Joe Flanagan, Farmer, Folklorist and Raconteur is the subject of Life-Style's second film programme.
Joe and his older brother Patrick live without electricity, running water or toilet facilities. The programme reflects and explores some of the current changes in our way of life. For Joe and Patrick, not much has changed as they hang on to their traditional way of life.
Title: |
Times Got Good - Joe Flanagan |
Clip Duration: |
00:04:41 |
Material Type: |
Video |
Clip Title: |
Farmer, Folklorist and Raconteur |
Series Title: |
Life Style |
Information: |
For a man treading hard on the heels of 70 he undoubtedly qualifies as one of the liveliest men you could ever wish to meet. Bright, witty and entertaining, gentle and sensitive, he is the sort of man Thomas Wolfe would have described as "full of the beating colour of life."
Cathal O'Shannon and I first met Joe through Dr. Bill Loughnane, the County Clare T.D. a number of years ago when the doctor was trying to arouse interest in the famous Biddy Early - a long dead lady whose psychic and healing powers are today legendary. Doctor Bill's efforts to restore Biddy Early's homestead in the wilds of Clare not far from Feakle turned out to be just the sort of material that was needed for Newsbeat. The doctor took us on a grand tour of his territory and we filmed some famous characters and recorded their stories of Biddy as they were handed down by their forebears. Joe Flanagan was one of those storytellers. He had a great many other, equally weird and astonishing tales stored away in his memory - and some of these we returned to record and broadcast on Newsbeat. But each time we returned our friendship with Joe deepended as we grew to know more about him and his way of life. He typified for us something that was traditionally Irish; a cultured, dignified man, living close to nature and living a rough sort of life by town standards but wily and sharp for all that. The country (if you bother to look) has still a number of Joe Flannagans to its credit but they are gradually disappearing, vanishing. The rapid strides we have made in the communication business is putting paid to all that. I'm sorry to say, Customs and ancient traditions are being flattened by what Marshal MacLuhan calls the massage of the media. Old attitudes, old ways of life, are disappearing and making way for the modern, more commercially geared approach to life. Times are changing. "Times", as Joe says in "Life-Style", "got good". But as I was saying, there are still a number of people like Joe about though there are few without overwhelming inhibitions. How often we have rolled the camera in front of "interesting people" - people with plenty to say, people with opinions and entertaining stories. And many's the time those same people have frozen up, tongue-tied. One day, with a bit of luck, someone, will invent a camera that doesn't look like a fearful one-eyed Frankenstein, a machine we will be able to turn on at random in order to capture situations that are more relaxed and therefore closer to reality and the truth. In Joe Flanagan we have the camera's ideal subject: a born performer, an entertainer and a country philospher all rolled into one - a man almost entirely without inhibition - and a modest man for all that. An RTÉ Guide Article from December 1971. |
Local Keywords: |
Life Style, Joe Flanagan, Patrick Flanagan, Farming, Farm, Agriculture, Rural |
Coverage: |
Ireland, Clare |
Topic: |
Work and Production |
Contributor(s): |
Cathal O'Shannon (Reporter), Peter Macniff (Producer/Director) |
Publisher: |
RTÉ |
First Broadcast Channel: |
RTÉ |
Broadcast Date: |
09/12/1971 |
Production Year: |
1971 |
Country of Production: |
Ireland |
Original Identifier: |
P541/00071 |
IPR Restrictions: |
Rights Reserved - Free Access |
Rights, Terms and Conditions: |
Copyright RTÉ. This material may not be replicated in any form or manner without the prior express permission of RTÉ. Any form of reproduction in print, television, video, multimedia, web site or other electronic media or any form of dissemination for commercial or non-commercial use must be licensed by the RTÉ Archives. If you wish to licence video or audio clips, still images or text, or would like further guidance please contact us. RTÉ Archives are committed to respecting the copyright of others and have attempted to source and credit the copyright owners of all material used here. RTÉ would like to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified here so that the necessary corrections can be made. If you feel your copyright has not been respected please contact us. |
Item Type: |
part/extract |
Colour: |
Black and White |
Sound: |
Mono |
Aspect Ratio: |
4:3 |
Language: |
English (eng) |
Original Language: |
English (eng) |
