Welcome to Steve Dunford’s page here on podcasts.ie, here Steve has included audio readings of his work for your listening pleasure.

Born in Castlebar, Steve Dunford, author, artist, musician, historian and retired banker, now lives in Killala, County Mayo. He is the author and illustrator of the critically acclaimed books: The Irish Highwaymen [Merlin Publishing] Killala: Aspects of its Heritage; A Stroll Through Old Killala; In Humbert’s Footsteps: Mayo 1798, and The Táin Bó Flidhais: “The Mayo Táin.” [Fadó Books].
A founder member, with Mary Black of the legendary ‘70s traditional band General Humbert , Steve has worked as a musician, producer and promoter with many of the country’s most celebrated artists, such as, Luka Bloom, Brian Kennedy, Eimer Quinn, Máire Breatnach, Sharon Shannon, Declan O’ Rourke, Niamh Parsons, Dolores Keane, Sonny Condell, Jim McCann, to name just a few, and produced C.D.’s for record companies in Ireland, U.S.A, France, Germany and Japan. Steve also has the distinction of being one of the few people to have  had a tune written for them by The Waterboys-a piece titled “Dunford’s Fancy”.
Steve has also worked for three years with Gael Linn on their cultural series Slogadh, hosting art workshops for children, designing sets, and working closely with the now deceased poet, Michael Davitt. Steve is also a published poet and an accomplished speaker and in the past has addressed many of Mayo’s prestigious gatherings, including, Turas na mBan, The Humbert Summer School and The Connaught Fleadh.
Steve has also worked extensively in Television and Film as a Musical Director, and was the musical director for the R.T.E. series Voyage with Dick Warner, and the Irish-made movie, Angela Mooney Dies Again, starring Mia Farrow and Brendan Gleeson. In 2000 he produced and co-wrote his own documentary for TG4, Solas sna nDorchadas, chronicling the life of Mayo-born writer, patriot and seanchaí, Michael Mac Ruairí  (with original score by Belmullet native, David Munnelly). In addition he has also collaborated on and taken part in many Irish national television programmes.  

                                             

Steve is also a talented artist, cartoonist, illustrator and designer whose work has featured in many Irish periodicals and publications, including his own books. Steve is currently writing  a book with the working title When Ireland Lay Broken and Bleeding,  this deals with the 1798 Rebellion in Connaught and the north Midlands, and has just published Táin Bó Flidhais-“The Mayo Táin.” Added to this he is researching, collecting and illustrating the complete poetic works of Foxford born poet-the late F.R.Higgins. Most recently Steve wrote, presented, and co-produced with Jho Harris and Sinead McClure of All Points West, the acclaimed four-hour Radio documentary titled In Humbert’s Footsteps which was broadcast and podcast on Mid-West Radio. Currently he is writing a ten-part radio series based on the exploits of ten legendary Irish outlaws/rebels, which he will also present. 

This week we are featuring an Interview with Steve about his work to date, just click on the play button below to listen to Steve in conversation with Jho Harris. 

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We will have more from Steve Dunford in coming weeks, including readings from his book, “The Irish Highwaymen” and “The Táin Bó Flidhais” 

If you would like to contact Steve about his work, you can fill out the contact form and we will forward your messages to him.

Steve is one of 10 authors who have presented our special series of podcasts ‘The Writers’s Passage’ to listen to Steve’s episode featuring ‘The Irish Highwaymen’ click Here

The Writer’s Passage is a series exclusively produced for Podcasts.ie under the Arts Council of Ireland’s Literature Project Award.

In this series we are bringing you ten shows, each one detailing the location or locations from a well known book. In each episode the author of that book will bring us on a tour of the areas which are relevant to them and to some of the context within the pages of their book. The Writer’s Passage will bring you on a journey from Sligo to Roscommon, Longford, Kilkenny, Mayo, Tipperary, Antrim, Waterford, Cork, and Dublin.