John Scally chats to Aedín Gormley about 25 years of Lyric FM

 

On the first of May Lyric FM celebrated its 25th anniversary. In 1999, the station broke new ground as the only dedicated classical and arts music radio station in the country.
Hollywood royalty Sarah Jessica Parker who owns a holiday home in Donegal, revealed she is one of their many fans. She wished the station a happy birthday including “all the great hosts at Lyric, we are very fortunate to have you filling our days with beautiful music”.

Presenters from some of Lyrics’s best-loved shows marked the birthday at an RTE Concert Orchestra’s performance, including Aedín Gormley.
Aedín grew up in Rathmines. In 1995, she began presenting the evening drivetime show on Raidió na Gaeltachta and working as a continuity announcer on RTÉ radio.
She has been presenting on RTÉ Lyric FM since the very beginning in 1999. Movies and Musicals with Aedín Gormley is on RTÉ Lyric FM Saturday afternoons; she also presents Aedín in the Afternoon on Fridays.
Music and the stage are part of her DNA.

“My mother, Ursula, was a classical violinist and played with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, as well as with her own quartet. My parents met through the Rathmines and Rathgar musical society. My Dad was a tailor by day and for a good deal of the year would head out at night to direct shows for a number of musical societies. He was an excellent director and worked on many memorable shows, including an award-winning production of Guys and Dolls. I am the youngest of five and we all played musical instruments. I studied piano and theory at the College of Music and was also lucky to have a very good music teacher in school (Coláiste Iosagáin).
I was in the school choir and later in College choirs … an alto!’

Aedín acquired her love of the arts at a young age. “My love of film is down to my dad who was a major film buff. We were one of the first families to get a video recorder and I have lovely memories of snuggling up on the couch watching favourites like Rebecca, The 39 Steps, King’s Row and Jane Eyre.

“As a family, we watched these films multiple times and were able to quote dialogue freely to each other and indeed hum the tunes. I was aware of how music affected the film I watched from a very young age. Sadly, my dad died when I was 17, but he gave me so much.”

Aedín’s broadcasting career was not the result of a great master plan.

“I was one of those people who never knew what I wanted to do. So I left school and did an Arts Degree in University College Dublin. Initially, I had my sights set on Psychology but after a year I decided to continue on with a degree in Irish and Archaeology. This was a time when TG4 had launched, and the Irish language was in a pretty good place. What do you do with a degree in Irish and Archaeology though?

“Well, Irish gave me an opening into radio. I began broadcasting when I left college on Raidío na Life on both news programmes and music programmes. I still remember the red light going on and that huge rush of adrenaline. I was a little scared, but wanted to do it over and over again!

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