Cloch Le CarnStagione 2013
The title of this occasional series "Cloch le Carn " could be literally interpreted as "adding a stone to the funeral mound" but in reality the series takes a constructive but not always uncritical look at public figures who've made a contribution to Irish society in their lifetimes.
Dove guardare Cloch Le Carn • Stagione 2013
2 Episodi
- Ciarán Mac MathúnaE1
Ciarán Mac MathúnaIn December 2009, Ciarán Mac Mathúna, one of Ireland’s best loved broadcasters with his own signature voice died, aged 84 years. He began work in Radio Éireann in late 1954 as a music producer with responsibility for traditional music. During the 1950s & especially in the ‘60s, he was engaged in extensive field-recording. Travelling the highroads and byroads of Ireland getting to the source of the Irish musical tradition, recording musicians in the own homes and locales. His gentle, slow manner put nervous musicians and singers at their ease amid all the new fangled and cumbersome technology . “Ciarán’s voice was central to it all, everyone recognised it and when he spoke about music people hung onto his every word.” Paddy Glackin It was on one such fieldtrip to the west, that he met his future wife Dolly while interviewing her father Martin Furey. They went on to have three children together. “Love is a very peculiar thing, it happens, and we were both very lucky. We were different in lots of ways but maybe that’s why our marriage was so successful.” Dolly MacMahon Ciarán also travelled abroad recording music in Britain and in the USA and it was on one of his American trips that he heard the Clancy Brothers for the first time, and had a hand in helping them become such a success on their native shores. He presented such radio series as Ceolta Tíre and A Job of Journeywork in the 60s while in the 70s and 80s he also worked in television, presenting traditional music series such as Fonn and The Humours of Donnybrook as well as fronting numerous traditional music documentaries. “He was somebody who didn’t believe in formal barriers between different types of music. Music was good or not good.” Deirdre Mac Mathúna ( Daughter) He was perhaps best known to Irish audiences for his long running Sunday morning radio programme Mo Cheol Thú which combined music, poetry and folklore. A constant in the RTÉ R - Maeve BinchyE2
Maeve BinchyAt the height of her fame as an international author, Maeve Binchy made many television appearances. The purpose was, of course, to publicise her latest book, but the results could be hilarious. During one Late Late Show appearance, she spoke to Pat Kenny about some of her early difficulties as an author: “When I started writing the books, I couldn’t really put any graphic sex into it because I was never at an orgy. Were you ever at an orgy Pat?” Maeve Binchy was born in Dalkey in south county Dublin in 1940, the eldest of four children. As a young history student in UCD, Maeve discovered the disadvantages of living in the quiet seaside village. “It was so far out, nine and a half miles from Dublin. What would you have to promise somebody to give you a lift home? When people discovered that you lived in Dalkey, it was goodbye after the first dance.” Maeve spent time living in a kibbutz in Israel, after which she went teaching and writing part-time. Finally, she got her big break and joined the Irish Times. She moved to the paper’s London Office in the mid-1970s and, a few years later, married the BBC journalist and writer, Gordon Snell. Maeve Binchy’s articles were witty and lively. They also showed her interest in the lives or ordinary people whose conversations she overheard on the bus or the Tube. She often missed her station so that she could hear the end of a fellow passenger’s story. A few years later, Maeve turned her hand to fiction, starting with the short story collections Victoria Line and Central Line. Her big break came in 1982 with her first novel Light a Penny Candle, which told the story of a long friendship between an Irish girl and her English pal. The book was a massive bestseller. Further success followed with Circle of Friends and Tara Road, both of which were made into films. During the course of her career, Maeve Binchy sold over 40 million books. Sadly, she died in July 2012 after a lifetime of consisten