Author Paul Lynch opens up his record collection for the new RTE Gold series

Booker Prize-winning author of Prophet Song, internationally acclaimed novelist, and Inishowen man, Paul Lynch, is one of the guests in a new For The Record series by broadcaster Pat O’Mahony on RTE Gold.

For The Record is a Pat O’Mahony production for RTÉ Gold, funded by Coimisiún na Meán, and begins on Sunday, September 7th, at 6pm. 

In an era when physical records – mainly vinyl, but also CDs and even cassettes - are making an against-the-streaming-odds comeback worldwide, in the third series of For The Record, a unique format for RTÉ Gold, major music fan, radio and TV producer and presenter, Pat O’Mahony once again visits the homes of ten Irish celebrities, who, like him, have over the years amassed significant hard-copy record collections.

While rummaging through their variously sized shelves he hears the music from and the stories behind their treasured collections, from their first, favourite and most recent acquisitions, to any regrettable impulse buys or moving, stolen or loan losses over the years, all the while discussing the varying importance of music to them at different points in their lives and and why today they continue to buy and play records when nearly all music is only an online click away.

Episode 6 on October 12th features Paul Lynch, who was born in Limerick, but when he was nine months of age, his parents moved to Malin. His family later moved to Carndonagh. Most of his early music collection was purchased in Inishowen or sent to him by family members.

The former Carndonagh Community School student, now based in Dublin, is a teacher on the creative writing programme at Maynooth University. Paul happily describes his taste in music as a jazz-head, an audiophile, and a real collector of records. 

His love of jazz, particularly American from the mid-1950s to the mid-‘60s, started in his late teens and has led him on a quest to accumulate the very best records of the genre to be listened to on the best stereo equipment he can afford. 

Though lurking in his shelves is a small selection of heavy metal albums – not that surprising given he was in a metal band as a teenager and was a huge Iron Maiden fan as a child – and his collection also holds quite a few modern rock albums.

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Another guest on the series with Duonegal connections is singer Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, whose father is Aodh Ó Domhnaill from Ranafast. 

Other notable guests on the 10-part series include retired film producer David Puttnam, comedian Kevin McGahern, and it finishes on November 9th with the former Sunday Game presenter Michael Lyster.