About Bob Quinn
James Thurber wrote of himself: ‘Easy to rouse, he is hard to quiet and people usually just go away.’ The same might be said of Bob Quinn. Under the title Cinegael, and for over five decades, in words and images, Bob Quinn has recorded life in the west of Ireland, especially in the Conamara Gaeltacht. He has been called a ‘talented eccentric’ (The Irish Times) and a ‘maverick’ (corporate RTÉ). Hence the Maverick title of his 2001 book on RTÉ. This is as good a way as any to approach him and his work.

He has filmed and photographed from Tatarstan to Morocco, and from India to the United States. His work has been exhibited from Galway to Los Angeles, from Moscow to Missouri. Apart from his film work, he has also published a number of books. Yet he has always remained on the periphery of mainstream critical consideration and by now has a status analogous to the smile of a Cheshire cat.

Born in Dublin in 1935, after seventeen different careers he became a television producer at the age of 27. In 1969, after a career in Irish public broadcasting, he opted for the James Joyce tactic of silence, exile and cunning. He succeeded in only one of these tactics – exile in Conamara. But in the process he has produced a significant and original body of cinematic, literary and photographic work.