Dan Joe Kelleher and the incredible TV station he set up in 1980s' Co Cork   

Ahead of his time when he broadcast footage of local characters and events, the North Cork farmer is in the process of committing his VHS tapes to the internet for an invaluable record of the era 

Dan Joe Kelleher in Carriganima, near Macroom, Co Cork, with some of his equipment and archive of 40 years of local tv recordings. Picture: Dan Linehan

A broadcasting service “of the people, by the people, for the people” has, to repurpose the words of Abraham Lincoln, been the life’s work of Dan Joe Kelleher, the farmer who founded his own television station.

Four decades of Dan Joe’s life have been dedicated to filming the cultural heritage of rural Cork, to recording its songs and stories, its spiritual and agricultural life, and sporting highs and lows.