Irish artists who picked their Desert Island Discs for the BBC
DESERT Island Discs has been inviting celebrity guests to be its castaways since 1942. Its next guest on Sunday will be the Irish writer Colm Tóibín.
He will follow a time-honoured formula: the selection of eight recordings as a foil for a discussion about his life. At the end of the programme, host Kirsty Young will ask him to save one track from the eight and also a luxury item and a book to take with him to the island. The BBC has made over 1,500 of its interviews available online. Here is a rundown of some of the best Irish interviews.
‘Canon in D’ by Johann Pachelbel
Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
Painting by Van Hook
Comedian Dave Allen talks about his time working as a Butlin’s redcoat, digging crooked trenches as a labourer, and touring England’s music halls as a warm-up act for strippers before his TV career took off. The droll one-liners effortlessly drop off his tongue. “Dave, you began life as a journalist,” suggests host Roy Plomley in cut-glass English tones. “Well, no, as a child, I think,” says Allen.
2. William Trevor (August 9, 1980)
‘Clarinet Quintet in B Minor’ by Johannes Brahms
Lives of the Saints by Alban Butler
Grapes
The novelist William Trevor chats about moving from town to town around Cork, including Mitchels-town, Youghal, and Skibbereen, in the wake of his bank manager father during his youth. The family, he says, were “kind of like middle-class gypsies”. He also discusses his years as a church sculptor and falling in love in Trinity College with his wife. She introduced him to Bach; he introduced her to tea without milk.
3. Seamus Heaney (November 19, 1989)
‘Quartet No 13 in B Flat Major’ by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ulysses by James Joyce
Doc Marten boots
It’s never a chore to listen to recordings of Seamus Heaney, with his insight and the warmth in his voice. He chats about how his mother lived contentedly with the sister of Heaney’s father in their family home, his regard for the poetry of WB Yeats and Dante, and why he likes James Joyce’s Ulysses, “a documentary about… the vindictiveness of Dublin”.
4. Dervla Murphy (January 22 1993)
‘Triple Concerto in C Major’ by Ludwig van Beethoven
Diary by Samuel Pepys
A still (to distil berries, etc. into drink)
A riveting interview with the candid and singular Dervla Murphy. An only child, she nursed her invalided mother through her twenties in Waterford, sharing a room and spending years of sleepless nights to the point of breakdown until her mother passed away when she was 30, freeing Murphy to travel the world and write memorably about her adventures.
5. Neil Jordan (January 23, 2000)
‘Round Midnight’ by Thelonius Monk
À la Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust
Typewriter
Sue Lawley has a dreamy chat with Neil Jordan about his days growing up in “downbeat” middle-class Dublin, the highs and frustrations of film-making, and the remarkable fact he grew up in a house without a television. If he wanted to watch TV he had to go round to his neighbour’s and peer in their window, a scene that cropped up in his film version of The Butcher Boy.
6. Frank McCourt (June 17, 2001)
‘The Kyrie from St Cecilia Mass’ by Charles Gounod
Oxford Anthology of English Verse
Pair of binoculars
Frank McCourt was unrivalled as a raconteur. His conversation with Sue Lawley is a mix of humour, poignancy, and revelation. He talks about growing up in Limerick, the notorious absent, drunken father, his first failed marriage to a beautiful but pretentious Episcopalian American wife with an “apocalyptic” bosom, and belated arrival of literary stardom.
7. Edna O’Brien (January 14, 2007)
‘Foggy Dew’ by The Chieftains w/ Sinead O’Connor
Ulysses by James Joyce
Vault of a very good white wine
Edna O’Brien is one of a few guests to be invited back on the show. On her return, she talks about her doomed elopement with fellow writer Ernest Gébler, and growing up in east Clare where books were so scarce that the only fiction reading available was a copy of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which was passed around between Scariff and Tuamgraney page by page, and not consecutively.
8. Christy Moore (June 17, 2007)
‘Taímse Im’ Chodhladh’
Collection of Popular Songs of England & Scotland by Francis Child
A set of Uilleann pipes
Kirsty Young begins her interview with Christy Moore with a warning that “elements of this interview may offend or upset some listeners”. It makes for compelling listening as she gets the ballad singer to discuss growing up in Newbridge, Co Kildare, anger, alcoholism, and addiction, his brushes with republicanism, and the conversations he has with his dead parents.
9. Terry Wogan (January 1, 2012)
‘That’ll Do’ by Peter Gabriel
[media=youtube[https://youtu.be/QSlnGNanlhE[/media]
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
A full bar of alcohol
It wasn’t always easy being Famous Terry Wogan in 1960s Ireland. He could expect to be jeered at in public: “There’s Terry Wogan. Isn’t he very fat?” It did, however, prepare him for the fame game as a British broadcasting celebrity. He’s typically self-effacing in his second time appearing on the Desert Island, particularly about the infamous non-interview with Anne Bancroft on his 1980s TV chat show.
10. Mary Robinson (July 28, 2013)
‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’ by Edith Piaf
The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing
A combined solar cooker and fridge
Kirsty Young touches on key moments of Mary Robinson’s upbringing and career, and extracts some great anecdotes. These include a priceless story about a failed attempt by Taoiseach Charlie Haughey to get her to rein in her behaviour as president. She omits her campaign song from the 1990 presidential election (Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’) as one of her eight music choices.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
