June 28th - Pat O'Mahony (BA in Communications, 1986)

What are your recollections of campus life when you were a student? 

"My NIHE (as it was then) stint was actually my second third-level attempt – a previous spell five years previously doing PE in Limerick was prematurely terminated by injury – so I remember arriving scared out of my wits that I might have forgotten how to study. Luckily I hadn’t so it didn’t take long to get stuck into student life again and even though the campus was tiny in comparison to today with a fraction of the facilities, I mostly had a blast with a great mix of people and doing a course I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would."

What’s your favourite memory of your time as a DCU student?

"My undoubted highlight was doing the Entertainments Officer stint, not once but twice, first as a 2^nd Year student and then second time round, also as Publications Manager, after graduating when I was the first person to take on the role full time. It wasn’t just fun, running gigs and discos on and off campus, and later putting the SU Handbook and Newsletters together, but as it turned out it also opened the door for me to a career in the media, so hey, not a bad day’s work."

What is your current role? 

Position: Television and radio producer, director and presenter

Organisation: Freelance

My current role…

"…varies at lot, depending on the gig. Sometimes radio or TV ideas I pitch get commissioned so my job then will be to get them to air, on time, on spec and on budget. On other occasions, the phone will ring and it might be a broadcaster or production company who need a specific job done on a new or already existing programme or production; if I’m free and we can agree a fee I’ll join them for anything from a few days to maybe a year. I also run my own media-curious Off Message blog and podcast on my website."

Provide a brief summary of your career since graduating? 

"When I left in 1987 after a year as SU Ents &Publications Manager I put a couple of publications together for Hot Press and the National Youth Council of Ireland and from there fell into journalism, which I was doing when I got my big break into TV in 1989 with the Head 2 Toe gig. I spent the next nine years in and out of RTÉ, presenting a mix of radio and television shows. In 1998 I moved to London to see how I’d get on there and during my 11 years there directed my first TV documentary. I moved back to Dublin in 2009, a combination of work drying up in the UK and RTÉ commissioning a TV idea of mine here. Since returning I’ve made a bunch of radio documentaries for RTÉ, hosted and co-produced two series of a comedy news panel show for Newstalk, directed some corporate and broadcast TV bits and bobs, produced on a wide range of live radio shows across RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm, and most recently, presented on RTÉ Gold and Radio 1’s Late Date."

Career highlights or achievements you would like to share?  

"While I loved my time filling in for Dave Fanning on 2fm during the 1990s, originating and then producing Reporters At War, a three-part documentary series on the history of modern war journalism for Discovery throughout 2003 was without the doubt the best gig I ever worked on. I was usually the first into the office in the morning and last to leave in the evening. That it won an Emmy in NYC in 2005 was just the icing on the cake."

What are the key skills you learned at DCU that have influenced your career? 

"Looking back on it, I guess not being afraid to take on something new has proven most useful over the last 30-odd years. Sure, much of the stuff I studied influenced the form and content of what I worked on, but it was facing the fear which was a huge part of the Ents Officer job that I think was most important. I had no intention of running for the position but was talked into it and then only won by a measly 27 votes, at which stage I wondered what I’d let myself in for. And I still remember that sick-to-the-pit-of-my-stomach feeling as my first Freshers Week approached and I realised I may have bitten off more than I could chew, but I ploughed on regardless. It’s a feeling I still get regularly."

What advice would you give to current DCU students? 

"Get lucky. Everyone’ll tell you if you work hard and stick with what you’re doing you’ll eventually succeed. Yeah, if only. Don’t believe the hype. The truth is too many people do that and don’t get ahead, despite what they’ll tell you. And the flip is equally true. The most important thing actually is just to get lucky. Be born to the right socio-economic class, go to the right school, meet the right people, be in the right place at the right time…like I said, get lucky."