I first met Ronnie O’ Gorman fifty years ago in the office of the Galway Advertiser at the back of O’Gorman’s bookshop, where Easons stands today in Shop Street.
I was 21, a rookie promoter, naïve in the ways of the world. I had booked The Chieftains to play Leisureland, my first big Galway promotion. I was hoping to get a write-up in the Advertiser which was essential to get the word out about the concert.
Ronnie listened to my spiel about The Chieftains and gently suggested I might take out an ad for the Leisureland concert. I hesitated, I had used up all my savings on printing posters, I had no money left for an ad.
Ronnie explained that space was very tight in the paper that week but if something came available, he would see what he could do.
When the Advertiser came through the letterbox on Thursday before the concert, I woke up my flat mates with a roar. There on page 3 was a photo of the Chieftains and a listing of the Leisureland concert.
Looking back over the past fifty years, Ronnie has been unstinting in his support of the emerging arts and music scene in Galway. All the arts organisations that have flourished in the city; Druid, Arts Festival, Music for Galway, Macnas, Cúirt, Film Fleadh, Baboro, Town Hall Theatre; all have benefited from extensive editorial coverage in the Galway Advertiser.
Ronnie O’Gorman was the first journalist to interview Druid when they started up in 1975, giving the fledgling theatre company their first taste of publicity in the Galway Advertiser. Likewise, when we were expanding the Arts Festival in the 1980s with visits of Footsbarn Theatre and Els Comedients, we did so in the knowledge that Ronnie O’ Gorman was full square behind us with the publication of an eight-page supplement of the Arts Festival programme.
I will miss running into Ronnie in Shop Street, stopping for a chat out on the prom or sharing a coffee and croissant with him in Cross St. You always came away energised after meeting Ronnie. I felt comfortable telling Ronnie about my latest madcap plans and schemes. “That’s a super idea,” Ronnie would enthuse.
I would like to send my deepest sympathies to all Ronnie O’ Gorman’s family and friends.
