Full Transcript for Al Ryan

every everybody does when they're growing up, that I wanted to be the sort of the next great trumpet player and playing a big orchestra. 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:48.080 And then I quickly realized when I was coming over and back to London to get lessons, that not only London, but the UK was full of far greater trumpet players than I would ever be. 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:52.800 And um so you when you realise that you're gonna go, well, I may think of something else to do now. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:54.960 So uh and that's how I sort of fell into radio. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:58.879 But to answer your question, yeah, I suppose I would describe myself as a broadcaster. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:03.599 I suppose that would be the the primary, you know, if it was being professional about it. 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:04.479 That's what I'd say. 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:08.719 And you originate from Kilcombe, the cross and passion you went to? 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:12.479 It did all cross and no passion, as we used to say about it. 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:14.879 Uh it's a funny name for school nowadays. 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:19.199 It certainly is, but when I was there, it had just gone co-educational at the time. 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:23.120 Uh back in the midst of the time, 89, 90. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:32.959 It had just gone co-ed at the time, which was great when you were a first-year because you had all these sixth year girls who were boarders and and all of that, which was a great education for a young fella, you know. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:39.120 So we were boarders, just male boarders, and we had to go to Dominican Common Wicklo to meet the other side. 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:39.680 Do you know what I mean? 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:40.639 Oh, yes, yeah. 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:42.480 Very different times. 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:45.120 Stand across the dance floor and all of that. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:45.360 Yeah. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:46.240 But no, it was good. 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:53.199 We had I mean the nuns were still very much present when uh when I was at the Cross and Pass and Cross and Passion Sisters. 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:53.680 Yeah. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:00.160 And they our head master our headmistress was Sister Joan, who ruled with an iron fist at the time. 00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:00.879 Yeah, yeah. 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:04.000 But it was but I have very fond memories of school in Kil Cullen. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:06.959 I still have a couple of pals that I still see when I go home. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:09.839 And it's lovely because my mum and dad still live in Kil Cullen. 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:11.120 Uh they're still there. 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:13.519 So I like to get home and uh and see the folks. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:21.680 But uh yeah, so that was rared in Kil Cullen, and all the extended family are from Greg Namana in County Kilkenny on the banks of the barrel, which is a lovely part of the world. 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:25.120 Don't know whether you've ever been there, Rossett, but it is a gorgeous part of our country as well. 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:26.319 Yeah. 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:28.800 And that trumpet was the thing that changed your life, was it? 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:30.319 You know the gift from your parents? 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:33.839 Well, it was more I pestered them for it. 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:45.920 I remember being off sick from school, and uh you know when you'd be s sitting at home feeling sorry just lying on the couch going, Oh Ma, I can't go in and I'm I'm dying, you know. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:53.600 And um at that time we were looking, we had BBC Two telly and we had Channel 4 and stuff, and they used to show old movies in the afternoon. 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:58.000 And I remember seeing a movie, there was two movies, there was the Glenn Miller story was on with Jimmy Stewart. 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:02.000 Yeah, and then there was another movie with Danny Kay and Louis Armstrong called The Five Pennies. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:02.560 Yeah. 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:06.959 And I sat there watching it and I heard this music and I thought, Jesus, what's this? 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:16.399 You know, obviously it was jazz, it was set in the 1920s, and I thought, and you know, I'd only heard Louis Armstrong on the radio singing What a wonderful world, and you didn't know that he'd been sort of the greatest trumpet player of all time. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:18.399 And all of these things. 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:22.160 And I suddenly got this thought in my head, God, I'd love to play the trumpet. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:36.560 Because my mother's cousin, a one that was a wonderful musician, a guy called Peary Finland, and he ran the brass band in Greg Lemana, and he was a fantastic trumpet player, long since departed, but a very generous man and a great, I suppose, a hoarder, a magpie of music and all of these great things. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.040 I remember going out and asking Peary for advice and how to lip the horn and all that kind of thing. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:45.680 And then because my dad was in the army in the Kora, and he knew a lot he knew a lot of the lads in the army band. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:57.839 There was a fella, I think he was Charlie Parsons, he was um uh a Kilkenny man, and he had an old trumpet that he was trying to teach a fella with, and your man got so frustrated that he he broke it off the door, you know. 00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:00.959 He just got so frustrated with things. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:06.879 So me dad for I'd been saving up my pocket money, you know, that time you were under fifty, you know, fifty fifty pence a week you were getting. 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:11.600 And I'd I'd I'd about 40 quid in an old one of the old Bank of Ireland little money boxes. 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:11.920 Yeah. 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:14.079 And I said, Would he take 40 quid for it? 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:15.759 And

he said, He took me hand for it anyway. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:21.040 So he took 40 quid and it was an old battered thing, and I still have it, I still have it downstairs. 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:26.480 Um I couldn't part with that because I have I have many trumpets now, Rossi, but it's still uh of purest fantastic. 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:29.199 You're a serious profession now, you have to have a few trumpets. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:31.040 Well, I have a few, you know what I mean. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:33.040 They're they're stashed away here, there, and everywhere. 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:34.399 So her cell phone see them. 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:36.000 But if she hears this now, she'll know about it. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:36.879 She'll know about it. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:38.560 We'll we'll bleep it out, she'll be aware. 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:40.240 Yeah, yeah, edit this thing out. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:42.639 But uh, yeah, so that was that was the start of it. 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:44.399 And there was a little brass band in Newbridge. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:46.560 Me dad knew again the people there. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:08:07.279 So I went in there to learn how to play the trumpet, and I was taught by a brilliant man called Mick Healy, who was a fantastic he was principal, well, he was principal cornet with the band of the Curra Command, but he would also do stuff then with the Dublin, with the number one band, and he was fantastic, and he sort of taught me the basics and gave me the encouragement then to go on to you know the College of Music in Dublin and stuff like that. 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:11.360 But I used to get in and out to Newbridge because we didn't have a car at the time. 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:16.240 So we used to I used to get a lift with the man in Kilcullen who used to show the pictures in Newbridge. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:17.439 He was the projectionist, yeah. 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:19.600 Guy called a lovely man called PJ Quinn. 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:23.040 And he was also a fruit and veg man by day and a projectionist by night. 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:25.120 So he's going out to Dublin early in the morning, was he? 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:27.839 Yeah, yeah, he'd be up to up to Cape Street to get the veg. 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:28.240 Yeah. 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:30.879 So I'd be, you know, and this, and he had a big high-s van. 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:38.399 So there you'd be sitting in the back of the high SL on a box of oranges, going into Newbridge, and then you'd have to wait for him to show the picture and then get to lift home, you know. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:39.840 But it was great, you know, it was great. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:43.360 And then if if there was a film that you like, he'd get you the poster for it, you know. 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:43.519 Yeah. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:47.919 So you'd you'd you come up with a an armful of rolled-up movie posters at the time and everything. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:48.480 So it was great. 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:50.320 Sort of a, you know, sort of a hookup. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:51.679 Magical, you know, in a way. 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:53.919 Yeah, I wonder when I think back about it now, I guess. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:55.759 But those things are gone now, Al. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:00.240 I mean, those kids couldn't get in close to living that kind of life, as simple as it was. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:01.360 There was a magic to it. 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:03.279 Maybe as I get older I get nostalgic. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:04.399 But I used to collect posters. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:09.360 Well, I remember stealing apocalypse now from the Adolphe one time, because it was so fascinating. 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:13.600 Now you wouldn't see a poster and nobody re-entered, you buy replicas in the shops now. 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:14.080 Yeah, yeah. 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:18.879 And they're worth a fortune now, apparently, those old the original music post movie posters. 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:26.159 Because, you know, I mean, I moved over here nearly 15 years ago to England, and there's still stuff in the Man Dart house, you know, in the attic. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:30.960 And I was home recently, I was home in in February, and I brought the Aloishus, please empty the attic. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:32.559 Exactly, exactly. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:34.559 Listen, would you ever bring that stuff up? 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:34.879 Yeah. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:36.960 And I came across all these movie posters. 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:39.519 It was Back to the Future and all of these kind of things. 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:41.039 But it's a lovely memory to have. 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:47.919 And when I think back now, and you know, as I say, you know, it was, I suppose, uh an idyllic kind of uh an upbringing, really. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:49.759 I was very lucky because I'm an only child as well. 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.639 So you know I had no siblings, so I didn't know any different, you know. 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:55.200 And I wasn't spoiled, Robin, before you asked either. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:56.480 Oh, I'm sure. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:09:57.919 We take your word for it, we'll take it. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:00.159 I have the scars, I have the scars to prove it. 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:01.120 And how was that? 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:02.639 I mean, it's uh it did change. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:03.840 I come from four. 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:07.200 So does it change the way you deal with the world? 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:11.679 You you're you're automatically independent, you just because you have to get on with it. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:19.120 I suppose I'm thinking in the sense that you moved to London from that, people would say the safety of Lyric and Donnybrook and all that, and pitched up in London. 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:23.039 Not many people would say that was easy to do at the time. 00:10:23.279 -->

