Episode 1 – September 7:
David Puttnam: West Cork-based and recent Irish citizen, the London-born retired film producer, and now educator and environmentalist is perhaps best known as the man behind the likes of The Mission, The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone, Cal, Local Hero, Memphis Belle and War Of The Buttons. As well as having won 10 Oscars, 10 Golden Globes, 25 BAFTAs, nine Emmys, and the Palme D’Or at Cannes, many of his films’ soundtracks are as well known as the movies in which they feature. Unsurprisingly his extensive record collection reflects a life immersed in music.
Series #3 Overview:
A Pat O’Mahony production for RTÉ Gold funded by Coimisiún na Meán
10 x 55’ weekly record-collection radio series starting Sunday September 7th 2025 at 6.00pm
As physical records – mainly vinyl, but also CDs and now even cassettes – continue to gain significant sales momentum worldwide, in the third series of For The Record, a unique format for RTÉ Gold, music fan and radio and TV producer/presenter, Pat O’Mahony, once again visits the homes of ten well known Irish or Irish-based folk who, like him, have over the years amassed noteworthy hard-copy record collections.
Some of the ten are directly or indirectly involved in the music business so might be expected to have a predilection for accumulating such physical musical delights; others will have nothing to do with the business at all but are merely huge music fans afflicted to differing degrees with this addictive collecting bug.
While digging through their varisized shelves he’ll hear music from and stories behind their music treasure troves, from their earliest record encounters, first purchases and most recent acquisitions, to any regrettable impulse buys or moving, stolen or loan losses over the years, all the while discussing the importance of music to them at different points in their lives and why today they continue to buy and play records when nearly all music is only an online click away.
Over For The Record’s ten episodes, Pat’s guests are:
Episode 1 – September 7:
David Puttnam: West Cork-based and recent Irish citizen, the London-born retired film producer, and now educator and environmentalist is perhaps best known as the man behind the likes of The Mission, The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone, Cal, Local Hero, Memphis Belle and War Of The Buttons. As well as having won 10 Oscars, 10 Golden Globes, 25 BAFTAs, nine Emmys, and the Palme D’Or at Cannes, many of his films’ soundtracks are as well known as the movies in which they feature. Unsurprisingly his extensive record collection reflects a life immersed in music.
Episode 2 – September 14:
Fiona Looney: Newspaper columnist, playwright, scriptwriter and one-time music journalist and regular contributor on the Gerry Ryan Show on RTÉ 2fm, Fiona has been accumulating – and occasionally losing – records since her pocket money as a kid allowed. Now with grown children herself, one of whom has commercially released her own music, Fiona’s still-evolving music taste is increasingly influenced by her family and theirs by hers.
Episode 3 – September 21:
Peadar Ó Riada: Composer, musician, choir director, producer, broadcaster on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and writer – and, of course, son of the great Seán Ó Riada – Peadar’s home on the Cork-Kerry border is a hive of music activity. Director of the local Cór Cúil Aodha since 1971, he believes the Irish tradition is a living, breathing thing, something that informs every note he writes or plays. His vast record collection includes many of his father’s old vinyl and acetates, many of which are of great historical interest and too delicate to be played until they’re digitised and archived, hopefully in the next while.
Episode 4 – September 28:
Tracy Clifford: The voice of weekday afternoons on RTÉ 2fm where she oversees her Friday old-school raver ‘Cliffbangers’ segment, Tracy was originally a child of the cassette era, and then CDs, only discovering the joy of vinyl relatively late in her life. So, as well as a digital DJ mixer set-up, she now also has twin turntables where she and her fiancé regularly sample the delights of their growing vinyl collection which includes dance, pop, classic rock and a whole pile more.
Episode 5 – October 5:
Brian Brannigan: Singer, songwriter and big kahuna of Dublin post-punk roots band, A Lazarus Soul, which he formed in 2001 and who are currently on their fifth album, No Flowers Grow in Cement Gardens, Brian, now lives in north Kildare where his record collection is carefully curated and lovingly tended. With much older brothers when still young he had access to their vinyl purchases as well as the music of the day on the radio. Today he still has his old reggae, ska, new wave and pop records but also a voracious appetite for quality new ones.
Episode 6 – October 12:
Paul Lynch: The Booker Prize-winning author – in late 2023 for Prophet Song – of five internationally acclaimed novels, Limerick-born, Donegal-raised and now Dublin-based (and teacher on the creative writing programme at Maynooth University in Kildare), Paul happily describes himself as a jazz-head, an audiophile and a real collector of records. His love of jazz, particularly American from the mid-1950’s to the mid-‘60s, started in his late teens and has led him on a quest to accumulate the very best records of the genre to be listened to on the best stereo equipment he can afford. Though lurking in his shelves is a small selection of heavy metal albums – not that surprising given he was in a metal band as a teenager – and quite a few modern rock ones.
