Andy O'Mahony facts for kids

Andy O'Mahony is a well-known Irish broadcaster. He worked for RTÉ, which is Ireland's main TV and radio station, for over 50 years. He started in 1961 and retired in 2013.

Andy was one of the first people to read the news on Irish television. Later, he hosted many popular radio and TV shows. He also created programs for the BBC in the UK between 1977 and 1988. These included documentaries about art for BBC Two.

He was especially known for his radio shows that focused on books and ideas. Programs like Books and Company, Off The Shelf, and Dialogue were places where people could discuss topics like money, politics, and culture. From 1988 to 2000, he hosted The Sunday Show, a talk show about current events on RTÉ Radio 1. He won four special awards called Jacob's Radio Awards for his work.

Andy O'Mahony loved collecting books his whole life. In 2015, he gave his huge collection of over 7,000 books to the Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick. These books cover many different subjects, from philosophy and religion to history and politics. In 2016, he published his own book about his life called Creating Space: The Education of a Broadcaster.

Early Life and Education

Andy O'Mahony was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1934. He was the oldest child of Andrew O'Mahony, who owned a shop, and Nora Collins. His mother became a widow in 1943.

He first went to school with the Christian Brothers at St. Mary's. Then he spent a year at the High School Clonmel. He continued his studies at Mount St. Alphonsus in Limerick, a boarding school where he learned Latin and Greek. He also studied music at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.

Andy went to Trinity College Dublin and earned a degree in business and public administration in 1961. He also studied philosophy and logic at University College Dublin, graduating in 1965. He later earned a PhD in psychology from Trinity College Dublin. He was also a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 1982 and 1983.

Starting His Career

Before becoming a broadcaster, Andy O'Mahony worked for a year at Clonmel Foods Ltd in 1952 and 1953. Then, from 1954 to 1961, he worked for the Bank of Ireland. During his last year at the bank, he also worked part-time as an announcer and newsreader for Radio Éireann.

Broadcasting at RTÉ

In November 1961, Andy joined Radio Éireann full-time as an announcer and newsreader. Two years later, he became a news anchor for Ireland's new television service, Telefís Éireann, which later became RTÉ. In his first ten years of broadcasting, he also presented shows about arts and music on the radio. In 1972, he stopped working in news to focus on special feature programs and his academic studies.

Radio Programs

Andy O'Mahony hosted many radio series. Some of these included Focus, Music and Musicians, and Opera and the Singer (1968–1972). He also presented Involvement (1972–1973) and Lookaround (1972–1978). Other notable series were Beckett at 70 (1976), Inside Europe (1978–1979), and Bookweek (1980–1982).

His long-running shows Off The Shelf and Dialogue were very popular. On Dialogue, he had one-on-one conversations with many important people over 25 years. These guests included famous writers, artists, and thinkers like Eric Hobsbawm, Denis Donoghue, Seamus Heaney, Nuala O'Faolain, and Mary Midgley.

Television Programs

Andy O'Mahony also worked on many television shows. These included The Course of Irish History (1966) and Over the Barricades (1975). He presented Predicting the Future in 1979 and again in 1999. He also hosted Opening of the National Concert Hall in Dublin (1981) and Wednesday Plus (1983). He was even a guest host on The Late Late Show in 1989.

Work with the BBC

Andy O'Mahony also created programs for the BBC, especially BBC Northern Ireland.

BBC Radio

From 1977 to 1987, he made various arts documentaries for BBC Northern Ireland. These included profiles of famous writers like Brian Friel, Sean O'Faolain, and Benedict Kiely. In 1986, he also made a documentary about religion for BBC Radio 4.

BBC Television

For BBC Northern Ireland, he created a six-part series called Widows of Writers in 1977. He also hosted Lifetimes (1978–1986), a series of studio interviews with writers, artists, and scholars. Guests on Lifetimes included Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane. For the BBC Gallery series, he had conversations with novelist William Trevor.

For BBC Two, he made documentary profiles of playwright Seán O'Casey (1980), tenor John McCormack (1984), and inventor Harry Ferguson (1984). He also interviewed writer Christabel Bielenberg about life in Germany in the 1930s (1987).