Today FM and former No Disco presenter Donal Dineen will share the stage with some of the best musicians in Ireland along with Tucan and Our Little Secrets when he comes to play Bar Ritz in Castlebar tomorrow night as part of the Finbar Hoban Presents series.
Dineen first picked up a camera as it was part of his course. From this point onwards he developed a fascination with the visual image. His first exhibition, This Storm Is An Angel, for Galway Arts Festival in 1993, was a series of photographs taken around his home in Kerry, which focused on family, place, and identity. 2009 exhibitions include an installation for the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF ) entitled Words Are Something Else, and solo photographic shows for Kilkenny Arts Festival and The Joinery Gallery, Dublin.
Musically, Dineen is credited with giving David Gray his big break, among other artists in Ireland. His programme, Here Comes The Night, was first aired on the opening day of Radio Ireland (now Today FM )’s existence in March 1997. Still with Today FM, he now presents Small Hours between Monday - Thursday from midnight to 2am.
On December 30 2007, The Small Hours had a two-hour radio special broadcast from the living room of David Gray’s London home, where Gray and Liam Ó Maonlaí traded songs and stories on the piano and acoustic guitar, “intermittently picking their Desert Island Discs for Dineen to spin”. Donal Dineen is sure have people dancing on the ceilings tomorrow night at Bar Ritz in Castlebar.
