King Kennedy

[Barry Keane]

Ronan O’Rahilly, who died in April this year, was one of the founders of pirate radio in Britain, with his station Radio Caroline (named after JFK’s daughter) In February 1964 O'Rahilly obtained the 702-ton former Danish passenger ferry Fredericia, which was converted into a radio ship. The ship was renamed MV Caroline and anchored off Felixstowe, Suffolk, where it began test transmissions on Friday, 27 March 1964. Great days, remember them well. He had been working on a documentary film, called King Kennedy, since renamed, A Brief Moment In Time. The film is about JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King. Using 100% archive material with no narration the film manages to create a complete narrative that engages in an extremely moving and powerful manner.
Ian Griggs and I attended a rough-cut screening of the film about 18 years ago in London. The Production Company were seeking to raise funds to be able to complete the project. We had the pleasure of meeting Ronan, who when I asked him how long he had been working on the film, he replied, since 1972! Although I was unable to help him financially (no surprise), I thought the film, even in an unfinished version, was very powerful and evocative.

[George Govus]

Well, thank you, Barry, for that remembrance. It's painful to think how much effort so many have put into divining what Vincent Salandria called the "false mystery." So much of which is apparently dust in the wind. I wonder if materials Ronan was working on could still be made available to Oliver Stone, and his current, nearing-completion, JFK documentary.