Last week, I was asked to do an interview with my local radio station, CRC FM.
Although I was highly chuffed to be asked, I wouldn’t normally have jumped at it, being increasingly shy of such things. Also, at this time of year, I have nothing theatrical to ‘flog’ so that provided a additional small challenge. So that would be a ‘thank you’ and a pass from me.
Except it was Anne Marie doing it.
Anne Marie Gibbons is a friend and an extraordinary music talent in her own right. It’s always a pleasure to meet up and have a chat and we have also conspired a bit on some theatre stuff at this stage. I had heard Anne Marie interview some of my fellow townspeople and ‘county’ people on her programme and the resulting shows were invariably laid-back, informative and entertaining. So that was a game-changer, I agreed with some enthusiasm and off we went. The format was not unfamiliar, a chat about my life and interests, interspersed with some music of my choice.
I’ve shared the interview around on my socials earlier this week and many of you have been kind enough to listen and be encouraging about it. I think I tend to babble on a bit and I kind of hate the sound of my own voice, but Anne Marie was a thoughtful and adept interviewer and that helped a lot. She seems to know when to let her subject ‘go off on one’ and when to interject, so that things move along with that deceptive ease that takes some natural talent to achieve. Danny, the producer, also contributed hugely by maintaining a high level of interest in our conversation even though he must have heard the like many times before. He even laughed at some of my funnies, which was invaluable to my onward trek.
The purpose of today’s blog is not to 'shanghai' you into listening to this 54-minute interlude. Many of you lovely readers have done so already because you are invariably supportive and kind. But I’m not trying to hijack your day. Mostly, like all the blog posts these days, this is a record for me to keep. I think it’s highly likely that I may never speak in this way again, of family and school and youth and young adulthood and life and writing. So, I’d like to keep it. I may want to listen to it in years to come and see if I agree entirely with what that bloke on the radio had to say for himself.
Here’s a link to it. Link. Mostly for me, as I said, but you can have a listen if you want.
I am a little troubled by the people I failed to mention in my unprepared tumble through the moments of my life.Marja Giejgo and Tim Crook (and Richard Shannon of course) at Independent Radio Drama Productions did more to reawaken me to writing and to keep me a writer in all the decades since we conspired together. Decades later, they remain my friends and continue in their gentle and highly effective encouragement. Mary Carr got me writing on my return to Ireland and, in conjunction with St. Patricks’ Drama Group in Westport, we made radio plays which went on to be theatre plays which still remain pertinent to this day. Great memories. Oisin Herraghty saw the potential in ‘Moon Cut Like a Sickle’ from the moment he first read it and was instrumental in bringing that, and subsequent plays to the stage. Tara Ní Cheallaigh was the unmentioned and indispensable actor who colluded with Eamon Smith and Donna Ruane on so many of the Fringe plays. Castlebar Musical and Dramatic Society, who gave me the opportunity to work with them on three plays last year. All the youth groups around the country, who have taken on the teen plays and made them their own. Those nights out remain unforgettable. And, finally, you, the readers of the blog over the last sixteen years. You all need to get out more.
There are hundreds of others, you know who you are and so do I. Thanks for everything.
(I sound like I’m going somewhere. I’m not. Not willingly anyway).
The fact that I would choose to save the interview here and show it to people is amazing in itself. As I said, I don’t like to draw attention to myself too much and I think I can be hard to listen to. But, in this interview, I got to touch on some things I wanted to remember, say some things I wanted to say, and play some tunes that I felt needed playing.
It was fun. Thanks, Anne Marie!