The death has occurred, in Cyprus, of the former Arts and Media Correspondent for RTÉ News, Colm Connolly.
Mr Connolly, who was in his early 80s, began his working life as a guitarist in The Paramount Showband based in Tuam, Co Galway in the 1960s.
Switching to broadcasting, he began working as a freelance journalist with the BBC in their Bristol studios for a time, before being offered a regular current affairs programme which he presented for five years. He returned to Ireland in the mid 1970s to work with RTÉ News as a reporter and newscaster.
Colm Connolly was the principal RTÉ reporter on the kidnapping of Dutch industrialist Tiede Herrema in October and November 1975 and the subsequent siege at Monasterevin after which Herrema was released. In 1977 his book about the kidnapping ‘Herrema: Siege at Monasterevin’ was published.
During the 1980s and 1990s he was the RTÉ News Arts & Media correspondent and during this time also authored two novels.
In 1987 three documentaries written and produced by Colm Connolly were broadcast on RTÉ Television.
The poet Francis Ledwidge was the subject of ‘To One Dead’. ‘The Bravest Man: Myles Keogh & Little Big Horn’ told the story of an Irishman who fought With General Custer at the battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. ‘Titanic Confession’ looked at evidence ignored by the official enquiries into the Belfast-built liner’s sinking.
Perhaps his best known documentary is ‘The Shadow of Bealnablath’ broadcast on RTÉ Television in 1989 which he researched, wrote, directed and produced. It examined the life of revolutionary and politician Michael Collins and investigated the circumstances surrounding his death in August 1922.
