OLD KILFARBOY SOCIETY PRESENTS IAN LEE...."From the Radio Éireann seanchaí to the stand-up comic"

RTE bringing you the art of the seanchaí and the storyteller since 1926

The final lecture in this season's series presented by the Old Kilfarboy Society will take place on Tuesday, 12 March at 8pm in the Malbay, Miltown Malbay when Ian Lee of RTÉ will present an illustrated talk on how the traditional spoken arts were 

represented on RTÉ Radio since the station's beginnings in 1926.

"From the Radio Éireann seanchaí to the stand-up comic" – takes a look at how Radio Éireann developed the idea of the professional seanchaí, as entertainer, from Barney McCool of Coolaghy to Éamon Kelly and how these 'professional' seanchaithe compared to the more authentic ones, as recorded by Radio Éireann in the field, and were in effect the 

forerunners of what we call today 'stand-up comics'.

Ian Lee is a presenter/producer with RTÉ Radio 1 and Raidió na Gaeltachta. He has presented series such as Shamrock, Rose and Thistle and The Music of the People on Radio 1, which explored the traditional music and song of Ireland, England Scotland and areas of Irish, English and Scottish influence in North America. He has also presented a number of series on Raidió na Gaeltachta including, currently, Siúlach Scéalach, a series which looks at the earliest recordings of the Irish language and its dialects made by Radio Éireann all over Ireland. He has produced two CDs for RTÉ – Amhráin ar an Sean-Nós and The Donegal Fiddle. He regularly lectures on aspects of traditional music and the Irish language as represented in the RTÉ Sound Archive. He has a long association with Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, where he conducts a workshop, along with singer and broadcaster Brian Mullen, on the history of traditional singing in English and Irish.