As many of you will know, our friend and colleague, Mary Phelan, has died unexpectedly.
She was buried last Sunday in the presence of her daughter,
Fleachta and son, Dara, family and friends in a natural graveyard in Co. Wexford, Ireland.
Mary was a woman of many parts.
A devoted mother, a ferocious and dedicated social campaigner, an accomplished musician, a highly respected radio producer and, above all else, a great free spirit.
She was very good company, with a fabulous sense of humour and a sharp eye for what was going down around her.
She worked for many years as a features producer in RTÉ before parting company with us to live in the West of Ireland.
There, she built a fine reputation as an independent producer and continued to provide programmes across the RTÉ radio service and for independent radio stations.
Our deepest sympathy is with Fleachta and Dara who are contactable via fleachta@gmail.com.
They should be rightly proud of their mother and take comfort in the fact that she will be missed by many.
Mary was a wonderful friend of the IFC and the Prix Europa. She loved the international community and was a fearless contributor to discussions. Never afraid to disagree with a wave of opinion, Mary always brought terrific commonsense and insight to her observations and delivered them with a winning smile and fantastic good humour. On a personal note, when I retired from the BBC in December, Mary wrote the most touching, heartfelt and moving letter to me – it literally reduced me to uncontrollable sobbing, so kind and thoughtful was it. She sent me too an Irish tin whistle to give me music to accompany my new life. It was a typical gesture of huge and unheralded generosity of spirit. Our tears are now for Mary. One of our profession’s – our generation’s – really good guys. Thank you, and farewell Mary.
LikeLike