00:10:27.759 Because it's a huge move, but maybe as an only child you were used to do things first. 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:32.240 Well, I suppose you you because first of all, you don't know any different when you're an only child. 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:35.840 And because my dad is a twin, he's uh but he's one of five or six. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:36.080 Right. 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:38.639 And his twin brother has an only son as well. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:41.200 But yeah, I suppose you know no different, I guess. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:46.080 And i I think as well, it's funny, a lot of people in radio are only children. 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:49.679 Uh Marty Whelan is a great is a great pal of mine. 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:49.840 Yeah. 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:51.600 And uh, he's this year, isn't he? 00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:52.639 He he certainly was. 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:54.399 And we boy, did we know about it. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:56.000 We're still knowing about it. 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:57.519 We're still we're still hearing about it. 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:03.120 But Mart Marty's a great pal, but he's an only child, and a lot of people that I work with here are only children. 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:05.759 So I think there must be something in the in the mind. 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:08.080 Your self-sufficient, your thought processes. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:08.399 Yeah. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:16.159 And you and you spend so much time in your own head, anyhow, doing doing this job, and also as a child amusing yourself, you know what I mean? 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:16.720 Playing. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:20.799 I mean, I had lots of friends, but I was equally happy with my own company. 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:21.360 Company. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:21.519 Yeah. 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:24.559 You know, and and my partner, Julie, she's an only child as well. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:26.240 But we've two very different types of only child. 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:28.080 So what you sit in separate rooms to take. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:28.960 Oh, yeah, completely. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:29.519 Yes, it worked. 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:30.559 We're very close. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:32.399 It's funny, isn't it? 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:38.000 But obviously, it's self-independence, you're comfortable in your own skin, you don't need somebody beside you in a way. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:43.120 It makes you go into a career which is different to people who need to have somebody with them, you know? 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:45.360 Yeah, but but yet I love company. 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:49.200 I mean, I love having people around, I love having family and friends visit us. 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:50.559 And and I love that sort of thing. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:56.159 But as I say, I'm I it doesn't bother me because people say to you, Oh, do you mind being in broadcasting house on your own that I would like? 00:11:56.480 --> 00:11:57.360 I don't really think about it. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:11:59.200 It's only myself and the mice, really. 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:01.759 That uh that I mean you switch yourself off and go home. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:02.399 Exactly. 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:03.279 And I mean that's it. 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:05.600 Once I hand over the world service at one, that's it. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:08.159 I'm out the door and I'm I'm gone home for the next day, you know. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:09.120 But but it is it's funny. 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:13.360 You did a producer course in RTV before we went over, or you did it before we entered RTE? 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:19.759 Uh I did many things in RTE, um including being hugely frustrated there. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:23.840 But it was a fun I don't want to go off air on this, but it's a funny dynamic in there. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.000 The air is very rarefied in there somehow. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:27.519 It is, it's a funny old yeah. 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:28.080 Yes, funny. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:34.799 But but I I have I have funny uh you know, I have fond memories of of being in Montrose and I was very lucky with the people that I worked with. 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:46.559 But um yeah, I started like everybody in radio, I was before I got into radio, I because I had done music in Madooth and I thought, well, maybe maybe I'll become a teacher. 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:56.000 And I was doing a period of maternity cover for a friend down in Castle Dermot in the secondary school, and it was terrifying, Rossa, because I wasn't much older than the people I was teaching. 00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:56.399 Yeah, yeah. 00:12:56.639 --> 00:12:59.519 You know, and I thought, Christ, this there's gotta be more to this. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:08.399 Because before that I'd been working in Kildaa County Council as you know, a clerical officer, and you were working in the environment department, yeah, and then there was there was the threat of sending me to motor tax. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:13.120 And I thought, I no, I can't. 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:13.840 I can't do it. 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:20.080 So I I with encouragement from your mother, I I I I wrote to various radio stations because I'd done a bit of radio. 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:22.960 Yeah, where where did that grow off the radio come from then? 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:26.720 You you're on this course studying Minut, music, trumpeting. 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:28.480 Where did the grow off radio come from? 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:45.840 Well, I I I went on to do a course in music technology, and it was sort of in its infancy at the time, but there was a college radio station, and uh I th there was I don't know the the Minuth song contest or something was on and we were playing we were playing it, and you know, they were talking to all the bands and stuff like that, so they said, Oh, you go, you you talk. 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:48.320 So I said, Okay, well and I thought this is quite nice.

00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:53.440 I you know, I I sort of instantly felt comfortable doing it, and then thought no more about it. 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:57.600 A as part of the music technology course, we had to make a radio program. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:02.559 And the lady who was doing it was Marion McAvoy, who's Eleanor McAvoy's sister, yeah. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:06.879 We did we all did pro you know, we all did a program, we all helped each other and everything. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:10.480 And she said a couple of us had a sort of a natural thing for it. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:15.279 And she said to me, You should you you should really write to RTE, they're looking for people, and maybe you know, you should think about it. 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:18.240 So I thought, yeah, no, not a chance in hell, you know what I mean? 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:20.080 What's a Kildare man thought of do? 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:22.879 Because I mean, at the time I was talking like that, you know what I mean? 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:25.440 Like I was talking, I sounded like Christy Moore, you know. 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:27.360 And a glass of water and all that. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:30.320 So so I thought I I haven't got a hope in hell. 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:42.559 But anyhow, so I sort of filed it away, and then I was doing the teaching, and I thought, I you know, the the period of maternity cover was coming to an end, and I thought I need to really do something with my life, with music or something. 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:45.600 So uh uh either that or was going back to motor tax. 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:47.440 So that that was the incentive. 00:14:47.600 --> 00:14:55.039 So I wrote a various I wrote to Ardmore Studios, I wrote to all the stations in Dublin, and lyric had only started uh 1999. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:00.960 So this was around uh not soon after that, and I wrote a lyric and I got a letter back saying, come down for a chat. 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.519 So I thought, well, okay, I've never been to Limerick in my life. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:09.519 So I went on on the bus and got a lyric and at the boss and had a chat. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:19.360 And as it happened, there was a couple of people who had been there temporarily, they'd been sent down from Montrose to help with the setup of the station, and then they were going back to their substantive role. 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:22.799 So he said, We could offer you a three months work. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:24.799 And I said, I'll take it. 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:27.919 And and I ended up staying nearly 11 years. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:29.200 So that's that's how it started. 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:31.840 And the first job was continuity or a show? 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:34.320 No, no, the f the making tea was the first thing. 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:36.080 And filing discs. 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:37.759 Making good tea, Alice important. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:40.159 Yeah, yeah, learn learning how

to make tea in Limerick. 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:42.559 And then filing discs in the library. 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:44.559 You were yeah, you were a production coordinator. 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:48.320 You were sort of, you know, you had to you had to learn how to do everything. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:54.240 And but I was very lucky from the beginning because the people that were there, they had worked in RTE for years. 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:57.600 So I learned how to edit, I learned learned how to write. 00:15:57.840 --> 00:15:59.759 Digital editing was sort of the new big thing. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:09.440 You know, they were still splicing tapes, but digital editing had started, and we were still using mini-discs and the old magneto optic, the old MO for playing commercials. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:18.720 So I learned how to run a proper studio desk, and then you were tech oping, and then you know, you you sort of I was very lucky because I I'm a huge jazz fan. 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:26.799 And one of the first programs I worked on, well, it was the lunchtime request program, was the first thing, because I knew, you know, I knew uh about classical music and all that. 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:30.720 So that was the request program, and it was the same request every day from the same same beam. 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:35.039 And Verba Chelli saying, trying to say goodbye. 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:40.879 You know, it was all of these and but it was a great education, and I was very lucky with the people that I worked with. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:43.200 The late Sean Rox was one of the first people I worked with. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:48.639 Sean was on Lunchtime Choice at the time, Eamon Lawler, all of those people Carl incorporate. 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:52.960 Yeah, and and then so that's how it started. 00:16:53.200 --> 00:17:01.200 And then I was lucky enough then, um, you know, as the years went on, I started doing a little bit of report, you know, little voice pieces. 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:04.880 You know, you'd go off and do a report on Shannon Musical Society doing singing in the rain. 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:17.440 But people don't realise how when you're trying to get into business to go and be sent to do a piece, wherever it is, yeah, it's hugely important because that's suddenly your uh your uh material to show off. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:18.559 You know, it's your real. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:19.279 Exactly. 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:22.240 That it becomes part of your why would you go down to Limbick to report? 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:23.119 Because it's cool. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:25.839 I'm gonna talk for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, I could be done. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:30.160 And I and I'm gonna be national radio because it'd be big, big, big break. 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:35.759 Yeah, you know, which no, I did anchor course with um uh bunning carr. 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:37.119 We studied down court. 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:38.559 Stop

