Michael Viney
{{Short description|British-born Irish journalist and nature writer (1933–2023)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2023}}
{{infobox writer
|name = Michael Viney
|honorific_suffix = MRIA
|birth_date = {{birth date|1933|2|6|df=yes}}
|birth_place = Brighton, England
|death_date = {{death date and age|2023|5|30|1933|2|6|df=yes}}
|occupation = {{hlist|Writer|broadcaster|artist}}
|subjects = Nature
|spouse = {{marriage|Ethna McManus|1965}}
|children = 1
}}
Michael Viney MRIA (6 February 1933 – 30 May 2023) was a British-born Irish artist, author, broadcaster and journalist. Best known for his writings on nature, he contributed to The Irish Times from 1962.
Early life and beginning of career
Michael Viney was born in Brighton, England on 6 February 1933, to parents who operated a cafe.{{cite news|url = https://www.irishtimes.com/obituaries/2023/05/30/michael-viney-obituary-a-life-of-self-sufficiency-and-curiosity-in-irelands-wild-west/|title = Michael Viney obituary: A life of self-sufficiency and curiosity in Ireland's wild west|newspaper = The Irish Times|last = Boland|first = Rosita|date = 30 May 2023|accessdate = 30 May 2023|url-access = limited}} Although interested in art as a career, he began work with the Brighton and Hove Herald at the age of 16, before stints at the Evening Argus, The Star, and Today. In 1962, he took a career break and moved to Tully Cross in Connemara, and eventually decided to stay in Ireland, performing freelance assignments for The Irish Times, later becoming a staff journalist.
Career
=The Irish Times and RTÉ=
In the 1960s Viney wrote for The Irish Times about social issues such as the fate of people in institutional care.{{cite web | first=Brendan | last=Kelly | url=https://www.imt.ie/features-opinion/walking-through-the-past-in-todays-sligo-04-10-2010/ | title=Walking through the past in today's Sligo | work=Irish Medical Times | date=4 October 2010 | accessdate=27 November 2021 }} His articles were later incorporated into the Ryan Report on institutional abuse of children in Ireland.{{Cite news |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0710/1224274391998.html |title=If I had stayed working in Dublin I'd probably be dead by now |last=Boland |first=Rosita |date=10 July 2010 |newspaper=The Irish Times |access-date=15 July 2017}}
Viney began working at RTÉ Television as a presenter in programmes aimed at social and consumer affairs and with items on household and family matters. He took training there as a TV director and became a production editor in 1976.
=Move to Mayo=
Viney left Dublin in 1977 with his wife, Ethna, and daughter for a simpler life in County Mayo, at their holiday home on one acre at Thallabawn, Murrisk, near the coast south of Louisburgh.
=Nature writing=
Viney published "Another Life", a weekly column in The Irish Times, from 1977.{{Cite web |url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-24666020.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203181134/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-24666020.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 February 2018 |title=First words from the west; In his first Another Life column published in 1977, Michael Viney tells of adjusting to country life" |date=15 February 2003 |access-date=16 July 2017| via =HighBeam Research}} Over the years the focus of the column shifted from sustainability to natural history. His last column was published in February 2023.
Personal life
Viney married Ethna McManus in 1965, and they had a daughter. He was an atheist.
Recognition
In 1966, Viney won a Jacob's Award for his RTÉ Television documentary, Too Many Children.The Irish Times, "Television awards presented", 8 December 1966
Viney was a member of Aosdána, Ireland's academy or affiliation of distinguished creative artists.[http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Literature/Viney.aspx Aosdana website] He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in May 2017.{{Cite news |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/michael-viney-elected-to-the-royal-irish-academy-1.3098104 |title=Michael Viney elected to the Royal Irish Academy |last=O'Sullivan |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=May 2017}}
Bibliography
Viney's books include:
- Ireland: A Smithsonian Natural History. 2003Paul Clements,[http://www.fortnight.org/clements421.html "Our precious stake in a fragile world"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100825101214/http://www.fortnight.org/clements421.html |date=25 August 2010 }}, Fortnight magazine, January 2004
- Ireland's Ocean (co-written with Ethna Viney)
- 'A Year's Turning' 1996, The Blackstaff Press' 3 Galway Park, Dundonald, Belfast BT16 OAN.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Viney, Michael}}
Category:20th-century Irish journalists
Category:21st-century Irish journalists
Category:Irish environmentalists
Category:Jacob's Award winners
Category:Members of the Royal Irish Academy
Category:Writers from Brighton
Category:Sustainability advocates