Veteran broadcaster O'Shannon honoured for lengthy TV career

BROADCASTER CATHAL O’Shannon was made a lifetime member of the Irish Film Television Academy at a ceremony in Dublin yesterday.

The 83-year-old broadcaster with the distinctive Dublin voice was honoured at a tribute event to mark “A life in Television”.

Chief executive of the academy, Áine Moriarty, presented him with a smelt bronze statuette designed by artist Jarlath Daly and told him the award was an indication of the high regard the Irish industry and community had for his work and personality.

O’Shannon said he was very flattered. “I don’t deserve it, but I do really,” he joked.

Well known for series such as Thou Shalt Not Kill, Hidden Historyand the award-winning Spanish civil war documentary Even the Olives are Bleeding, he began his journalism career at The Irish Times, where he worked for legendary editor RM Smyllie, a friend of his father's.

He moved to RTÉ magazine programme Broadsheetin the early 1960s before moving to the BBC Tonightprogramme in 1964. While in London, he met his wife Patsy Dyke.

He returned to RTÉ to work on Newsbeatin the late 1960s, and in 1972 conducted a legendary interview with world boxing champion Muhammad Ali.

In a live, light-hearted interview with Gay Byrne at yesterday’s event, O’Shannon said he had wanted to be a journalist all his life. He began writing when he was in Burma with the RAF, which he joined at age 16 by altering his baptismal certificate.

Though he never got to pilot an aircraft, he was promoted to leading aircraftsman, he said.

“Was that mechanical?” Byrne asked him. “No, automatic,” he replied.

The highlight of his career was interviewing Ali, who was a “vital and immensely warm” individual.

He also spoke of interviewing former taoiseach Charles Haughey, whom he described as having “the coldest eyes you’ve ever seen”.

O’Shannon told the audience how his wife had arranged for his parents, who had not married, to wed a year before his mother died. He said he once asked his father, prominent republican and socialist Cathal O’Shannon snr, why they had never married, and his father said they never seemed to have the time.

O’Shannon said he was very lucky to have been sent all over the world and to have been paid to do so. “There was never a day in television that I didn’t look forward to,” he said.

Congratulations were received in advance of the event from former broadcaster Mike Murphy, Broadcasting Authority of Ireland chairman Bob Collins, Irish Timeseditor Geraldine Kennedy and writer Maeve Binchy, among many others.

Tributes were also paid by friends and colleagues at the event. Filmmaker Éamon de Buitléar described O’Shannon as independent, articulate and charming. Actress Fionnuala Flanagan said it was a privilege to pay tribute to “the greatest Irish bastard I have ever known”.

Actor and comedian Niall Tóibín described him as good company, a very remarkable man and great fun.