Episode 7 – October 19:
Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill: A singer originally from Kells in County Meath steeped in Irish traditional music, Maighread’s extensive record collection is divided between her home in Dublin and the house she and her husband built on the site of her great-grandparents’ home in northwest Donegal; it’s in the latter that the cream of the collection currently resides. Expect to hear lots of traditional music – not all of it Irish – and a classy cross-section of timeless classic rock.
Episode 8 – October 26:
Kevin McGahern: Comedian, TV presenter, writer and actor perhaps best known for hosting RTÉ television’s Republic Of Telly, appearances in Hardy Bucks and Bridget And Eamon and for currently co-hosting The Lovely Show podcast with Justine Stafford, Kevin’s parents’ music purchases while he was a child in in Cavan turned out to be a huge influence on his own record collecting later in life. And while he may claim to be a particular fan of especially loud and sad music, his shelves reflect a far more diverse taste.
Episode 9 – November 2:
Leslie Dowdall: A long-time Wicklow resident who grew up in Monkstown in south Dublin and Rathvilly in County Carlow, singer-songwriter Leslie is undoubtedly best known for her time fronting the Howth, County Dublin collective, In Tua Nua, in the 1980’s and her solo career since. And while her musical taste is broad and diverse, her record collection is less so, an old boyfriend she says having hightailed with almost all her vinyl records some years back. What numerous CDs and sparse vinyl albums and singles she still has, however, are well worth a listen.
Episode 10 – November 9:
Michael Lyster: While everyone knows him as the former RTÉ Sport presenter – especially for their Gaelic games coverage – when Michael got his first job in RTÉ Radio 2 (as 2fm was known then) in 1980 as a sports reporter, all his friends in Galway assumed it was as a disc jockey such was his love of music growing up, a love that led to his initial stint in media as a music correspondent in the local Tuam Herald. Today, while he occasionally digs out some of his old vinyl up in the attic for a spin, most of it is replaced downstairs by CDs.
As Pat says about his own record collecting:
“When I bought my first three-in-one stereo in the autumn of 1979 – a treat from the proceeds of a reasonably well-paid summer job the months before – I had one major problem: I only had a handful of records. I’d bought the occasional 7” single over the previous decade that I’d played on the parents’ old radiogram and I had possibly only one album, maybe two.
“That December so I made a wish-list for the family of about ten albums, mostly – and rather cheekily – doubles, if I remember correctly, that they could choose from as their Christmas presents for me.
“This got the ball rolling. From there I became a regular rummager in record shop bargain bins, the next few years regularly arriving home with bags of discounted albums that helped form a formidable foundation until I was lucky enough to start getting the odd freebie record-company promo in the late 1980’s that grew into a welcome avalanche throughout the ‘90s when I was doing a lot of music radio.
“All these years later record company freebies are mostly a distant memory but I still now beg, borrow and occasionally purchase the odd vinyl or CD album, particularly new or previously missed ones.
“Today my records take pride of place at home. While of course I stream music online I’m still an avid listener to physical records.
“But I athink they look great. I walk into my front room and even now – boom, they still hit me. For some people it’s books, for me it’s records.”
EDITORS’ NOTES
For The Record will be on RTÉ Gold at 6.00pm for ten Sundays at 6.00pm from September 7th 2025 until November 9th. See https://www.rte.ie/radio/gold/for-the-record/ for more.
Each 55′ broadcast version and its longer Extended Mix cut will be available on the For The Record RTÉ Gold webpage above just after transmission each Sunday evening.
It can be listened to anywhere in the world via the RTÉ Gold website here: https://www.rte.ie/radio/gold/ or via radio apps, and smart TVs and speakers.
For The Record is a Pat O’Mahony production for RTÉ Gold funded by Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound & Vision Fund. See https://www.cnam.ie/ for more.
The first series of For The Record in late 2022 was the first Coimisiún na Meán (or BAI as it was then) funded production on RTÉ Gold.
For The Record production credits:
Pat O’Mahony: originator, producer, presenter, editor
Damien Clifford: sound recordist
Aidan Leonard and Amanda Fennelly: RTÉ Gold executive producers
RTÉ Gold is RTÉ’s digital classic-music radio station available on smartphone, smart speaker, digital TV and online. See https://www.rte.ie/radio/gold/ for more.
Pat O’Mahony is an award-winning, Dublin-based TV and radio producer/director/presenter with over 35 years full-time broadcasting experience under his belt in Ireland and the UK. This includes working on numerous music shows, including producing and presenting his own Access All Areas series on RTÉ Radio 1, filling in on, and later producing, RTÉ 2fm’s Dave Fanning Show, and presenting Feile TV for RTÉ and Witnness TV for TV3 (now Virgin Media).
He bought his first 7” single, Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run) by The Real McCoy, in 1969 for 7s 6d and his first album, Excerpts From Jesus Christ Superstar by a cast of soundalike session musicians, about five years later for the bargain-basement price of 50p. He still has both.
See https://www.patomahony.ie/ for more.
For further information and/or on-location photos, please email Pat at pat@patomahony.ie