The broadcaster and writer Proinsias Ó Conluain, who has died aged 93, played a major role in preserving and promoting the Irish language and heritage through the many RTÉ radio programmes he produced and presented between the late 1940s and early 1980s.
Former RTÉ director general Cathal Goan this week described him as quiet, reserved and precise, always independently minded, and unruffled by office politics or changing fads. He was always his own man and generous to younger programme-makers, and his contribution to Irish broadcasting was "immense".
Musician and fellow broadcaster Paddy Glackin paid tribute to Ó Conluain’s work relating to the Irish song tradition, which he said was “very significant”.
Born in Benburb, Co Tyrone, in 1919, he was the son of Bernard Conlon and Mary Conlon (née Heron). The Conlons were involved in farming and weaving, while his mother's family were prominent in local politics.
His father, an IRB member, returned from the US to take command of a company of volunteers in Coalisland, Co Tyrone, during the Easter Rising.
Bernard Conlon was an independent-minded man, and before he died he instructed his family not to follow the custom of having cash offerings placed on the coffin in church.
They followed his wishes but afterwards found the graveyard gates locked against them, presumably on the instructions of the parish priest. It is said they broke the chains with crowbars so the burial could take place.
Ó Conluain was educated at St Patrick’s College, Armagh. Notwithstanding the fact that he met the criteria for a university scholarship, it was withheld by the Dungannon regional education committee on the grounds of lack of funds. It was only when legal proceedings were initiated that the scholarship was approved.
By this stage, however, the academic year was well advanced, and he accepted a post on offer from the civil service in Dublin. “Look, if you’re a papist in this part of Ireland,” his father told him, “you take a job when you get one.”
Joining the Department of Education, he worked as an editor at An Gúm. He also wrote scripts for Raidió Éireann, using the pen-name Conn Ó Briain, and was active in the organisation Glún na Buaidhe.
He joined Raidió Éireann in 1947, along with Seán Mac Réamoinn, Séamus Ennis, Norris Davidson and PP Maguire. Working with the mobile recording unit, he chronicled life on various west-coast islands.
Recordings
Folklore collector Seán Ó hEochaidh introduced Ó Conluain to singer Róise Bean Uí Ghrianna, and he recorded 70 of her songs in Irish and English. He also recorded the last Irish speakers of Tyrone, in the Sperrin mountains.
Other documentaries featured singer Eddie Butcher, composer Carl Hardebeck and traditional music collector Capt Francis O’Neill. He also made documentaries on James Joyce, Sean O’Casey and the Dublin of their time.
Ó Conluain happened to be in the US in 1979 when the partial nuclear meltdown at the Three Mile Island reactor occurred, and he produced a first-hand account for RTÉ radio. He also produced the series An Mhuintir S'Againne, Cúrsaí Reatha and People and Places.
On the occasion of his retirement in 1983 Ó Conluain recalled an eventful journey to Galway with Seán Mac Réamoinn, being introduced to poitín by Séamus Ennis and the first recording of a keener, who performed without the benefit of a corpse.
He also recalled an evening spent with Davy Hammond in Sandy Row, Belfast, where a Lambeg drum maker gave a recital of Orange songs, one of which included the verse: “A rope, a rope to hang the pope, a pen’worth of cheese to choke him, a pint of lamp oil to wash it down and a big hot fire to roast him.”
Ó Conluain contributed to Inniú, edited by Ciarán Ó Nualláin, brother of Myles na gCopaleen, and was a founder member of An Club Leabhar, which made books in Irish available.
His books include Scéal na scannán (1953), Ár scannáin féin (1964) and Islands and authors (1983). With Donncha Ó Céileachair he wrote An Duinníneach (1958), the biography of lexicographer Patrick Dineen, and he edited Rotha mór an tsaoil (1996), the memoirs of seanchaí and goldminer Micí Mac Gabhann. He also wrote the first volume of the biography of Seán T Ó Ceallaigh, second president of Ireland.
He was a Jacob’s award-winner in 1979 for a documentary series on the Irish countryside, and in 1998 he received Gradam Sean-Nós Chois Life, followed by Gradam Aitheantais na Píobairí Uileann in 2006. In 2005 an honorary doctorate was conferred on him by the University of Ulster.
He was a co-founder and first editor of Dúiche Néill, the journal of the O'Neill Country Historical Society.
Predeceased by his wife, Sheila (née Murphy), he is survived by his daughter, Mairéad, sisters and grandchildren.