EARLY CAREER

While at college I started working for Gael Linn Teo., first in their Roinn na gCéirníní, then in their newly-opened record shop in Creation Arcade, Grafton Street, Dublin where I became Manager in 1975. I also had various other jobs between ‘73 and ‘79, one of them as assistant sound engineer with the New Irish Recording Company who recorded for Claddagh Records, Gael Linn and Mulligan Records.

In 1976 I did a stint in the Abbey Theatre training at first, then appearing in Eugene O’Neill’s play ‘Desire under the Elms’. I compiled and presented a traditional (world-) music series on pirate radio station Alternative Radio Dublin (ARD). Using primitive recording methods it was great fun - but I was warned when applying for a position in RTÉ not to mention that I did some work for a pirate!

My first gigs with RTÉ date back to 1968 when I was a boy soprano and learning the violin - I recorded in Henry Street and Portobello studios. My next gig was as presenter for a series of afternoon programmes of classical and traditional music on Raidió Éireann called Young Entertainers, once a week during the summer of ‘76. It was my first venture into the exciting world of Montrose (the Donnybrook campus) and to Studio 5 in the Radio Centre.

‘Unofficially’ I started work in RTÉ at the end of 1978 and then ‘officially’ I ‘really’ started my training and full-time role at the beginning of 1979. There wasn’t a computer in sight when I joined and Ireland was experiencing one of the coldest temperatures on record according to Met Éireann, reaching -18 degrees. It was also the worst year ever for industrial disputes in Ireland, costing the economy over 1,460,000 working days! So you can imagine the excitement of getting a training position and the possibility of full-time employment in a semi-state company was like, me being newly-married, first mortgage, car loan, etc.! (To supplement my trainee wage from RTÉ I set myself up as a sales rep. for a record company and covered most of Ireland, doing mostly early shifts in RTÉ, then hitting the road...).

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