Dr. Dick Shanahan (b. 1926)

Dr Dick Shanahan practised as a general practitioner in Farranfore for many years and has now retired. His great passion in life is composition and the teaching of music. He studied medicine at UCC in the years between 1943 – 1949, where he would attend the public lectures given by Prof. Fleischmann. These lectures awakened his intense love of music. He recalls the performances at the old Cork Opera House, the orchestra, the corps de ballet, the general ambience of these occasions. He discusses at length the voice as an instrument and in earlier days he was choirmaster at Firies in County Kerry. He talks about the influence of people such as John B. Keane and James N. Healy in the dramatics arena, and he recalls the success and eventual failure of the Bach Festival in Killarney in the 1970s. Dick’s daughter Veronica also recalls her studentship under Prof. Fleischmann at UCC, and the rumours which circulated about the spirits of the great composers which would visit the home of Prof. Fleischmann.