To be fair Freddie,

Neal had an ideological dream about Radio Caroline as in ' free voice ' on the high seas ' beyond governmental control ' and so forth.
Being a bit closer to the action I eventually saw it as a not very well run organisation which cut corners and had no contingency plans or any cash reserve for unforeseen emergencies.
Or if there was any such reserve, it was tucked away abroad and never mentioned.
So the station was mostly a vehicle for earning undeclared income for a few people, while it played exactly the same music as could be heard from commercial stations on land. So it was not even musically unique.
Neals ideological stance was obvious during the 1989 raid and thereafter and frankly he deserves to be admired ( with others ) for crewing the ship in situations of great risk and discomfort while dreaming about a triumphant return to air.
Where we diverge is that he just will not accept that I with Mike Dundee, Nigel Harris, Dave The Fish and others, tried our best to keep the station operating but that at the end of the day we failed.
Once in Dover the decision was to either walk away from the whole thing leaving Caroline as a fading memory or to start all over albeit in different circumstances.
The difficulty is that Neal has constructed this truth but only in his head that I wanted to bring the station down, eventually ' stealing it ' from Ronan.
O'Rahilly's interest ended as soon as the station could no longer provide him with undeclared income and such minimal interest as he retained was only in case it may again be in a position to give him money.
But if Neal will accept that, even in part, he will see that his 30 years of seething hatred were not justified. I doubt he will ever do that.
But he still needs to be admired for his bravery.

PM