The broadcaster and programme maker John Quinn has died. He was 84.
Born in Co Meath, he trained as a teacher before embarking on a career in radio in the mid-1970s.
After joining RTÉ to work on a school outreach project in 1975, he went on to become a radio producer, working on programmes such as Education Forum and, subsequently, The Open Mind.
He presented and produced a number of radio documentaries, and after retiring in 2002, was still a regular contributor to programmes such as Sunday Miscellany.
Mr Quinn's work was widely acclaimed, and he won several national and international broadcasting awards during his lengthy career.
The series producer of RTÉ Documentary on One, Liam O'Brien, said Mr Quinn was a pioneer who always thought outside the box when it came to selecting and telling people's stories.
He described him as a "trailblazer" who had redefined the possibilities of radio programmes and the way in which they connected with audiences.
Mr Quinn was also a distinguished author, writing a number of books for both children and adults over several decades. A number of his works related to topics he had covered over the course of his radio career, with his 2008 memoir 'Goodnight Ballivor, I’ll Sleep in Trim’ originating from a documentary of the same name, which aired in the late 1990s.
He was honoured by the University of Limerick in 2003, when he was conferred with a Doctorate of Letters. At the time, he spoke of how his work had been inspired by the "wonderful extraordinary ordinariness of people…. who we are, the way we are (and) the way we use language".
Mr Quinn was predeceased by his wife Olive, and is survived by two daughters, a son and several grandchildren.
He will be buried in Dublin on Tuesday, following a funeral mass in Clarinbridge, Co Galway, on Monday.