the lights bunny carr. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:41.839 And all the media training, and that's all I wanted to do on my life, pal. 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:51.440 Yeah, and I couldn't get in, no matter how I tried, I worked with Gabriel League and I remember writing a piece, sports news to the Virgin Jones, God rest him, for Mike Murphy in the morning. 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:57.839 And when Mike read what I wrote six words in a row about uh the racing, I think it was Jem Weld had a horse. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:03.920 I felt huge to hear Mike Murphy read what I wrote six words in a row. 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:08.240 I mean, Mike, but people forget how important that is to watch when you're trying to develop a career. 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:09.200 It's so true. 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:19.519 And when you're starting out as well, it's very important because, you know, as I say, you know, you you write a cue for somebody like that, or you or you write a piece, you know, you do a bit of research and you put together something for somebody. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:19.839 Yeah. 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:29.039 And you know, you hear Eamon Lawler or Maureen Geralt or whoever it was at the time reading out those things, and you think, God, this is, you know, this is amazing. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:31.599 And you and you and you have a sense of pride in what you've done. 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:36.960 It's a great, it was a great training ground for all of that, and and learning how to make radio and how to do radio. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:43.279 And then, as I said, I was very lucky with the people that I worked with, because I worked with Marty Kem along. 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:49.839 As I said, Marty is still a great personal friend, he comes over to see us here, and then Gable, who was my sort of great lord and master. 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:59.920 Yeah, and I was lucky to work with Gay for seven years on the Sun on a Sunday afternoon show, and that was really the beginnings and the encouragement to do something more in radio through. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:03.119 Oh, it was all it's all Gable's fault, all of this, you know. 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:05.279 Yeah, yeah, got it. 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:09.680 And by then, Durinos me sort of had your water accent that they started talking about. 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:10.559 Oh, yes, yes. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:17.039 As Gay would say, you need to eradicate the soft Irish tea, you know, and and and that was the beginning of it. 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:19.200 But working with Gay was a master class. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:21.279 I mean, you learnt at the feet of the master, you know. 00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:31.519 He was just to sit him there and to sit and watch, and to do, you know, I would do all his running orders and do all the research for him, you know, all about little bits of musical. 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:35.119 I mean, he had a huge musical knowledge himself, particularly about jazz. 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:38.720 And yeah, we were sort of kindred spirits uh in that respect. 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:41.759 And we would go off to jazz concerts together and all that. 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:46.160 And but that was the beginnings of it sort of getting serious as a career. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:49.920 Yeah, it was yeah, all down to him, really, I think, and the encouragement. 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:56.559 Marty was hugely encouraging as well, but gay, especially, I think, in terms of you know, doing something about it. 00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:58.559 And I'm coming over here because it with the conversation. 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:01.599 Yeah, by the time you went to London, was it trendy to be Irish? 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:04.079 Because I mean I was in London when it was wasn't trendy, how? 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:05.200 Yeah, well I can imagine. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:08.640 Yeah, you know, the 80s was not the place you want to be, being Irish. 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:12.559 So when you got there, things had kind of uh changed. 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:19.599 It had, yeah, because uh I mean when you think back, I mean, uh my family have had a long association with with the UK. 00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:24.160 I mean, like many people in the 1950s, my grandfather came over and worked here. 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:37.759 Um he was a b a builder, uh, like like everybody, but he uh would come home then with interesting stories that he'd worked in Ealing Studios and and ra and and all these places, uh but building movie sets, which was really interesting. 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:44.799 And then my late uncle Michael came to live here in the 1970s and lived here till probably the late 1990s. 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:51.519 So as a kid with a man, we'd come over here on holidays to eat to he lived in Ealing. 00:20:51.839 --> 00:20:59.680 So, you know, you were sort of aware of that, but not terribly aware of the sort of the old no blacks, no Irish, no dogs or what in that sort of thing going on. 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:02.559 But the time I got here, it it it's a very different story. 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:11.599 You're generally accepted as one of their own, I think, being Irish over here because there's second and third generation Irish here. 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:16.000 And the first programme I ever did when I got here, that's gas. 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:21.839 I when I when I joined uh BBC Oxford was the first um job that I got over here. 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:24.079 And did you live in Oxford or are you community from London? 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:25.519 Uh no, I lived I lived in Oxford. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:30.079 We were living uh just outside Oxford because Julie had got a job working for the estate of J. 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:30.319 R. 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:32.720 Tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings. 00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:36.240 And and next door to that was BBC Oxford. 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:38.640 And I thought, well, I wasn't getting a whole

lot of work. 00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:41.839 Uh so I s I went in and knocked on the door and I said, How are ya? 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:44.160 And um I might be of some use. 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:48.720 You know, I've I've you know worked in RTE for eleven years and do this blend. 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:50.960 I said, Oh, well come in and have a chat. 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:58.319 And there was a Sunday afternoon programme called Irish Eye, presented by a guy a guy called Henry Wims, who still writes for the Irish Post. 00:21:58.799 --> 00:21:59.680 A lovely, lovely fella. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:05.599 And Henry was gone on holidays, and they said, Would you look after Irish Eye for Henry? 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:14.559 And I thought, Jesus, I got I can't I left Ireland to get away from Daniel O'Donnell and Declan Nerney and all of that sort of and there you are. 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:15.440 And there I am. 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:19.200 The first record I played was Joe Dolan, good-looking woman on BBC Radio. 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:20.160 And that was it. 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:24.480 But it was a big show to do because it was broadcast across the south of England. 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:26.559 It went out on Berkshire in Kent. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:37.599 And so you covered a huge Irish diaspora, you know, the expat people who'd come over here in the 50s and you know, uh and had longings for and those shows are important to people who live abroad that way. 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:38.400 Absolutely. 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:40.000 That's the link back home. 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:43.519 And they sit there every Sunday or every Friday night, wherever it is. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:48.400 You travel in Boston and they tune in just to hear what's going on at home. 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:59.440 Sunday afternoon, two o'clock, and and you'd be playing all you know, stuff that you were rare with, but also it gave you the chance to play some more contemporary Irish music as well, you know, which was which was wonderful. 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:02.559 But it was a three three-hour programme, no running order. 00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:05.599 You'd put it all together yourself, and it was a request programme. 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:06.160 So it was great. 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:07.519 So you'd get some people. 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:08.640 Yeah, yeah, it ran itself. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:12.480 And you know, you'd get all it's some lovely stories from people. 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:13.839 And I love I used to love that. 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.400 You'd get the letters, these people still would write letters to you. 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:17.839 So you used to get all of that. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:19.680 And but that was a great program to do. 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:22.079 It's long since gone now when they made all the changes. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:34.400 The BBC local radio, any uh any specialist music program appointment to listen program, they were eradicated, which I think was a huge mistake because that audience isn't being catered for at all now. 00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:37.680 You know, those are and local radio doesn't really pick them up either. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:40.079 No, no, not at all, because it's all playlisted now. 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:46.640 I mean, but it's by the time I'd left BBC Oxford, uh, I was because you you were sort of doing a Radio 2 kind of playlist by that point. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:47.039 Yeah. 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:48.640 And it was all playlisted. 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:50.240 And God help you if you move the record. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:51.680 There'd be a parliamentary inquiry. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:55.119 If you why did you why did you move Ed Sh Ed Sheeran again? 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:55.759 You know? 00:23:56.079 --> 00:23:58.319 So but yeah, so it was very different. 00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:02.240 But yeah, I told Deb Grant about BBC Radio Six, which is dude. 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:03.039 Oh Deb, yeah. 00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:05.680 And Deb said, I said, Do you have a playlist like RTE? 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:07.519 You can only play these ten records every day. 00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:09.039 Oh no, we can do what I said. 00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:09.519 What? 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:10.559 You can do what you want. 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:12.319 Yeah, she said it's amazing. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:13.839 Yeah, she she's very lucky. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:18.640 She the six music is one of the few bastions of yeah, it survived, it was close to going down. 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:19.359 Uh yeah, yeah. 00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:20.079 And it's come back. 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:23.200 It's a brilliant, I think it's a brilliant station, even for fogey like me. 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:27.279 Well, I I I I love what Deb does, I love what Guy Garvey does. 00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:28.880 Better and better and stronger and stronger. 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:29.440 I think she's great. 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:33.119 Oh she she's she's great, you know, and again, flying the flag for Ireland. 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:36.400 And uh, you know, I think she I think she's living in in Salford. 00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:38.720 Yeah, she had to move to move to Manchester. 00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:43.519 Obviously, when they relocated, most people think Tony Lauren of Vernon probably doesn't live anywhere other than London. 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:45.200 I think um yeah, what's his name? 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:48.799 There's all they've all moved up, that's where Salford is, BBC six. 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:49.759 Oh, but this is it. 00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:59.519 Uh well I spend a lot of time on my train now up there as well to Manchester because radio I do Radio Three Breakfast, I do the holiday cover for Radio Three Breakfast, and that comes out of Salford now as well. 00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:03.680 So you're you know you're on the train to Manchester an awful lot of the time or from

