Series such as Books and Company, Off The Shelf and Dialogue provided a regular forum for the discussion of ideas in economics, politics and culture.
This collection of over 7000 volumes reflects the donor's various interests, ranging from philosophy, religion and literature to economics, politics and the history of ideas.
His secondary education continued at Mount St. Alphonsus in Limerick, a Redemptorist boarding school where he studied Latin and Greek (1947–51).
[15][16] His many radio series included Focus, Music and Musicians, Opera and the Singer (1968–1972), Involvement (1972–1973), Lookaround (1972–1978), Beckett at 70 (1976), Inside Europe (1978–1979), Bookweek (1980–1982), Introspect (1982) Books and Company (1985–1988), The Sunday Show, (1988–2000)[17] Na Taoisigh (2001), 30 Years in the European Union (2002), Off The Shelf [18] and Dialogue[19] (1978–2013).
One-on-one Dialogue guests over a 25-year period included : Eric Hobsbawm, Denis Donoghue, Richard Hoggart, Gerald Barry, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Nuala O'Faolain, Terry Eagleton, Roger Scruton, Hans Kung, John O'Meara, Michael Dummett, Anthony Kenny, John Gray, Shirley Williams, Garry Hynes, Simon Callow, Fiona Shaw, John Moriarty, Chris Patten, James Lovelock, Margaret Drabble, Richard Kearney, Mary Midgley, Roy Foster and Richard Sennett.
For BBC Two, documentary profiles of the playwright, Seán O'Casey (1980),[26] the tenor, John McCormack (1984), and the inventor, Harry Ferguson (1984).