Liam Ó Murchú (10 February 1929 – 28 June 2015) was an Irish television broadcaster, who worked with the national station

Radio Telefís Éireann Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

(RTÉ). Liam Ó Murchú was born in Blarney Street,

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

in 1929. He was educated in the nearby Christian Brothers school and won a scholarship to secondary school in the North Mon. He subsequently attended

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of ...

where he studied literature. Ó Murchú left UCC after a year to become a clerical officer. He later turned to writing, and his works were published in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, Britain and at home. Ó Murchú was later appointed law adviser to the Minister for Health, Seán MacEntee and later Charles Haughey. At the February 1982 general election he stood for election to

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland read ...

as a

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christian- ...

candidate in the Cork North-Central constituency, but polled considerably less than expected with about 4.5% of the vote. He joined

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

in 1964 in the role of Editor of

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

programmes and later went on to become Assistant Controller of Programmes and Assistant to the Director General. He also turned his hand to broadcasting, presenting such shows as ''

Trom agus Éadrom Trom agus Éadrom (; meaning "Heavy and Light") was an Irish television variety show which was broadcast bilingually in Irish and English by Raidió Teilifís Éireann between 1975 and 1985. The show was presented by Liam Ó Murchú and was one ...

'', for which he won a

Jacob's Award The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients ...

in 1976, and ''Up for the Final''. He was renowned for using the Irish language phrase "Bualadh Bos" on this show when asking the audience to clap. He also worked in conjunction with the School of Celtic Studies at Dublin Institute for Advanced studies from 1975 to 1978. Ó Murchú left RTÉ in 1988 to set up his own production company, however, he returned to the small screen on a number of occasions presenting such programmes as '' Lifelines''. In 2002 he received an honorary degree from

. He wrote an article every month for the weekly

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

'' Ireland's Own''. He died on 28 June 2015 at the age of 86.

References

1929 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Irish people 21st-century Irish people Jacob's Award winners People from Cork (city) RTÉ television presenters Irish broadcasters Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies {{Ireland-tv-bio-stub