doing the afternoon program. 00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:07.200 You must have your own cabin, you guys go up and down. 00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:11.119 Well, I thought I might get a part-time job as a train conductor, it might be. 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:14.640 And it should be forecast was done from broadcasting house, wasn't it? 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:16.960 That that's done from broadcasting house every night. 00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:18.559 It's live every night till one a.m. 00:25:18.720 --> 00:25:26.160 Because people think, oh, do you pre-recorded or can you do it from you can't predict rising slowly or falling quickly or drawing it? 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:27.759 You can be predicting that. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:30.079 No, you can't do that, you know, south to southwest. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:34.000 West later, four to six occasional rain, good occasionally moderate. 00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:34.799 You can't do any of that. 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:37.279 You've got it, it's all, you know, it's all live. 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:41.039 And because it I people don't realize you're actually running the network. 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:42.640 You're actually on your own. 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:46.799 Yeah, yeah, and you're pressing play on the archers and all of these programs. 00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:51.920 Uh so you're responsible for a national network, you know, you're talking to a potential audience of eight, nine million people. 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:56.240 So if you if you mess up, you know, you're gonna hear about it, you know. 00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:59.440 But but but doing but doing the ships, yeah, you're you're there on your own. 00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:02.960 The duty producer goes home at seven o'clock, and you're there on your own. 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:06.559 You've got the newsreader downstairs, but they finish at half past midnight. 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:13.680 But but you know, but you're upstairs on the fourth floor in old old broadcasting house in the old part of the building, on your own, you know, and that's it. 00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:16.160 There's just you and uh and uh and a mic and a lamp. 00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:18.240 Come on, the pulling on the street door, do you? 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:19.279 The little brown door. 00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:21.440 Exactly, yeah, and a pile of paper. 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:22.000 That's it. 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:23.440 In the cupboard. 00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:28.799 You know, Irish doesn't mean a lot to you still, Al, having lived there, what, 15 years in the UK. 00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:32.000 Irish is something that still travels with you. 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:33.279 I I think very much. 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:35.759 I mean you you can't escape it, you know. 00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:46.319 And I think it's only when you're away, and you'll know this, Ross, as well, that when you're away from from Ireland, and it's only when you realise then that you're away and your identity. 00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:47.359 And I think I saw it. 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:55.039 Well, it's a different thing when you're away, I believe, out than what you think art as is here in Kil Cullen or Klein or Dublin if you haven't been away. 00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:08.960 That's true, it's very different because w when you come home and you see people who stayed home, you know, they didn't they didn't leave live and uh leave and they've you know they've got married and had a family there, and you know, that's that's their world. 00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:09.279 Yeah. 00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:13.920 And and it's very different when you come back to Ireland now, and it's it's a very different place. 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:23.440 And I think Irishness I remember seeing an interview with Peter O'Toole many years ago, and I think he described his Irishness as being almost the centre of his being. 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:23.680 Yeah. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:32.640 You know, that that everything he thought of was coloured by Ireland's history, its literature, its people, its geography, and all of those things. 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:41.519 And you don't really realise that until you're home and you fit in with everybody, because as you know, London is it's a difficult place, it's a tough place. 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:44.559 And it's not the friendliest place in the world. 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:47.359 And you know, it's it's tough, you know. 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:56.400 And it's only when you go home and you realise everybody as you go down the street, you're like Phil Linnett in Old Town, that video for Old Town, where you're saluting everybody going down the road, you know. 00:27:56.799 --> 00:28:12.640 And and and I think that's there's a great difference in that, that the the Irishness in people, even when people are away, and people that I work with in the BBC that are Irish, or if you meet an Irish person in a cafe or whatever, and you say, Oh, it's lovely to hear a voice from home. 00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:13.039 Yeah. 00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:19.119 And there's a sort of shorthand that Irish people have with each other that never leaves, I think. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:21.119 And we love the chat as well, I think. 00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:25.200 But but yeah, Irishness I think is important, particularly because it's your identity. 00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:29.839 And you know, I can't escape having an Irish voice on on British radio. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:32.319 You know, Terry Wogan was the great master of that. 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:35.839 You know, Terry was you know paved the way for a lot of us during the year. 00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:44.240 He never tried to hide it in people who were and he was always com he was comfortable reading letters from people in Fairview as he was reading people from Eggham. 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:48.559 I mean, he he didn't actually differentiate, didn't make an issue that he was Irish either. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:49.519 He kind of just blended.

00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:50.400 Not at all. 00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:50.960 Exactly. 00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:55.680 And that you know, he assimilated very much the UK life, and I think that's one of the great tricks here. 00:28:55.759 --> 00:29:01.839 Like Graeme Norton has done as well, that it's assimilating to life in the UK, but without losing your identity, you know. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:03.359 It's it's one of those things. 00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:07.519 Yeah, I saw Graham recently, we were at the Irish Embassy, and we were just sort of chatting away. 00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:13.200 And it's you know, it's amazing that even all the I mean Graham has been here what maybe 40 years maybe. 00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:19.839 He came here in in in in the 80s, but yet he hasn't lost his Irishness, you know, the same way as Terry didn't, or Val Luniken. 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:23.680 Never you know, I mean I I got to know Val in his later years. 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:25.119 He lived down in Beaconsfield. 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:31.119 And you know, Val was still the the the boy from Waterford, yeah, you know, um and never and but he was the king a Saturday night. 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:34.319 Tell you the same as you know Terry was the boy from from Limerick, yeah. 00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:44.079 You know, and it's holding on to that identity, but also the fact that it's accepted here because uh and I'm sure you've spoken about this before about the Irish voice over here. 00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:49.759 It's it's classless, you know, because you know, if you're on the UK written, you know, if you're not gonna be able to do it. 00:29:50.559 --> 00:29:51.680 They can tell. 00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:53.440 Exactly. 00:29:53.599 --> 00:29:57.839 If if if you can't GPS an Irish accent because they're no, not at all. 00:29:58.559 --> 00:30:02.400 You know, so so you so you're you're you're classless in that respect, which which is a great advantage. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:05.839 Yeah, it allows it allows your movement much easier, it does it, no doubt about it. 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:06.960 Completely. 00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:09.279 But um, but yeah, I think yeah, Irishness. 00:30:09.359 --> 00:30:10.319 I don't think it ever leaves you. 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:13.119 Although some people say to me when I go home, oh you've lost your Irish accent. 00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:13.839 We all get down. 00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:15.200 Oh yeah. 00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:16.640 You sound fucking American. 00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:17.119 We're just done. 00:30:17.279 --> 00:30:17.599 Oh yeah. 00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:18.079 Oh, yeah. 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:21.359 Monday you might say garbage by mistake or so, you know. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:22.319 Yeah, yeah. 00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:28.079 Somebody says it's it's a it's a a place where you're never forgiven for any mistake when you come back. 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:33.839 To be sure of that, you'd always be reminded, even Bonnell says that you'd

