After over 40 years, the weekly Celtic music program The Thistle & Shamrock has come to an end. Fiona Ritchie, who has been the host and producer since she created the program in 1983, wrapped up her last program on September 30.
When she announced her retirement via NPR in June this year, she wrote this note to listeners:
Through the years, especially when I’ve given talks to young people or hosted them on work experience, I get asked what I like most about my work, and there are plenty of answers: the delicious discovery of fresh new sounds; witnessing exciting live performances at close quarters; meeting and interviewing artists living their creative lives. Listener encounters are also endlessly surprising: a few years ago I heard separately from a Ukrainian and then a Russian musician, each having discovered my radio shows online and been equally drawn to what they’d heard. Gathering together through music, in person and on the radio, offers a space for empathy and understanding, a bridge across the barriers of language, custom, and even time. Radio is magical in that way.
You can read her full statement here.
NWPB's final broadcast of The Thistle & Shamrock will be Saturday, October 12 at noon, after which listeners will enjoy an extra hour of American Routes. 3