The Meehan Machine

With proud wife Maggie and daughter Rebecca

t’s happy radio daze for East Coast FM’s Declan Meehan as he’s just been inducted into the IMRO Radio Hall Of Fame.

At Radio Nova 1993. Pic: Joe King

The man people around here turn to when they need to air their grievances, battles and fights for justice, Declan’s morning show has become a staple of Wicklow life.

And now, alongside Greystones’ George Hamilton, C103’s Patricia Messenger and the late Stephen Clements of BBC Radio Ulster, the Irish Music Rights Organisation has this week given Meehan their highest radio accolade.

It’s been a long and winding career for the airwaves veteran, and he’s certainly come a long way from the 12-year-old pretending to be a presenter on Radio Caroline up in the privacy of his own bedroom. That was 57 years ago, and Declan’s increasingly note-perfect imitation of a top radio host has seen him progress from setting up pirate stations with school friends around north County Dublin before being headhunted for 2FM , signing up as a breakfast DJ alongside other pirate radio stars Dave Fanning, Marty Whelan, Gerry Ryan and Ronan Collins.

Wide-eyed at 2FM 1980

Homes such as Sunshine Radio, Radio Nova and FM104 followed before Declan set up talking shop in Bray’s East Coast in 1994. And it’s here that Declan holds the great and the good of Wicklow’s politicans to account on The Morning Show.

And he does so by giving a voice to everyday people who have come up against a rock or a hard WCC decision. “The way people can fight is amazing,” Meehan told Mary Fogarty of The Bray People earlier this week. “You see a family and ask, what are they trying to fight for here? It’s to better their child.

“You have to have sympathy and not just accept the line that there’s some reason something can’t be done. Those are the things that I love to highlight.”

Fair fecks. You can catch Declan Meehan on The Morning Show every weekday from 10am to 2pm.