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A THREE-PART radio play from one of Ireland’s smallest local radio stations made off with a major award last night.
Ocean FM won the Prix Europa for Radio Drama in Berlin for its three-parter, Francisco, beating off competition from major European broadcasters including BBC radio.
A delighted Tim Collins, CEO of Ocean FM – which serves Sligo, south Donegal and north Leitrim – said that telling the story of Captain Don Francisco De Cuellar had been “an obsession” of the radio team for the past few years.
The play was written and directed by Donal O’Kelly, recorded at the Glens Centre in Co Leitrim, sound produced by Ray Duffy and scored and performed by Kila. It was produced by Aisling Heraughty (with assistant producer Peter Collins), and supported by the BAI’s Sound and Vision Fund.
It is based on the writings of the aforementioned ship’s captain who was shipwrecked off the northwest coast of Ireland from an armada sent by King Phillip II of Spain to invade England in 1588. Following the shipwreck, De Cuellar trekked across the northwest of the country in a bid to secure a way back to Spain. His journals record observations of life in Ireland of the 16th century.
The route De Cuellar took through Ireland is mapped on a special site set up in conjunction with the production of Francisco. The site also carries transcripts of his original letters and lots of fascinating context on his story, so it’s worth a look.
Ocean FM has been proving itself a bit of a David among Goliaths in the radio drama world recently. They also took the Gold Award for Drama at the PPI awards in Kilkenny in the past month.
“We have had an extraordinary run of success in the past 18 months having won the IMRO Award for Commitment to Irish music two years in a row, seven PPI Awards including five Golds and now another first for Francisco in Europe’s most sought after radio and television awards, The Prix Europa,” said Tim Collins.
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Anything that will relieve queues inf doctors’ surgeries and take pressure off the hospitals should be welcomed with open arms.
Why are the government dragging their heels on this. Is there an ulterior motive?
kaaaaaaaaching..!!!!!.
@Aidan Mcguire: MMR is free to the public.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: So pharmacies do not charge the public funded Health Service…..Right?
@Phil O’ Meara: No. Wrong. But I would expect them to be paid for their time, training, investment, etc.
@Phil O’ Meara: It cost the public funded health service to do the vaccinations anyway, so subcontracting should not be a problem once they are not gouged by the pharmacists which I doubt. As they already have the other vaccinations contract.
The unnecessary covid vaccine did untold damage to people’s confidence in the system. Didn’t get that vaccine for the reason that I was never going to get any serious symptoms.
I am, however, vehemently in favour of vaccinations against serious illnesses like measles, meningitis etc and encourage all my family and friends to get them. I think an admittance on the behalf of governments that they got the covid one wrong would go a long way to restoring confidence in the really essential and tested vaccines.
@James Groden: yawn
@James Groden: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, So you do not believe in covid, can I introduce you to people that got it and flew throught it. Others that were extremly ill and are suffering Long covid or people who lost family to it.
Your choice, there are thousands of people who can tell you THE TRUTH.
@James Groden:
Dopes like you had blood on your hands after Covid. That vaccine saved 1,000s of lives.
Another bonanza for the pharmacists.They made a fortune from the covid vaccines.
@Willie Marty: They got paid for doing a job and fulfilling a contract.
@Gary Kearney: Ah! Do I hear a pharmacist coming out of the woodwork.Ye got paid to do a job all right at £40 to £60 a jab.
The Spanish flu infected an estimated 500 million and killed an estimated 20 to 50 million “twenty times the population of our island so vaccination has at best held pandemics of devistation at bay for almost 70years from a virus that is particularly evil around children and the elderly.. taking vaccinations are a choice. viruses are indiscriminate.
here are some horrible illnesses almost totally eradicated from the western world by vaccines,
Smallpox.
Rinderpest.
Poliomyelitis (polio)
Dracunculiasis.
Yaws.
Malaria.
Hookworm.
Lymphatic filariasi
leprosy
mumps,measles,rubella.
never heard of them ?
“look them up and you would swallow your vaccines needle and all”..and for those who choose to turn a blind eye let’s hope measels spares the other eye ..
@Liam Meade: Crazy part is people think those viruses are gone. They are not. They are there and if you are not inoculated, then you can catch them. The results have nit changed over the years. They still are deadly.
@Gary Kearney: You’re right. Part of every city’s disaster planning is factoring in the sheer amount of unhoused people who will be exposed to disease from filthy floodwaters and no sanitation. People in America still catch bubonic plague on hikes in vast national parks. Leprosy, rabies, TB; they’re all still out there, preying on anyone who has no resources to fight them off. Modern countries should be ensuring they don’t spread. No one should be that run down in modern Ireland.
@F Fitzgerald:
When you take in people from God knows where with no documentation or passports this is what you get.
I saw it coming before they saw it coming
The Magical Mystery Vaccine is hoping to take you away
Hoping to take you away.
@Ray Dunne: Yeah, I can never get rid of my bag of vaccines at parties.
@Jimmy Wallace: Roll up,
That’s an invitation.
@Ray Dunne: So I spend all day Sundays doing the lot myself. Then I do be in bits come the Monday and I’m deep in the hole to the corparations. A vicious circle.
@Pól Pot: What are you on and can you share it.
@Gary Kearney: Wouldn’t have a clue, but yeah, come meet in my hospice. I’ll dose you up good. Ye better have money on ye as Merck, GSK and Sanofi don’t mess about.
@Jimmy Wallace: that’s the best way to be in this crazy Country of ours,any of us with common sense,can see there’s something not adding up here,I do not believe any migrants and I’m including Ukraine in that,have ever been vaccinated,they are not part of the EU,Ukraine, African Countries,it’s about their personal wealth in power,its time the EU Countries to stop giving billions every year too these 3rd world Countries,even the Covid enquiry the government aren’t talking about it,coz so much fraud went on,they want the Election over 1st,it’s no wonder the normal people here in Ireland,are either drinking too much,smoking weed,doing hard drugs,or getting prescription from the Drs to keep us doped up.i hope u had a great session,and God Bless u,may u have many more…
Why not do it in schools like they done when i was young
@Fran Mooney: I would say because the MMR was/is normally given to children at one year old with a booster at four years at times matched to the child’s birth date so mass vaccination in schools wouldn’t be necessary.
This campaign however is in response to the recent cases that have been reported. It was practically eradicated here but there are adults here who would not be vaccinated for one reason or another or have immunity if they’ve had measles as a child.
@Fran Mooney: Sure the schools already double as polling stations – and chemists have online appointments and adult sized chairs for us!
Vote no
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