Andy O'Mahony

Andy O’Mahony is an Irish broadcast journalist who worked for RTÉ (Raidio Telefis Eireann) from 1961 to 2013.^[1] He was one of the network's first television news anchors, and thereafter worked as a radio and television host of various long-running series. He also made radio and television programmes for BBC between 1977 and 1988, including a number of television arts documentaries for BBC2.^[2] The programmes he was most closely identified with over the years consisted of a number of book-based radio series for RTÉ. Series such as Books and Company, Off The Shelf and Dialogue provided a regular forum for the discussion of ideas in economics, politics and culture. These programmes and their host were regularly the subject of major reviews and interviews in the Sunday Times,^[3][4] Sunday Independent ^[5] and Sunday Tribune ^[6] From 1988 to 2000, he presented The Sunday Show, a current affairs talk show for RTÉ Radio 1.^[7][8] He earned four Jacob's Radio awards.^[9]

Background, education and research interests

Born in Clonmel, County Tipperary in 1934, he was educated locally by the Christian Brothers, and in Limerick by the Redemptorists, who taught him Latin and Greek. He graduated in Commerce from Trinity College, Dublin and in Philosophy and Logic from University College, Dublin. He has a PhD in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin and was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University^[10][11]

Early career with the Bank of Ireland

After a year’s clerking with Clonmel Foods Ltd, in Co. Tipperary in 1952/1953, he worked for the Bank of Ireland from 1954 to 1961.^[12] During his last year in banking, he was also a part-time announcer/newsreader with Radio Éireann.

Broadcasting career with RTE

In November 1961 he joined Radio Éireann as a radio announcer/ newsreader. Two years later he became a news anchor with Ireland’s new television service, Telefis Éireann (later RTE). In that first decade of broadcasting, he also presented arts and music programmes on radio. In 1972, he quit radio and television news to concentrate on feature programmes and pursue academic research interests.^[13]

Radio

His many radio series included Focus, Music and Musicians, Opera and the Singer (1968-1972), Involvement (1972-1973), Lookaround (1972-1978), Beckett at 70 (1976), Inside Europe (1978-1979), Bookweek (1980-1982), Introspect (1982) Books and Company (1985-1988), The Sunday Show, (1988-2000) Na Taoisigh (2001), 30 Years in the European Union (2002), Off The Shelf ^[14] and Dialogue ^[15] (1978-2013).

Television

His television work included The Course of Irish History (1966); National commentary for Our World (1967); Over the Barricades (1975);^[16] Predicting the Future (1979); Opening of the National Concert Hall in Dublin (1981); Wednesday Plus (1983); Crosscurrents (1985); High Profile (1986/1987); Guest Host on The Late Late Show in 1989;^[17][18] 20/20: Predicting the Future (1999).

BBC Broadcasts

Radio

Various arts documentaries for BBC Northern Ireland from 1977-1987, including profiles of Brian Friel, Sean O’Faolain, Benedict Kiely and Richard Condon; documentary about religion for Radio 4 in 1986.^[19]

Television

For BBC, Northern Ireland, a six-part series, Widows of Writers (1977).^[20] Lifetimes, (1978-1986) a studio interview series with writers, artists and scholars, including Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane. Also, for the BBC Gallery series, conversations with the novelist William Trevor ^[21] and the classical scholar, E.R. Dodds.

For BBC2, documentary profiles of the playwright, Sean O’Casey (1980),^[22] the tenor, John McCormack (1984), and the inventor, Harry Ferguson (1984). Studio interview with writer, Christabel Bielenberg about life in 1930’s Germany (1987).

Publications

• Irishness in a Changing Society (1988) ISBN 0-86140-2:45-6 (Princess Grace Library, Monaco, 1986)
• The Dolmen Press: A Celebration, ISBN 1 901866 75 0 (Dublin, 2001)
• Collective Memory in Ireland and Russia (2007) ISBN 5-8243-0810-1 (Rosspen, Moscow, 2005)
• The Irish Reader: Essays for John Devitt (2007) ISBN 978-0-9555025-1 (Dublin, 2007)
• Dialogue with Gillian Rose, philosopher/social theorist in the journal Culture, Theory and Society (Sage. L.A., 2008)

References