Donncha Ó Dúlaing

Donncha Ó Dúlaing is a veteran Irish broadcaster from Doneraile, County Cork, who is known country-wide and among the Irish around the world for his cultural and traditional music programmes.

His broadcasting career began when he joined Radio Éireann in 1964.

O'Dulaing's Highways and Byways radio series on RTÉ Radio One became hugely popular as did his television series on RTÉ Television. He is former head of features, RTÉ Radio.

He became universally known for his fund-raising walks for charity in Ireland, the UK, France and Israel and among the Choctaw Indians in the US, who had contributed to the victims of the Famine in Ireland in the 1840s. His walks sometimes up to 43 miles per day have helped raised many hundreds of thousands in funds for charity since the 1980s.

O'Dulaing's currently presents the hour-long programme Fáilte Isteach at 10 pm on Saturday evenings on RTÉ Radio 1 and has thousands of listeners among the Irish diaspora who enter his 'Parlour of Dreams' where 'many dreams come true' on the programme. He celebrated 50 years in broadcasting in February of this year 2014.

The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins presented a specially commissioned sculpture to him at Áras an Uachtarain, Phoenix Park, Dublin in August 2014 in recognition of his contribution to Irish Culture.

A 288-page illustrated memoir titled "Donncha's World- the Roads, the Stories and the Wireless", co-authored with writer Declan Lyons and launched by his friend, the singer Daniel O'Donnell,in September 2014, tells the story of his life and career, his walks, his broadcasts and the national and internationally famous people he has interviewed and met including President Eamon de Valera, Pope John Paul II, Edna O'Brien, Rosie Hackett, Mick Jagger, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Gene Kelly.

He and his wife Vera née Galvin, also of Cork, live in Dublin near to RTE Headquarters in Donnybrook.

References

• RTÉ website
• Irish Tribune
• Autobiography: Walking and talking", Blackwater Press 1998 ISBN 0-86121-955-4