Radio star Hector celebrates Tuam roots

BY FIONA McGarry JUST TWO working days before he takes over RTE 2FM's breakfast show and Hector Ó h'Eochagáin is a ball of nervous energy. With rehearsals in their final, frantic stages, and the studios buzzing in anticipation of a full day of 2FM programming live from Galway, the Navan man has taken time out to give The Tuam Herald a sneak preview of Breakfast with Hector. There's the opening song still to be chosen, sound effects â€â€ including a â€Ëœrandom Angelus' â€â€ to be loaded, and all kinds of technical issues to be pinned down before Monday. And there's not a hint of stress in the air, despite the pressure of manning one of Ireland's most important radio slots. 'This is a big show,' Hector admits. 'It's serious. I have to introduce the news and AA Roadwatch and everything. It's primetime. But, I've never not faced a challenge, and I love hearing from the listeners â€â€ whether you're a Sky dish satellite man, or a lorry driver, or a nun, or a teacher, or a woman from Longford living in Belfast. I just want to get people enjoying the morning because there's too much bad news about politics and banks at the moment.' He also acknowledges that making a whole new kind of high-energy radio morning in, morning out, is going to take stamina. 'We're buying an espresso machine today,' he tells me, anticipating the 5 o'clock starts that will be needed to get the breakfast show on air, live from Galway, every weekday from 7 am. You get the impression, however, that it won't be caffeine, but a love of the craic and a solid work ethic that will have Hector up every day before dawn. Fortunately, the RTE studio is just a short trip from his Claregalway home. 'We're in Ruanmore for the last five years. My mother is delighted. She said it was the stone walls of Galway that called me back there.' Originally from Corraghan, outside Tuam, Hector's mother Trina h'Eochagáin (nee Larkin) made sure the family kept in touch with their North Galway roots. 'Summer, Easter, Christmas, it was Corraghan for every holiday and we loved it. We'd hop into the Ford Granada or the Fiat Mirafiori. I remember the journey well. Crossing the River Suck in Ballinasloe was the major thing. When we'd get as far as Mountbellew, we'd stop for a break and go down the bog road and carve our names on a tree there. 'My auntie was Marita O'Grady from the Galway Road. She married my uncle Junior Larkin, a really good rugby player for Tuam. When we'd come down from Navan, Auntie Marita would spoil us with cones and chocolate. For a treat she'd take us in to the Galway Shopping Centre, and we thought that was the greatest thing since sliced bread. 'My father would go to Duddy's in Kilbannon, or into Tuam to the Thatch Bar or Junie Loftus's. We used to play pool down the back of The Thatch, that was a big thing. Dad would be in there with the uncles. We'd have a red lemonade and a packet of crisps. 'We'd also go to the Wimpy or Cafolla's. I remember going to the Imperial and the Tuam Stars dinner dances. The holidays were great.' Family visits to Tuam also sparked Hector's ambition to pursue a career in television. 'When we'd used go out the Ballygaddy Road, my mother would always say: â€ËœSee that big house in there, that's Jim Fahy's from RTE.' We were just fascinated with the glamour of it all. From that time on I always strove to work in telly.' Now a colleague of Jim's at the Galway studios, Hector is still in awe of the Western Editor. 'Jim has served this area so well and should get the freedom of the city. He's a legend in Irish broadcasting. He's stood in front of the cameras in fields, in floods, at murder scenes, in bogs, outside chippers, in marts, in banks â€â€ in every situation you could possibly have in Ireland.' Hector's own television career, now spanning 14 years, has taken him to far-flung destinations from South America to the Yukon Valley, and everywhere in between. And while it might appear as if he leads a charmed life, Hector is not taking anything for granted. 'People might think that if you get a job in telly, it's loads of money and a make-up artists all the way. I was on the dole again six weeks after my first job in telly. I get a real reality check every day coming in the door to RTE and passing the dole queue outside. 'In television, it's luck and you have to work hard at it. You could be on the telly one time only and then, that's it. I think it depends on the luck of the show. With Only Fools Buy Horses, Hanging with Hector and Chasing the Lions, I was lucky that they really did well. 'TG4 is always really important to me, because that's the station where I got my break and I'm still working with them, they're a great bunch. The new series is Hector i gCeanada. We went 6,000 miles from Halifax, Nova Scotia to the border with Alaska. Amazing stuff. That's on air in November. 'I'm also doing the first-ever GAA quiz show. That's on Sunday nights at the moment, and it's called Ceist GAA. It's going down very well and I've a really busy autumn.' While he admits there is 'no master plan', Hector's wife Dympna has been a constant inspiration in his career to-date. 'Dympna's from Clare and she and all of her side of the family are in the Kilfenora Ceili Band. I met her in 1989 at a ceili in Donegal and she's my missus now. 'In the early â€Ëœ90s I went to Spain with Dympna for what I thought would be around three weeks. I stayed there for five years. Little did I know she'd become a college lecturer in Spanish and that I'd be fluent myself eventually. Dympna has perfect Spanish, I have street Spanish. It was great when I was doing Amu Amigos in South America for TG4. The kids, Riain and Shane, speak a little bit too and they're well into the Irish as well. 'Dympna is a great supporter. She was there when I got my first job in telly in 1996. We were in a little flat in Middle Street in Galway, and we jumped around the kitchen celebrating. Dympna was the first person I spoke to about this job.' When new 2FM boss John McMahon made the offer, Tommy Tiernan was the next person that Hector turned to for advice. The comedian gave his former co-presenter and one-time class-mate his full support. 'Tommy said: â€ËœTake this, man, and go for it'. He was delighted. We're on the road all the time in this business. The Tommy and Hector Show was fantastic, but we were both away a lot and we knew we just couldn't keep it going. 'I've been travelling for ten or 12 years and this is the first time I've been offered something in the town I'm living in. It's a dream come true. There's not many people who live and work in the same town, and love their work â€â€ especially in this current climate.' Listing Dave Fanning, Ryan Tubridy and the late Gerry Ryan â€â€ once a regular companion at the Cheltenham Festival â€â€ among his broadcasting heroes, Hector is ready to create his own unique brand of radio. 'I'm not going to shock the nation exactly, but I do want to get them back into having the craic on the radio in the morning. I want to give people in the car in the morning, when they're dropping their kids off or going to work, or whatever, a bit of an injection of craic and great music â€â€ something to get them going. 'We have a team of six including Alan Swan the producer, who has come over from i102-104, and Roslyn Martyn, from Dunmore, who is the Saw Doctors' biggest fan, and Amy who's all the way from Rathkeale in Limerick. 'The lads who've worked here for years are great, Tom, Cyril and Doyler. They've worked with everyone from Van Morrison to U2.' Even with all of the intensive pre-show rehearsals, Hector admits that Breakfast with Hector will contain a certain element of 'making it up as we go along'. 'You can't plan things too tightly, there has to be spontaneity in the mix. 'There's a real feeling of something new kicking off. I think people are going to get fresh new radio and good chat. 'There's going to be a lot to talk that's not connected to banks or politics or any of that stuff. There's nothing like seeing somebody laughing in the car on their way into work. That's what we'll be trying to do. If we can give people one memorable moment in the morning, hopefully that'll help get them through the day.' Breakfast with Hector kicked off last Monday on 2FM, and comes live every morning from 7 am to 9 am, from RTE's Galway studios.