Tony McAuley

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Tony McAuley, born in on 24th October 1939 was the son of a chemist from Cookstown, County Tyrone. He was schooled at Saint Patrick's College, Armagh and later at Queen's University Belfast, where he was a founding member of the Glee Club together with fellow musicians such as Phil Coulter and Paul Brady. After qualifying as an English teacher he taaught at Saint Patrick's College in Belfast before joining the BBC in 1972 in the Schools Department and writing and presenting Today and Yesterday.

His musical ability led him to produce and direct a ground breaking Irish music programme titled "As I Roved Out", a programme responsible for giving many musicians their first TV appearance; artists now well known such as Mary Black, Paul Brady, Christy Moore and others.

In the 1983 he produced The Celts, an award winning television series based on the book by Frank Delaney. In his search for suitable music to accompany the series he came across Enya Brennan, member of the band Clannad whom he had filmed as part of his "As I Roved Out" television series. Little did he know that he was helping to launch the solo career of Ireland's most successful female recording artist.

Of Tony, Enya said,

"He was very important... a great, great friend who got us involved in the first project which was The Celts," she said.

"We had a wonderful time at the BBC, because firstly we were asked to write the music for one episode, but when we had put forward a few pieces, the director, David Richardson, said he wanted us to write the music for the six episodes, which was a great compliment."

Tony went on to direct and record many television and radio series inclucing a programme that brought toegther The Chieftans and Van Morrison. Other programmes included A portrait of Derek Hill, In Performance, The Plight of the Earls and A Border Childhood. Throughout his time at the BBC he produced and presented numerous radio programmes and continued to present his Folk Club until the week before his death from cancer on 7th June 2003.

Tony was the nephew of the famous Glens of Antrim painter Charles McAuley and brother of author and broadcaster Roisin McAuley.