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Story Notes
This documentary from a John Quinn season is his poignant account of his five years as a border in the Patrician College, Ballyfin, Co. Laois in the 1950s.
Although written in the third person, Ballyfin - A Boarding School Memory is John Quinn's personal evocation of boarding school life - his daily routine, the loneliness, the friendships, the annual retreat, the films and the Gilbert and Sullivan productions.
To make the documentary, John Quinn revisited Ballyfin to record the authentic sounds of boarding school life, from class-room to Chapel, from refectory to playing fields. The documentary is also illustrated with the music and radio archives of the 1950s.
Ballyfin - A Boarding School Memory was first broadcast on November 1992.
It won a Jacobs award for best radio documentary in 1993.
An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries.