John Quinn began working in RTÉ as Education Officer in 1975 and became radio producer in 1977. For the next quarter of a century he produced and presented many memorable programmes for RTÉ Radio 1 including the forward looking Open Mind series of interviews with prominent educators, philosophers, performers, scientists and leaders from various other walks of life. Throughout the month of June the Lyric Feature celebrates John’s work as a radio documentary maker whose programmes across a range of topics achieve a rare authentic simplicity which belies the artfulness of their construction.
Three Men Standing at the Met / Me and My Da
In Three Men Standing at the Met we find the writer Michael Coady listening to a broadcast of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino from the Metropolitan Opera in New York in his home in Carrick on Suir Co. Waterford and reflecting on a November night in 1927 when his father and two uncles attended the same opera at the Met. Reconstructed in part from the émigrés letters and using Verdi’s music as counterpoint the programme brings the real lived experience of emigration in the 1920s with a refreshing and engaging specificity. First broadcast 23/12/2001
The hour concludes with Me and My Da an in-studio session and interview with pianist ‘Professor’ Peter O’Brien discussing his upbringing and his development as a musician.
First broadcast 24/12/1999
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 9th June, 6pm-7pm