Danny Meehan
One of the undoubted highlights of the recent and very successful Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival was the recording of two editions of the hugely popular RTÉ Radio 1 programme, Sunday Miscellany, before a live audience at The Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon, on Sunday afternoon, October 3 last.
An integral part of the Irish Sunday morning since it was first broadcast in 1968, Sunday Miscellany’s distinctively evocative blend of radio essays and occasional poetry read by its authors, and interspersed with music, has engaged and entertained generations of Irish radio listeners, at home and abroad for close on 50 years – 221,000 of them for each programme, according to the most recent figures.
This Sunday, October 25 sees the broadcast of the first of the two Sunday Miscellany radio programmes recorded in Ballyshannon. Between 9.10am -10.00am, it will feature new pieces written and read by Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway), Frank Galligan ( Donegal and Derry ), Dave McHugh ( Dublin), Colette Ní Ghallchóir ( Glenties) and Denise Blake (Ramelton), with music by Laghey classical flautist Amy Gillen, Sligo guitarist and singer Seamie O’Dowd, master fiddlers Aidan O’Donnell and Danny Meehan from Dunkineely and Mountcharles, and the wonderful Henry Girls from Inishowen.
The Henry Girls
The second programme, to be broadcast on Sunday, November 1 , will feature Ramleton storyteller Joe Brennan, theatre maker, actor and musician Little John Nee ( Donegal and Galway), best-selling Monaghan novelist Mary O’Donnell, Ballyshannon writer Olive Travers and Ramelton musician, actor and writer, Martin McGinley. They will be joined once again by musicians Amy Gillen, Seamie O’Dowd, Aidan O’Donnell, Danny Meehan and The Henry Girls.
Both programmes are introduced by Sunday Miscellany producer Aoife Nic Cormaic. If you are unable to catch the actuall broacdasts on October 25 and November 1, you may listen to a podcast of the programme anytime on the RTÉ website – www.rte.ie/radio1/sunday-miscellany - for up to a month after the initial broadcast. In addition, a repeat broadcast of the previous Sunday’s programme, takes place each Wednesday evening from 10.00pm -10.50pm.
RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany recordings in Donegal have been generously supported by The Sandhouse Hotel, Rossnowlagh. The Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival is a promotion of Donegal County Council Cultural Services., supported by The Arts Council /An Comhairle Ealaíon.
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