be reminded who you are when as soon as you land. 00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:35.200 Oh yeah. 00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:36.000 Yeah, yeah. 00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:38.000 I remember me when you didn't have an arse in your transfer. 00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:39.200 You know, that's the the YouTube. 00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:41.119 Don't forget, I remember that day. 00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:42.079 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:44.000 Oh yeah, you're the same fella, you know. 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:50.480 Is resilience something that's particularly Irish, Ar, or is that a narrative we like to believe at times? 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:52.720 Um Are we tougher than the rest? 00:30:52.799 --> 00:30:57.920 Are we just more gritty or is that for a little country I think we're pretty tough, you know. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:05.839 But when you think of the Irish diaspora worldwide, how we I think was it Dylan Moran says, how we've infested everywhere we went. 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:11.359 Um but yeah, I think I mean w we're tough, we're a tough little country. 00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:16.240 But also, you know, we've brought an awful lot to the world with culture and art and writing and all that. 00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:20.319 But I think in resilience, I think you have to be resilient, no matter where you're from. 00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:23.039 But I think Well was it tough when you went to the UK? 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:24.720 I mean, you tell the story of J.R. 00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:30.000 Talk and Oxford, it sounds if everything bounced uh the the the luck of the bounce, everything worked out. 00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:35.920 But there must have been some fear of failure, tough moments and say, Jesus, why did I end up here? 00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:44.160 Well, this is I mean, look at uh you know, in this game particularly, you have to be resilient because there is there is so much rejection in this game. 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:51.279 I mean, even before I left Ireland in RTE, I mean, you had to be resilient then, you have to be very, very thick skinned as well. 00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:56.160 Because I remember applying for the same job eight times and I s and I still didn't get it. 00:31:56.319 --> 00:31:56.559 Yeah. 00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:02.240 You know, it sometimes your face doesn't fit or whatever, but you know, when I worked in RTE, I couldn't get arrested. 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:02.640 Yeah. 00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:05.279 You know, no matter no matter what, no matter what I did. 00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:13.599 And you know, you just but you had to be res and I remember, you know, sitting in front of interview panels and doing audition tapes and reels and all of that. 00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:16.960 And if you didn't do it, you wouldn't be in the mix. 00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:18.880 And if you're in the mix, you weren't going to get anyway. 00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:20.079 But it's frustrating. 00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:27.119 And there is an area in that building of people who have tried to make the big thing, they always hit the glass ceiling and they have to do something like you've done. 00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:28.480 Yeah, well, well, this is it. 00:32:28.559 --> 00:32:30.000 Sometimes you have to leave to come back. 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:32.880 Not that I don't think I'll ever come back unless you know to come back. 00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:34.480 I mean, I'm just changed. 00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:36.960 I came back after 10 feet, it was a different place. 00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:38.480 I'm still not right, I think. 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:40.799 Because I'm a I'm a changed person. 00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:42.640 Would you find the same thing? 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:46.799 Um maybe maybe if I maybe to retire. 00:32:47.519 --> 00:32:54.319 Maybe maybe back then or something, but I think not in the you know, not in the in the in the near future, I think. 00:32:54.480 --> 00:33:04.240 But and it's lovely to go home as I say, it's a very different place, it's a very multicultural place now, which is fantastic, you know, because you know there's so many different places in Dublin, and even in Kikolan and Newbright and Days and places where I've worked. 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:05.680 And food, variety, ethnicity. 00:33:06.079 --> 00:33:06.640 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:15.119 And I mean you meet a whole generation of Al who are very different the way they look and think, and they're all Irish, and they came from parents from Barbados, Nigeria. 00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:16.000 Absolutely. 00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:18.559 Yeah, it's it's it's fascinating to see the the melt. 00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:21.359 It's seen so far we've done a good job of that melting pot. 00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:22.079 Absolutely. 00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:27.599 Most of them are second generation uh immigrants, you know. 00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:28.319 Yeah, yeah. 00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:29.920 I think I think it's fantastic. 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:33.839 Um, you know, when I lived in Limerick, there was a huge Polish community at the time then as well. 00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:39.680 And as I say, you know, they've all got married and have kids of of their own there now, and uh which is which is wonderful. 00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:44.480 And as you say, the Irish football team, it's a a very diverse team now as well. 00:33:44.559 --> 00:33:50.960 You know, it's a far cry from the Jack Charlton days, you know what I mean, which was I guess the beginnings of it, because you had the the Irish grandmother or grandfather. 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:58.480 Yeah, and then we gave out and they were kind of uh uh what you call plastic paddies and then but then when they were winning, we certainly loved them. 00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:02.720 What do you think World Cup 90 and and and USA ninety-four and all those things? 00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:04.880 I mean the whole nation was you know alive. 00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:08.239 But it is, yeah, just to go back to the

resilience thing, yeah. 00:34:08.320 --> 00:34:14.559 I think you have to be resilient, you know, whether you're going to a new place when you move, you know, when you when I moved to Limerick, that was a very different thing. 00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:17.360 A friend of mine made a mistake wearing a Leinster jersey. 00:34:19.519 --> 00:34:27.840 And I would I was DJing one, you know, one of my little sideline jobs at the time was I was DJing at Peter Closy at a pub in Limerick at the time called called the Sinbin. 00:34:28.960 --> 00:34:32.880 Oh, the pub, the pub was called Closy's, and the the club disco was the Sinbin, yeah. 00:34:33.840 --> 00:34:36.400 And if Monster were playing, it was the place to be. 00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:36.639 Yeah. 00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:38.880 And I remember a friend of mine coming down, Leon. 00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:42.079 He's a mad rugby fan, wore the Leinster jersey. 00:34:42.159 --> 00:34:48.079 And this fella said to him, I won't repeat exactly what he said to him, he said, if you don't take that shot off the exam, I'll borrow it off your back. 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:51.679 I can't imagine that would happen, Emory. 00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:53.199 No, not at all. 00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:57.360 No, but uh, but so yeah, you had to be resilient, you know, in those in those instances. 00:34:57.440 --> 00:34:59.119 But yeah, certainly moving to the UK. 00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:00.800 This was a whole new thing, you know. 00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:02.559 You yeah, you you didn't have a job. 00:35:02.639 --> 00:35:04.880 You the what you didn't really have much of a plan. 00:35:05.039 --> 00:35:07.599 And um, yeah, it wasn't it wasn't easy. 00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:09.679 You because you were starting from scratch and nobody knew you. 00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:10.000 Yeah. 00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:13.360 You know, nobody knew what you could do or any of those things. 00:35:13.519 --> 00:35:15.119 But as I say, you know, I was lucky. 00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:18.639 The as I said, the bounce was was lucky, but I'm also a great believer in two things. 00:35:18.800 --> 00:35:22.960 What's meant for you won't go by you, and also use what you've got going for you. 00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:25.920 Are sort of two great things that I live by. 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:29.679 And um But you you remind me of the conversation I had with Willie Walsh. 00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:35.280 He said he planned nothing, things just fell into place and he just made the decision to do them if he was offered them. 00:35:35.519 --> 00:35:36.320 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:35:36.559 --> 00:35:43.039 Did you sound a bit the same that things kind of I went into radio BBC Oxford and then they were looking for somebody, I I said yes. 00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:44.000 Yes, yeah, I would. 00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:46.480 And things have kind of worked your way. 00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:48.159 Yeah, that's that's very true. 00:35:48.320 --> 00:35:51.360 I, you know, it's you know, I always wanted to stay in radio. 00:35:51.519 --> 00:35:54.320 I mean, my other great ambition, I wanted to be a commercial airline pilot. 00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:55.280 That's what I really wanted to do. 00:35:55.599 --> 00:36:02.800 When I left when I when I left RTE and I tried to get on the Erlingus cadet course, and I failed the medical because I have no sense of smell, I'm a nosmic. 00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:04.960 So so that was so that was the end of that. 00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:06.719 So it was back to radio then. 00:36:06.880 --> 00:36:11.199 But yeah, I sort of I've sort of fallen into things and I've been I've been very lucky. 00:36:11.360 --> 00:36:14.880 Um, but also there's been times, you know, where you're gonna go, do you know what? 00:36:15.039 --> 00:36:17.840 If this isn't work out, we can always go home. 00:36:18.239 --> 00:36:26.159 You know, and there has been times like that where we've had that conversation, you know, saying, you know, this, you know, you're not getting much work, uh, blah blah blah. 00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:27.760 It's you know, and things are things are tough. 00:36:28.159 --> 00:36:29.599 Your partner is Irish, yeah. 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.079 Yeah, no, she's English, which doesn't it doesn't make her it doesn't make her a bad person, as I say. 00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:37.519 But but but but she worked she worked in lyric. 00:36:37.840 --> 00:36:45.679 And a funny story, she was the person who wrote to me to come down for and she has no little or no recollection of that. 00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:49.519 And clearly clearly I made a huge impression on her. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:53.360 Um but yeah, it has but you know, I mean it hasn't been listen, you know. 00:36:53.679 --> 00:36:55.519 But I think that gives you freedom in the world, though. 00:36:55.679 --> 00:37:00.159 If you say if it doesn't work out, you can you can deal with the fact you have to move back. 00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:07.119 There's a lot of people who get caught up in moving back is failure, and failure is something Irish people often struggle with. 00:37:07.280 --> 00:37:08.400 What will the neighbor say? 00:37:08.559 --> 00:37:09.519 What will people say? 00:37:09.679 --> 00:37:09.840 Yeah. 00:37:10.320 --> 00:37:14.239 At the end of the day, things don't work out for everybody, everybody has ups and downs. 00:37:14.320 --> 00:37:16.320 And going back, it's not really going back. 00:37:16.400 --> 00:37:17.199 You have to move on. 00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:20.719 And if it's going back as part of it to succeed, so be it. 00:37:21.039 --> 00:37:21.440 Exactly. 00:37:21.599 --> 00:37:25.039 And sometimes you have to do these things to get to where you are. 00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:25.920 You know what I mean? 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:34.079 That's and that's one of those, you know, I don't know what you you you call them, those moments in life where if I hadn't have done that, I wouldn't have ended up here. 00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:34.400 Yeah. 00:37:34.559

