Rick O'Shea

Rick O'Shea (born May 7 1973) is an Irish Radio Personality. He was born in Drimnagh, County Dublin and attended Drimnagh Castle CBS. He is a DJ on RTÉ 2fm.

Career

In 1991, the summer before he started at University College Dublin, Rick worked at St James' hospital radio station, which began his radio career. From there, he worked his way up to become program director of the student station UCD FM, as well as presenting on the station at Ballyfermot College of Further Education.

From university, he moved to East Coast Radio in Wicklow, South East Radio in Wexford and then to longwave radio Atlantic 252 based in Trim, County Meath where he hosted the lunchtime show at age 20. In 1995, he was hired by Dublin's FM104 and worked there for 6 years.

He began working for RTÉ 2fm in 2001, doing a weeknight night-time slot, as well as hosting duties that included O2 In The Park each summer. Beginning in March 2005, he teamed with Ruth Scott to do the breakfast show on 2fm, and in September 2005 moved to the 10pm-midnight slot.

Another reshuffle of 2fm in September 2006 had him replacing Dave Fanning on the 6pm-9pm show, playing new music, interviewing bands and movie stars, as well as taking calls from listeners on random topics.

He moved as part of the new RTÉ 2fm reshuffle to a new high profile 2-5pm weekday show on March 5 2007.

Brainwave

Rick was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 16 and has blogged about one of his seizures [1]. In March 2006, Rick became a patron of Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Association. A charity single, Tinsel and Marzipan, sung by Pugwash and Friends (including Mundy and Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon) was released in Ireland in December 2006 to benefit Brainwave.

Personal life

Rick is known as a popular blogger in Ireland, having a MySpace page and a Bebo page as well as a personal blog and a contributing blogger on The Dublin Community Blog. In April 2006, he was the host of the inaugural Irish Blog Awards, as well as a nominee. He has been nominated for 2 PPI National Radio Awards and is also twice nominated for Best Irish DJ at the Meteor Music Awards.

He is married with three children and lives in County Dublin.

Trivia

• On Monday May 28 2007, while interviewing actor and singer Jason Donovan on his radio show, he mentioned Jason's previous role as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Rick then spoke of his part as narrator in the play as a 16 year-old where he stood at the side of the stage wearing a stick-on beard.

External links

File:RickOSheameteordjnom.jpg

Rick O'Shea is delighted with his Meteor nomination in 2007.

• Rick's blog
• Rick's My Space page

• Rick O'Shea page at RTÉ
• Brainwave--The Irish Epilepsy Association
• Rick and Ruth's Breakfast Show archive
• Interview with United Irelander blog