CATHAL O'SHANNON:CATHAL O'SHANNON who has died aged 83 was one of Ireland's outstanding television journalists, making his name especially in a series of TV interviews and documentaries.
He worked at various times with The Irish Times, the BBC and RTÉ where he won a reputation for individual flair and professionalism.
The director general of RTÉ, Noel Curran, has paid tribute to him as “one of the most persuasive and gifted presenters ever to work with and on RTÉ”. Former colleague Terry Wogan has called him “possibly Ireland’s greatest television journalist”.
Cathal O’Shannon was born in Dublin in Marino on August 23rd, 1928.
His father, also Cathal, from Co Derry, had mobilised for the 1916 Rising, been arrested and went on hunger strike. He was in the IRA during the War of Independence and was briefly a Labour Party TD. He became secretary to the Irish Trade Union Congress and later served on the Labour Court. To distinguish him from his famous father, his son was called Cathal Óg in the early part of his journalistic career.
While still at school in Coláiste Mhuire, Cathal, then only 16, went to Belfast to join the RAF. He went with his friend Fred O’Donovan, later to become chairman of RTÉ. They used forged baptismal certificates to conceal their age.
The war in Europe was almost over and O’Shannon was posted to Burma for the wind-down of the campaign there against the Japanese. Although he had his heart set on becoming a pilot, he served as ground crew. He would sometimes imply that he was a rear gunner on Lancaster bombers but laughed this off in an interview a year before he died.
While in the RAF, he wrote articles for newspapers with the encouragement of his father, who, he said, was "proud" of him joining up to fight fascism. Cathal senior was a close friend and drinking companion of the editor of The Irish TimesBertie Smyllie while the deputy editor Alec Newman was young Cathal's godfather so it was not too surprising that Cathal Óg joined the paper in 1949 as a cub reporter.
He covered many big stories such as the Fethard-on-Sea boycott and banning of The Rose Tattoo. The paper sent him to the Congo in the summer of 1960 to report on the Irish troops as part of the United Nations peace-keeping force soon in combat in the breakaway province of Katanga.
The paper also sent him to its London office on temporary stints and it was there that he met Patsy Dyke who was working for Country Lifemagazine. They married in Maiden Lane Catholic Church.
While in Dublin O'Shannon had been doing some work for the BBC current affairs programme, Tonight. He was eventually offered a job on the prestigious programme alongside reporter-presenters such as Alan Whicker and Magnus Magnusson. He enjoyed the freedom which Tonightgave its staff to write, report and produce programmes.
When Tonightwas cancelled in 1965, he returned to Dublin and joined RTÉ where he worked in the features area on programmes like Frank Hall's Newsbeat. But he also began to make documentaries, twice winning Jacobs awards. His most famous one was about the Irish who fought on the Republican side in the Spanish civil war, entitled Even the Olives are Bleeding. Of significant historical value was his programme on Emmet Dalton who was with Michael Collins when he was killed at Béal na mBláth.
His most memorable interview was with world champion boxer Muhammad Ali in 1972, excerpts from which are still shown. O’Shannon later said modestly that it was the boxer’s experience as an interviewee rather than his skills that made it so entertaining.
In 1978, he left RTÉ to join Canadian company Alcan which was setting up an aluminium plant at Aughinish in 1978. He was head-hunted to become the director of public affairs, an important post at a time when there were environmental concerns about the effects of aluminium production.
He admitted frankly that he was attracted by the salary, “five times what RTÉ were paying me”. But he also indicated that he had become unhappy with RTÉ and said in an interview that: “The real reason I got out of RTÉ was that they wouldn’t let me do what I wanted.” He had submitted plans for a series on the Civil War and also on the wartime Emergency period.
While he enjoyed the social life with lavish expenses which his public relations duties involved, his friends believed that he missed the varied life and travel of journalism. He retired early from Aughinish in 1992 but returned to making some memorable television documentaries with RTÉ. These included Murder in Irelandabout infamous crimes and Ireland's Hidden Naziswhich showed the ease with which war criminals got refuge in Ireland in the aftermath of the second World War.
In 2010, the Irish Film and Television Academy presented O’Shannon with a lifetime achievement award. It hosted a special “Life in Television” programme at which friends and colleagues paid tribute to him. Kevin Dawson, head of corporate communications at RTÉ, said: “On camera he was an unrivalled raconteur, a mischievous companion, a finder and teller of tales, a historian of gravity, an interviewer non-pareil.” O’Shannon’s last years were marked by ill-health and the loneliness brought about by the death in 2006 of his wife, Patsy, to whom he had been married for over 50 years and on whom he had become increasingly dependent. He was also predeceased by his sisters, Fionnuala and Grania.
Cathal O’Shannon: born August 23rd, 1928; died, October 22nd, 2011