Some people collect stories. Others seem simply to attract them. Spend an hour in the company of Tony Guerin and it quickly becomes apparent that stories have followed him throughout his life, from the small cottages of his childhood in Listowel to the Garda stations where he served as a detective sergeant, and finally to the pages of the novels and plays that have established him as one of Kerry’s best known literary voices. Mention “Kerry royalty” and he immediately laughs off the description, but there is no doubting the affection with which he is regarded in his native county or the respect his writing has earned over many decades. Listen to the radio show here (August 4th) Guerin was born in 1938 in what he remembers as a close-knit community where neighbours depended on one another in ways that are difficult to imagine today. Rural electrification had only recently arrived, most families grew their own vegetables, cut their own turf and shared whatever they had. If someone caught trout in the River Feale, neighbours would soon find fish hanging on their doors. If a family suffered a bereavement, everyone knew instinctively what needed to be done. It was a […]

Peter Campion did not grow up in a family immersed in theatre. There were no regular trips to plays or concerts, no obvious path that might have led a young boy from Offaly towards a successful acting career. Yet something happened whenever he watched people perform. It was not admiration so much as a deep physical response that he struggled to understand. Listen to the radio show here (July 21) “I remember seeing people perform and having a very rough reaction to seeing it happen,” he says. “It made me feel kind of sick. I couldn’t really understand how big the emotions were when I’d see people on stage.” Looking back, he can see that those moments planted a seed, even if he had no idea at the time where it might lead. Films such as Into the West and The Butcher Boy stirred something profound, long before he recognised acting as something he could pursue himself. Campion spent his early childhood in Birr before his family moved to Dublin. He attended boarding school, a period he remembers fondly, and it was only in secondary school that acting began to emerge as something more than a passing fascination. By the […]