Episode 9: Fr. Dermod McCarthy

The Breifne Earley Show

This week's guest Fr. Dermod McCarthy has worn a number of different hats in his time including documentarian, kidnap negotiator, television producer, priest. He also happens to be my uncle. Once we get started with him reminding me that I haven't given him to opportunity to administer the sacrement of marriage upon me and some unsuspecting victim, we get talking about his long and illustrious career. A major player in the early days of television production in Ireland as part of the first independently produced television series for RTE, Radharc. Over 400 programmes were filmed across 75 countries and resulted in this week's guest experience a vast range of unique events including the first televised famine in Nigeria where the Biafran people were starving to death in the late 1960's, sleeping in JFK's childhood bed in Hyannis, Massachusetts, smuggling film out of Brazil and flying through anti aircraft fire over Africa. In scenes more associated with John McClane of Die Hard fame Fr. Dermod was personally invited to negotiate the release of supermarket magnate Ben Dunne when he was kidnapped in 1981. He tells about how some of his talented clergy friends pooled their resources to form the 'All Priest Show' performing across Ireland, England, Scotland, Australia and America including the famed Carnegie Hall in New York raising more than $4 million for charity.