Brian O’Donovan, host of WGBH’s ‘A Celtic Sojourn,’ dies at 66

Native Information

He handed away at dwelling Friday after a protracted battle with most cancers, in accordance with a press release from the radio station.

WGBH Radio on-air host Brian O’Donovan on the WGBH Studios in Boston. Every week on 89.7 Boston Public Radio, host Brian O’Donovan explores conventional and up to date music from across the Celtic world, connecting rising artists to their deep musical roots.

Boston is mourning the lack of Brian O’Donovan, host of the WGBH radio present, “A Celtic Sojourn.” 

O’Donovan was 66. He died at dwelling Friday after a protracted battle with most cancers, in accordance with a press release from the station.

O’Donovan was additionally the host of the “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” a vacation theatrical custom for a lot of New Englanders, in addition to different reside occasions.

“His ardour for music and his sheer pleasure in sharing it was abundantly clear to GBH listeners, whether or not of his weekly present or of his spirited reside occasions. In additional than 35 years with our group, Brian by no means met a stranger. His heat to his colleagues, and his deep dedication to the mission of GBH, might be significantly missed,”  stated GBH President and CEO Susan Goldberg in a press release. 

His reside occasions contained not solely music but in addition tales from his childhood in Eire. Over the past 20 years, his Christmas present encapsulated the seemingly atypical traditions that make the vacations sing for any household.

“Christmas was simply filled with all the time, an essential time for the all the time issues in life, the issues that you simply count on to occur yearly,” O’Donovan stated, in accordance with WGBH.

O’Donovan was the second youngest in a household of 9 kids, in accordance with GBH Information.

In response to The Boston Globe, He was born in 1957 and grew up in Clonakilty in West Cork. In 1980, he got here to Boston for a three-week trip and ended up staying within the metropolis that got here to have a good time him. He met his future spouse, singer Lindsay Henes, at The Village Coach Home on this metropolis. They had been married for 42 years. 

Not lengthy after O’Donovan was recognized with the uncommon type of mind most cancers that might ultimately take his life, he went on to GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” present which is hosted by Jim Braude and Margery Eagan. When requested if he was offended concerning the prognosis, O’Donovan replied with readability. 

“My sort of angle usually has been to take every bit of life and each expertise because the gold nugget that it’s. While you get a prognosis like this, it is advisable to actually take into consideration profiting from no matter time you might have left,” he stated, in accordance with WGBH.