighbours
Listeners will learn that places become secondary characters in this podcast, so much of this story is rooted in the streets of Inchicore in Dublin, where Cooke lived with Helena and later his second wife, Joan Nolan.
Cooke’s former neighbour on Sarsfield Road, aptly named Sarsfield Foley, acts as a guide to the podcast, taking listeners around Inchicore, where some of Cooke’s most heinous acts of abuse took place, painting a picture of how locals felt about their neighbour.
For one thing, Cooke married his second wife shortly after he had buried Helena, a fact that did not go unnoticed by locals, according to Foley, who described it as “one of the most strangest things we’ve ever seen in this area”.
“It was unusual for someone to get married so quick after a sudden death… even in the 60s. There was no kids at that time so it was a very fast wedding.”
At this point, Cooke had a shop on Thomas Street repairing and selling electrical items.
It becomes clear in this series that the people of Inchicore protect their own, as multiple people give tips and information to the series from reports of screams coming from Cooke’s shop to some of the children, now adults, who came in contact with this convicted predator back in the 70s.
Two such adults are Siobhan and Anne, former childhood friends who spent their youth exploring their surroundings in Inchicore, until one day they found a hidden world of trinkets and treasures, the garage of an aloof neighbour – Eamon Cooke.
It was a very safe environment, like where we lived. It was like the front of the houses was where the main traffic went. But at the back, it was like a cul-de-sac. So the children were very safe. Well, we thought it was in hindsight
– Former Inchicore resident Siobhan.
You can stream Pirate Predator anywhere you get podcasts, episodes drop weekly every Monday.
TIPS: If you have any information or knowledge about Eamon Cooke please send them through to documentaries@rte.ie or you can leave an anonymous tip here