Re: Barry Cowan.
I interviewed Barry Cowan in August 2002 in his home in Bangor for part of
my research into James Young. If anyone is interested, I will soon have this
transcribed or I can make a copy of it. He was physically very frail at that
point even, but his mind and memory were razor sharp. He was one of few
people I know to criticise Young's role in the Troubles viz. his comedy
work.
Lance Pettitt
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Anthony McNicholas [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 22 June 2004 10:23
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [BBC-HISTORY] Obituary for Northern Irish broadcaster Barry
> Cowan
>
> Obituary
>
> Barry Cowan
>
> Anne McHardy
> Tuesday June 22, 2004
> The Guardian
>
> Barry Cowan, who has died aged 56, after a long illness, was an incisive
> broadcaster, whose journalistic talents earned him respect across Northern
> Ireland's political divide, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, during
> some of the most bitter years of violence.
> He joined the BBC in Belfast in the early 1970s as a studio manager, but
> quickly moved into freelance reporting and presenting. In 1974, at the
> time of the first loyalist workers' strike, he became an anchorman on
> Scene Around Six, then one of BBC Northern Ireland's most prestigious
> current affairs programmes, chairing fierce debates between such
> heavyweights as the SDLP's Gerry Fitt and Ian Paisley, of the Democratic
> Unionist party.
> In the late 1970s, Cowan moved to Dublin as one of the founding presenters
> of RTE's television current affairs programme Today Tonight. In 1981, he
> returned to Belfast to found Talkback for BBC Radio Ulster, after which he
> worked on most of BBC Northern Ireland's news and television programmes,
> including Good Morning Ulster and Evening Extra.
> Cowan was born within the Protestant community in Coleraine, County
> Londonderry. He was educated at Ballymena Academy and graduated in physics
> from Queen's University, Belfast. He had been an enthusiastic student
> drama performer, and his first job was as an actor, at the Lyric Theatre,
> Belfast. His interests in the arts and leisure were reflected in the mid-
> 1980s, when he founded his own production company, Bridge, whose film
> topics ranged from golf to Northern Irish history.
> As a broadcaster, Cowan was always even-handed, and respected on all
> political sides. The controller of BBC Northern Ireland, Anna Carragher,
> said his sharp intellect, ready wit and ability to fly a programme by the
> seat of his pants made his programmes "an island of sanity". He left the
> BBC in March 2000 to freelance.
> He is survived by his wife Sue, and two children.
> * Barry Cowan, journalist, born February 1 1948; died June 16 2004
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