RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Seán Bán Breathnach will be inducted as a Hall of Fame award recipient in this year’s Photographic Performance Ireland (PPI ) awards tomorrow night. This is the first time that a Hall of Fame shortlist will be included in the award ceremony and this year the event will be held in Lyrath Estate, Kilkenny, on Friday October 12.
The Galway connection at the awards will also include Galway Bay fm’s FYI Galway evening programme which has been shortlisted in the news programme category., along with RTE’s Morning Ireland and This Week.
They are hailed as the Oscars of Irish radio and after 40 years of radio broadcasting Seán Bán Breathnach will receive the honour he so richly deserves. Ceannaire of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta Edel Ní Chuireáin has voiced her praise for the radio DJ. “This is a great honour for Seán, and for RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, and a fitting tribute to his excellent work in radio for over 40 years”.
Before working for Raidió na Gaeltachta as a part-time employee in 1972, Mr Bán Breathnach was a dj with Radio Éireann in 1969 where he presented Popseó na Máirte, the first Irish language pop music production. He quickly added to this achievement by becoming the first Gaeilgeoir pinup before transferring to Raidió na Gaeltachta where he remained and is still valued as one of the station’s much loved broadcasters.
He specialises in sports commentary but throughout his career he also dabbled with music and magazine shows. His legacy however, is founded upon his unrivalled passion for sport. During the Olympics in August, he commentated at Katie Taylor’s final bout where his resplendent comparison between Taylor and Maud Gonne went viral and gathered an impressive 10,000 hits on Youtube. His Saturday sports programme Spórt an tSathairn is currently in its 19th year, and can also be heard on western magazine programme Iris Aniar.
Mr Bán Breathnach will be joined by the late Gerry Ryan of 2FM and Candy Devine of Downtown Radio in Northern Ireland as being the first inductees into the PPI Hall of Fame.