--> 00:37:37.280 You know, or the easiest thing in the world would have been to stay in Limerick. 00:37:37.360 --> 00:37:37.599 Yeah. 00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:38.800 And to stay at Orti. 00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:43.840 It was a very nice life, and I, you know, it was a good job, and we had a nice house and all of that. 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:46.480 But sometimes you have to frighten yourself sometimes as well. 00:37:46.719 --> 00:37:49.840 Because uh, you know, at that time I remember having a conversation with Julie. 00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:55.519 We were sat in a people's park in Limerick and saying, Look, it, if we don't do this, we'll spend the rest of our life wondering, what if we had? 00:37:55.760 --> 00:37:56.000 Okay. 00:37:56.159 --> 00:37:58.639 If we if we had to never spend your life wondering. 00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:01.920 Um age has taught me, don't spend your life wondering. 00:38:02.239 --> 00:38:07.119 Exactly, because you know, as as a fellow says, there ain't no rehearsal, you know, this ain't no rehearsal, and this is this is it. 00:38:07.199 --> 00:38:09.519 So we said, look at we'll we'll go and we'll try it. 00:38:09.679 --> 00:38:11.440 And if we don't, we can always come home. 00:38:11.519 --> 00:38:13.519 And thank God it's it's it's worked out. 00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:15.920 Sounds good and and and things are are all right. 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:18.159 But the yeah, there's it's it's it is weird. 00:38:18.239 --> 00:38:26.480 And you know, going home wouldn't have been a bad thing either, because at least then you would have known that okay, it's a good I gave it a shot and didn't work out. 00:38:26.559 --> 00:38:28.639 Uh but but you know, it there it is. 00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:33.440 It we st we still talking about exactly there he is. 00:38:33.519 --> 00:38:34.559 I mean he went into the water. 00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:36.239 Who do you think he was going off to London? 00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:36.719 Who do you think? 00:38:37.519 --> 00:38:38.400 Yeah, it didn't work out. 00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:46.400 But uh but no, it is yeah, it is it's funny those moments, I suppose fate, I suppose, or those sort of things. 00:38:47.360 --> 00:38:52.559 As much as you plan, the certain things happen because they happen and you have no control over them. 00:38:52.960 --> 00:38:53.440 Exactly. 00:38:53.679 --> 00:38:54.719 So so be it. 00:38:54.960 --> 00:39:01.199 Yeah, but those are those weird things, those weird moments in life where you go, well, yeah, if I hadn't agreed to be a little bit more than a lot of things, absolutely, yeah. 00:39:01.360 --> 00:39:02.000 Yeah, yeah, it is. 00:39:02.079 --> 00:39:05.920 That's exactly the slide, those sliding doors moments um that just work out for the best. 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:10.800 And you know, they don't all work out, but most of the time you've been lucky, you know. 00:39:11.119 --> 00:39:14.000 And what songs or music has travelled you through thick and thin? 00:39:14.159 --> 00:39:17.360 The bad days, good days, is it the same music, same song? 00:39:17.519 --> 00:39:20.400 Or you don't it's gonna be jazz, I presume. 00:39:20.559 --> 00:39:23.760 Some Wilson Marsala song, just because you interviewed him. 00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:24.800 Well, I did, yeah. 00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:26.239 I'm a great, great, great fan of the book. 00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:29.199 My friend, my friend, my friend Winton. 00:39:30.159 --> 00:39:33.519 Who's a great is a great fan, by the way, of of W.B. 00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:33.920 Yates. 00:39:34.079 --> 00:39:35.840 It's his fa his is his favourite poet. 00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:40.159 Um, but no, music, as we were saying earlier, hugely important thing. 00:39:40.239 --> 00:39:42.880 And there's so I mean it's like asking to pick your favourite child. 00:39:43.039 --> 00:39:44.639 But I mean, I love all kinds of music. 00:39:44.800 --> 00:39:47.119 I mean, I love classical obsidian with Radio 3. 00:39:47.199 --> 00:39:51.280 I work an awful lot of classical uh jazz, but also I love pop music. 00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:51.920 I'm a huge van. 00:39:52.159 --> 00:39:54.079 I you know, I'm a great lover of Van Morrison. 00:39:54.159 --> 00:39:58.639 I love um Richard Hawley, I love you know, he's a great songwrit singer songwriter from Leeds. 00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:02.559 Um but uh I think one of my favourite songs. 00:40:02.800 --> 00:40:04.000 He's pulp, wasn't he? 00:40:04.400 --> 00:40:06.800 He was he was in pulp, yeah, at once upon a time. 00:40:07.039 --> 00:40:08.480 But I love Jimmy Webb. 00:40:08.559 --> 00:40:13.840 Um Wichita Lineman, I love I think his version, he does one version. 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:17.679 I think is JTM Jaylor and Joe uh Billy Joel do it. 00:40:17.920 --> 00:40:18.320 That's right. 00:40:19.119 --> 00:40:20.960 It's the best version I have ever heard. 00:40:21.280 --> 00:40:26.239 It's a gorgeous, gorgeous album that um that he did of his own songs. 00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:30.239 I think Mark Mark Knopfler threw it up on that album as well. 00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:40.880 But the whole that song, I I mean, Gren Campbell did a great job, but I think that version of all those guys together and the the rhythm, the sound, the vocalization, to me is superb. 00:40:41.199 --> 00:40:42.000 It's a great album. 00:40:42.079 --> 00:40:42.960 That's uh what was it called? 00:40:43.360 --> 00:40:44.239 Just across the river, I think. 00:40:44.320 --> 00:40:45.519 Yeah, I hope it was called. 00:40:45.679 --> 00:40:54.559 But yeah, I mean I love those I love story songs, and I think again that stems back from to my childhood because my parents were great lovers of country music as well. 00:40:54.639 --> 00:41:01.599 But American country music, like singers like Marty Robbins and Slim Whitman and people like that, those great story songs, Johnny Cash. 00:41:01.679 --> 00:41:06.480 And I think that's why I like stuff like Wichita Lyman and and and songs like that. 00:41:06.559 -->

