Callanan, Richard, 1945-2015, former Jesuit novice
- IE ADMN/20/19
- Person
- 09 February 1945-13 May 2015
Born: 09 February 1945, Ballsbridge, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1962, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 13 May 2015, Royal Hospital, London, England (London)
Left Society of Jesus: 28 May 1964
Early education at Clongowes Wood College SJ
Co-founder of Focus Theatre who became TV producer in UK
Richard Callanan: February 9th, 1945 - May 13th, 2015
Richard Callanan, who has died aged 70, was a founder member, with others including Deirdre O'Connell, Tom Hickey, Sabina Higgins (née Coyne) and Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy, of Dublin's famous Focus Theatre, which flourished from 1963 to 2012.
He later made a successful career as a BBC television producer, winning two Bafta awards for children’s programmes in the 1990s.
He also made significant contributions to further education with the Open University (OU) and, after retirement, with the University of the Third Age (U3A).
Callanan had joined the BBC in 1969 to work with the newly established OU. One of his fellow trainee producers at the time was Nuala O’Faolain.
His interest in drama first surfaced at school, at Belvedere and Clongowes, and he was later an active member of Dramsoc at UCD, where he studied English and history from 1965 to 1968.
Among his roles was Antony, opposite Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy's Cleopatra and the title role in John Osborne's Luther.
He was part of the production team for the Focus Theatre's first show, Kelly's Eye by Henry Livings. It was at the Focus too that he began what was to become a lifelong friendship with the actor Sabina Coyne, now Sabina Higgins, wife of President Michael D Higgins.
At UCD, Callanan was also a leading member of the Literary and Historical Society, appearing in the first Irish televised student debate with Patrick Cosgrave, later an adviser to Margaret Thatcher, and John Cooke, who became a High Court judge.
Jesuit training
Callanan had spent two years, after leaving Clongowes, as a seminarian at the Jesuit novitiate at Emo House in Laois, a stage of his life that was terminated, according to his brother Fionnbar, “by mutual consent”.
An Open University colleague, Nick Levinson, remarked at Callanan’s funeral service that his old friend retained the ability to be self-critical, which he speculated might have been a hangover from his Jesuit training, which helped him to “see both sides, and face both ways” when pondering a course of action.
One of Callanan’s special gifts, Levinson said, was casting actors. Among those he recruited were Patrick Stewart, Leo McKern and Ben Kingsley, all of them at a relatively early stage of their careers.
Callanan eventually left the Open University to work for the BBC, especially in children’s television.
In retirement, Callanan returned to further education with the University of the Third Age, where, his colleague Patricia Isaacs said, “he led a group on modern literature, sharing his great love of Irish poets in particular with members”.
Richard Callanan was born in Dublin in 1945, the youngest of five children of Richard Callanan, one of the first recruits to the Army of the Free State, who rose to the rank of major-general, and Margaret McGuinness from Longford, both of whom had been active in the War of Independence, and later, in the Civil War on the pro-Treaty side.
He is survived by his widow, Sally Burr, by his children, Sam, Megan and Joe, his brother Fionnbar and his sister Mona. A sister, Eithne, and a brother, Niall, predeceased him.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/27/richard-callanan-obituary
My friend Richard Callanan, who has died aged 70 after a fall, made important contributions to two great educational endeavours: making TV programmes for the Open University and co-ordinating groups for the University of the Third Age (U3A).
He was a maker of arts programmes for the Open University between 1969 and 1979; and among those he recruited to appear in OU productions were Patrick Stewart and Ben Kingsley. Richard was largely responsible for the famous appearance of Max Wall as Vladimir opposite Leo McKern as Estragon in Waiting for Godot in 1977. He went on to become well known too as a producer and director of children’s programmes: in 1990 he won a Bafta as producer of the BBC series Maid Marian and Her Merry Men; and in 1993 a second for Archer’s Goon.
Richard was born in Dublin, the youngest of five children of Richard Callanan, an Irish army officer, and his wife, Margaret (nee McGuiness). He was educated at Jesuit schools and spent two years training to be a priest at Emo House, in County Laois, before the arrangement was terminated by mutual consent. From 1964 until 1967 he studied English and history at University College Dublin – during which time he became a founder member of the city’s Focus theatre – before moving to London to study for a diploma in modern social and cultural studies at Chelsea College.
Richard’s Jesuit education provoked some stark recollections of the pedagogic arts from him. It also, though, helped him to “see both sides and face both ways”. He never forgot the importance of drawing out his students and he was a supremely attentive listener. This attracted him to what the U3A, in north London, had to offer.
U3A’s guiding principle - “those who learn shall also teach and those who teach shall also learn” – was natural to him and his work on James Joyce, WB Yeats and Seamus Heaney was revelatory. He also taught a Shakespeare course to students in a residential home for the elderly, Mary Feilding Guild, who were not able to make even the shortest journey to reach normal classes. Prognostications of failure because of the age of the students were triumphantly repudiated.
He is survived by his wife, Sally, and his children, Sam, Meg and Joe.