My Quarantine story featured on Sunday Miscellany

I’m delighted to be featuring on the RTE Radio 1 Sunday Miscellany radio show again this week. It will be broadcast Sunday morning, 23rd February 2020 after the 9am news.

This is my second appearance on the show, and unlike my previous appearance with “Steamboat” which was live from the Theatre Royal, Waterford this is a pre-recorded studio broadcast which was taped in the RTE studio in Waterford during the week. 

My debut in a recording studio, photographed by my daughter Ellen

My topic is Quarantine, a topical piece in light of the continuing concern with the spread of Corona Virus.  I won’t need to link this as it is on almost every news programme and indeed was trending again on twitter yesterday after riots in Ukraine specifically over quarantine concerns, a prison outbreak in China and the first death reported in Italy amid a spike in reported infections.

The Italian connection fits nicely into my piece, as I do mention that the word Quarantine comes from the Italian, ‘quaranta- giorni’, meaning ‘forty days’ a reference to a 40-day isolation period for ships originating during the Black Death, which wiped out an estimated 30 per cent of Europe’s population in the 14th Century.  The phrase Giorni really caught me out in the broadcast, but the producer, Sarah Binchy managed to straighten me out.  In fact she showed patience throughout as she coached me in the art of transforming the written word into spoken presentation.

A quarantine guardship Rhin, protecting the harbour entrance at Sheerness. Source: National Maritime Museum of Greenwich, London

My piece, needless to say, also looks at the practices of Quarantine in a historical context and focuses on the provision of a hospital at Passage East when the normal means of transport was by ship. Air travel is a little more challenging to curtail.

The line up for the show includes

Too Fruity For Words, by Mary Dowey 

Try, Try Again, by Dónal Hayes;

The Waiting Room, by Mary O’Malley;

Quarantine, by Andrew Doherty;

and Waiting For Beckett, by Grace Neville

On a another note, RTE Nationwide will do a three night special on the Three Sister Rivers network this coming week. On RTE 1 Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7pm. Here’s a promo to whet the appetite

One Reply to “My Quarantine story featured on Sunday Miscellany”

  1. Andrew most interesting and information on quarantine and the almost forgotten isolation hospital at passage east my Father God be good to him always told us of it each time we had an occasion to pass bye it. I enjoy your pieces on Facebook very much and wish you well into the future

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