00:41:08.480 Um they create images, I think, don't they? 00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:09.280 Yeah, yeah, it is. 00:41:09.599 --> 00:41:15.840 It just if you're not gonna be able to do I've never been to Wichita, but I have this thing in my head of what a Wichita Linesman might be and look like. 00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:17.199 I'm sure it's totally wrong. 00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:20.960 Those wide open prairies, those big skies, you know what I mean? 00:41:21.519 --> 00:41:22.639 But yeah, I I love stuff like that. 00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:29.360 Stuff that transports you because you know, in those dark days where you can put on something like that, you're transported away. 00:41:29.440 --> 00:41:34.079 It's like um I Love Coney Island by Van Morrison, which is a great song as well. 00:41:34.239 --> 00:41:37.199 It's a very short song, but it's just the image that it conjures in it. 00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:41.920 A, it makes you feel like having a pint and jammed or exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:42.480 Yeah. 00:41:42.639 --> 00:41:45.920 And and it again, it's the images that it that it evokes. 00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:49.599 Uh and then I mean, there's so many pieces of classical music as well that that do that. 00:41:49.679 --> 00:41:53.360 You know, you have Delark Ascending and things of those English pastoral stuff. 00:41:53.519 --> 00:41:57.519 But jazz, again, is my great companion throughout life. 00:41:57.599 --> 00:41:58.719 You know, it's you know whatever. 00:41:59.039 --> 00:42:00.320 And you still play work they do. 00:42:00.639 --> 00:42:07.679 Yeah, I've uh recently I I put the big band back together again, which was a 16-piece big band. 00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:09.840 I'm trying to put together a 16-piece book. 00:42:10.480 --> 00:42:12.639 It's like it's like herding cats, you know what I mean? 00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:14.639 It's just it's rather you than me, yeah. 00:42:14.960 --> 00:42:16.239 Ah, god, but it was great fun. 00:42:16.320 --> 00:42:23.679 We did a little a local thing for our local village hall was uh a hundredth birth uh hundredth celebration, so we did that. 00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:30.320 And again, I'm you know, I'm lucky I know a lot of really, really good musicians, uh great jazzers, and they come along and play. 00:42:30.559 --> 00:42:33.119 And uh it's it's lovely to do. 00:42:33.199 --> 00:42:34.880 There's no money in it, but it's great fun. 00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:35.440 You know what I mean? 00:42:35.519 --> 00:42:36.559 That's and that's the thing. 00:42:36.639 --> 00:42:39.920 And you still get the joy of of playing and and doing music. 00:42:40.079 --> 00:42:43.280 And uh, you know, and then let's say radio is the is the day job. 00:42:43.920 --> 00:42:49.599 And tell us, if I asked you how the top of the A34 was now, is it still starty stopy? 00:42:50.559 --> 00:42:52.480 Is it or is it totally banjacks? 00:42:57.440 --> 00:42:59.679 But I mean, you became the same, the shipping forecast. 00:42:59.760 --> 00:43:02.159 I mean, uh I know Long Wave closed down. 00:43:02.239 --> 00:43:05.840 My father was even given out, but he's used this in long wave all his life. 00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:12.880 Uh but the whole, I mean, this letter in the Irish Times two years or three years ago, you know, Al Ryan's gone, what's gonna happen? 00:43:13.039 --> 00:43:18.480 Like the whole apart from the Ihowa thing, the whole disappearance of the shipping forecast. 00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:22.960 Yeah, well, certainly on certain with the disappearance on long wave, I mean the shipping forecast. 00:43:23.360 --> 00:43:24.239 But people live by long wave. 00:43:24.960 --> 00:43:26.719 A lot of people loved Longwave. 00:43:27.039 --> 00:43:39.280 Well, it's funny, you know, even like when I think back to growing up and visit my grandparents, maybe my father's parents in kick in in greater mana, they had a bit on those big old it was a big Baker Live radio with the buttons on it. 00:43:39.440 --> 00:43:46.639 Yeah, and they used to they used to listen to uh Radio Airden or Radio One on they used to still listen on on 252 Longwave. 00:43:46.719 --> 00:43:46.880 Exactly. 00:43:47.039 --> 00:43:47.519 You know what I mean? 00:43:47.599 --> 00:43:49.119 Uh rather than on FM. 00:43:49.280 --> 00:43:49.440 Yeah. 00:43:49.599 --> 00:43:56.159 But uh it's just another thing, I think, uh that's gone, you know, and it's a huge part of people's lives. 00:43:56.320 --> 00:43:59.760 And it that's been a constant in people's lives with the the demise of longwave. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:21.519 If the letters and emails that I used to get from people across the world about from you know, they might have nothing to do with the UK or that they found the shipping forecast, or people who are feeling homesick, yeah, who are writing, or people who are on expeditions in the Antarctic who listen in for that constant, and that's suddenly gone. 00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:21.840 Yeah. 00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:22.480 Um I mean. 00:44:22.800 --> 00:44:23.440 Well, do you remember? 00:44:23.519 --> 00:44:25.440 You old enough to remember RT in the mornings. 00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:29.360 Maybe they still have that at half sick when they used to come on, he's to play this funny song, music. 00:44:29.519 --> 00:44:29.760 Yeah, yeah. 00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:33.519 Something reassuring that you're there for that that's how your day starts. 00:44:33.599 --> 00:44:36.000 The same way the day ends with the shipping forecast. 00:44:36.159 --> 00:44:42.639 When you're somewhere isolated, as bizarre as it sounds, it must be uh very reassuring or gives you a constant. 00:44:42.800 --> 00:44:46.159 And that going a long way for people, I get it. 00:44:46.480 --> 00:44:52.880 It it is funny, and you know, as uh I was the you know, I pulled and I said to pull the short stroke to read the last one. 00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:57.360 It was a great honor to do the last one because you know I I do it so many nights

every week. 00:44:57.440 --> 00:45:02.000 It was lovely, you know, that I was given the task of putting the old girl to sleep. 00:45:02.239 --> 00:45:24.239 Um, but it was hugely emotional for not only for me, but I mean, so I so many videos from people sitting filming their little transistor radios uh with the final sign-off and that final thing, you know, because we played Sailing by as we do every night, that lovely bit of music by Ronald Binge, and then you you read it and you get to the end. 00:45:24.320 --> 00:45:37.679 But my only worry was because the ships had been quite long that week, despite the good, despite the good weather, that I wasn't going to have time to sort of read the read the ships very, very fast that night to do to do the sign-off, uh, because I felt it was an important thing to do. 00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:40.880 Uh, because it meant so much to so many people. 00:45:41.039 --> 00:45:52.000 You know, I mean, my own dad is a great radio listener, and the da will be sitting in bed with the transistor radio with the headphones on, and he'll be listening on long wave, and then he'll ring you the next day and tell you he'd been listening and tell you what to say, and you could die. 00:45:52.159 --> 00:45:52.239 I know. 00:45:52.480 --> 00:45:55.039 My mistake mistake, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:45:55.280 --> 00:46:00.960 And I was, you know, but it is, it's those people and what it means to those people. 00:46:01.119 --> 00:46:04.880 And um it is yeah, it's I think it's a great loss. 00:46:05.039 --> 00:46:08.079 And the sign off you developed, was that instinctive? 00:46:08.639 --> 00:46:15.679 The the ihoa thing was it was one of those it it was one of those sort of natural happy mistakes, yeah, I think. 00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:22.880 Because yeah, in the same way, let's say if if we were out for a night and you were leaving the pub or something like that, and I'd say, Good idea, Ihoa. 00:46:23.280 --> 00:46:23.840 You know, good luck. 00:46:24.159 --> 00:46:26.800 And it it's as simple as it was as simple as that. 00:46:26.960 --> 00:46:33.599 And there was nothing because people think it's a subversive thing, or it's you know, just before the national anthem, I listen I've I've I've seen it all around. 00:46:35.440 --> 00:46:37.039 Yeah, yeah, oh fair play. 00:46:37.199 --> 00:46:38.480 And it's it's not good, man. 00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:45.039 It's just it's the same way as I have a colleague who signs off in Welsh and I have a colleague who signs off in Manx and in Scottish. 00:46:45.119 --> 00:46:46.960 It's just it's a thing now that we do. 00:46:47.039 --> 00:46:51.360 But I I I may have started it by by by doing you know the Ihoa thing. 00:46:51.440 --> 00:46:52.320 But it sort of caught on. 00:46:52.400 --> 00:46:56.320 It's the same like the the letters that we used to get um from people. 00:46:56.480 --> 00:47:00.880 You know, that stemmed, it was one of the it was uh oh what is it, three, four years ago maybe. 00:47:01.039 --> 00:47:05.599 And in the summer the shipping forecast is often quite light, you know, it's quite short because the weather is so good. 00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:10.559 And I came up short one night and thought, oh hang on, I'd love I'd love the email from a listener. 00:47:10.639 --> 00:47:17.760 I said, Oh, I'm going to read this out and see, because either that I'm going to play a trail or something, or mention something, you know, on Desert Island Discs tomorrow. 00:47:17.840 --> 00:47:18.719 It's such and such. 00:47:18.960 --> 00:47:28.239 So I thought, well, look, and I'll read this letter out from a listener who they were in um Hong Kong at a family wedding, and they were feeling a little homesick and a little nostalgic. 00:47:28.320 --> 00:47:34.559 And it was a lovely thing, and I read it out, and I thought, that's a nice little thing, and you know, it it got me out of a hole. 00:47:34.639 --> 00:47:41.039 And I just happened to mention that, you know, drop me a line, let me know where you tune in at 12 Persona, or indeed what sailing by means to you. 00:47:41.679 --> 00:47:43.039 And that was it. 00:47:43.280 --> 00:47:51.599 The floodgates opened, and we're absolutely we were inundated then with letters and emails and postcards from people. 00:47:51.760 --> 00:47:54.639 Um because you forget that so many people listen to it. 00:47:55.039 --> 00:48:01.920 And and you know, it has little or no maritime or shipping value now because with with GPS and navigation. 00:48:02.400 --> 00:48:03.840 The world has moved on, but still something. 00:48:04.159 --> 00:48:06.960 Yeah, but for for small vessels, they they still use it. 00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:09.119 But also I it's mostly insomniacs. 00:48:09.519 --> 00:48:12.559 Um who who can't who can't sleep at night. 00:48:12.639 --> 00:48:21.920 But of course, but there's something reassuring about it at the end of the night, yeah, the early morning, that the shit the you know, Mantelhead is this, and you know what I mean, these places that you know and recognize. 00:48:22.239 --> 00:48:23.760 It's it's the rhythm of it, you know what I mean. 00:48:24.079 --> 00:48:25.199 It's kind of poetic or something. 00:48:25.760 --> 00:48:29.039 It is Viking, North Atsyra, South Atsyra, all of those places. 00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:41.599 But it what really brought it all to me was last summer we were in Belfast uh doing the BBC proms, and myself and Caroline Nichols, Caroline quite often does the early shipping forecast in the in but just before the Today programme. 00:48:42.159 --> 00:48:46.239 And it was a hundred years of the ships, it was celebrating the hundred years of the shipping forecast. 00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:56.960 So we did it in Belfast at the Ulster Hall with the Ulster Orchestra, and it was a great and we had various readings associated, you know, poetry and stuff associated with the shipping forecast. 00:48:57.199 --> 00:49:06.960 And it was only at the end of it when we because

it was live and we signed off at the end and the orchestra played sailing by, and next thing there was a surge towards the stage. 00:49:07.360 --> 00:49:11.679 I said to Caroline, I said, They've turned nasty, you know, quick you know, we've got to get out of here. 00:49:11.840 --> 00:49:25.039 And and they all you know, they people had all their programs in the air, and they came up, and there was a cue I don't know, ten deep for people who just wanted to come up to say to Caroline and myself just to say just to say thank you. 00:49:25.119 --> 00:49:25.280 Yeah. 00:49:25.519 --> 00:49:37.199 For for all the late nights that they had nursed sick children, yeah, that they had elderly parents, the lonely nights on the road, wherever they might be, that it was a voice, a friendly voice in the corner. 00:49:38.079 --> 00:49:50.239 And it it was one of those really you forget sometimes how many people are there um listening in, but it was just amazing how much it means to so many people. 00:49:50.320 --> 00:49:52.400 You know, there was a lot of love in the room for the shipping forecast. 00:49:52.719 --> 00:49:54.639 And you have a great voice, there's no doubt about it. 00:49:54.800 --> 00:49:57.599 And people that that voice is for radio. 00:49:58.480 --> 00:49:59.039 So do I. 00:49:59.119 --> 00:50:00.960 I don't know on radio, but I'm for broadcasts. 00:50:01.119 --> 00:50:02.960 But you know, the the voice means a lot to me. 00:50:03.119 --> 00:50:03.840 I hear what you're saying. 00:50:04.079 --> 00:50:04.400 Yeah, yeah. 00:50:04.480 --> 00:50:05.119 It's just weird. 00:50:05.280 --> 00:50:17.039 And it sort of brought it up, brought it home to us that yeah, it it's that connection that people, it's that constant, that rhythm, that poetry, you know, as you go that's sort of three times clockwise around the around the British Isles and Ireland with that. 00:50:17.119 --> 00:50:20.559 And people conjure these images of these faraway places. 00:50:20.880 --> 00:50:26.079 And that's that it to conjure the image people have in their head about things, a bit like the Witch of O'Lions one. 00:50:26.239 --> 00:50:31.039 It's in your head, no matter what people say, you have a vision of that what that sound means to you. 00:50:31.519 --> 00:50:32.000 This is it. 00:50:32.079 --> 00:50:34.559 And as often as I often say, radio has the best pictures. 00:50:34.719 --> 00:50:40.239 You know, it it it just because it takes people away and it it's magical, really. 00:50:40.320 --> 00:50:46.400 It it's it's a magical thing, and we're very lucky uh, you know, to be allowed to do it, to read it, especially as an Irish person. 00:50:46.480 --> 00:50:51.280 Uh I think I'm the first person from the Republic of Ireland, certainly, to to read the shipping forecast. 00:50:51.440 --> 00:50:56.320 We've had a couple of colleagues from Northern Ireland, but I think I'm the first person from the Republic to be allowed to do it. 00:50:56.400 --> 00:50:58.800 So it's a great honour as an Irishman to be allowed to do that. 00:50:58.880 --> 00:51:01.840 You know, it's it's it's a it's it's a very nice thing to do. 00:51:02.400 --> 00:51:06.400 And do you reflect on your life as a series of coincidences, fortune? 00:51:06.800 --> 00:51:08.159 How would you summarise it, Al? 00:51:08.639 --> 00:51:09.039 Lucky. 00:51:09.199 --> 00:51:10.239 Luck, I guess. 00:51:10.480 --> 00:51:18.719 You know, because it's one of the I suppose when you think back now and you kind of go, what direction am I going to go with all of this or what's going to happen? 00:51:18.880 --> 00:51:21.360 It's gone a lot further than I ever thought it would be. 00:51:21.599 --> 00:51:28.400 And um but yeah, I think a lot of it has been has been luck, you know, as and as Midar says, it'll all come right in the end, you know? 00:51:28.639 --> 00:51:32.559 So I think you also make your own luck, so well well that's true. 00:51:32.639 --> 00:51:33.199 That that's true. 00:51:33.280 --> 00:51:34.400 So it's but it's one of those things. 00:51:34.480 --> 00:51:48.800 But I think I I have been I've been lucky, you know, um from the get-go when I got into radio and the people that I worked with and the people who I trained with and the people that I got advice from, like Brendan Balf and Gay and Brandon and Marty and all of those people, you know, it sort of sticks with you. 00:51:48.880 --> 00:51:56.719 Yeah, you know, and and you you're glad you live in the high octane uh life, you know the high oxygen content of all these famous people. 00:51:56.880 --> 00:51:57.119 Mike. 00:51:57.519 --> 00:51:58.400 Well, I I don't know. 00:51:58.480 --> 00:52:00.800 But look at you know, they're they're also there are friends. 00:52:01.199 --> 00:52:01.599 I know, I know. 00:52:03.760 --> 00:52:06.239 I mean it'll be it'll be no fun if it didn't tease you out. 00:52:06.400 --> 00:52:08.079 Well, listen, listen, I'm all up for that. 00:52:08.239 --> 00:52:09.199 I'm all for that. 00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:13.440 Al Ryan, it's been a pleasure to talk today on Aaron L and this. 00:52:13.679 --> 00:52:15.119 What do I say, Ihua doing? 00:52:16.159 --> 00:52:17.760 I think that's a suitable finish. 00:52:18.400 --> 00:52:19.119 A great pleasure. 00:52:19.199 --> 00:52:20.480 Um long may it last. 00:52:20.559 --> 00:52:21.440 Thanks for your time. 00:52:21.679 --> 00:52:22.960 Ratter, it's been a joy. 00:52:23.039 --> 00:52:23.920 Thanks so much.