Rick O'Shea


Paul Crossan is an Irish radio personality. He was born in Drimnagh, Dublin 12, grew up in Crumlin, and attended Drimnagh Castle Secondary School and later UCD. He has been a presenter on RTÉ 2fm since 2001. O'Shea has also presented The Poetry Programme on RTÉ Radio 1 in 2015 and 2016. Since 2017 he has been presenting the morning show on RTÉ Gold. He is currently presenting The Book Show on RTÉ Radio 1 since 2019.

Activities

Before joining RTÉ 2fm in 2001, he had worked for East Coast Radio, Atlantic 252, South East Radio and FM104. O'Shea presented the weekday afternoon show on 2fm until 2015, when the show was moved to the weekend schedule.
He presented The Poetry Programme on RTÉ Radio 1 in 2015 and 2016.
Since 2017 he has been presenting the morning show on RTÉ Gold.
In recent years he has conducted public interviews at festivals including Listowel Writers Week, Cúirt, Ennis Book Club Festival, International Literature Festival Dublin, Bloomsday, Hinterland Festival, Dalkey Book Festival, Bram Stoker Festival, Dublin Book Festival, UCD Festival and more.
He was the literary curator for Waterford's Imagine Arts Festival in 2017 and 2018 and will be the literary curator for the UCD Festival 2020.
Rick has presented the International Dublin Literary Award ceremony, CBI Book Of The Year Awards, RTE Francis McManus Short Story Competition Ceremony and has co-presented the Irish Book Awards on RTE One TV.
Also, he is part of the voting academy for the An Post Irish Book Awards, was a judge for the Bookseller UK and Ireland Young Adult Book Prize in 2015 and the Costa Book Awards in 2018. He was one of the judges of the Dublin Fringe Festival and one of the ambassadors for Irish Book Week in 2019.
Outside the book world Rick presents awards ceremonies, corporate events and launches on a regular basis for clients as varied as Diageo, Samsung, Maximum Media, Alltech, and Microsoft.
O'Shea was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 16. and has been a patron of Epilepsy Ireland, formerly known as Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Association, since 2006. He represented the charity in an Irish celebrity version of the quiz show Mastermind in 2012, winning the competition.
He runs The Rick O’Shea Book Club – Ireland's largest book club with over 28,000 members and recommends the Eason Must Reads lists 4 times a year with author Sinéad Moriarty. He is currently presenting The Book Show on RTÉ Radio 1.

Awards and nominations

O'Shea has been nominated for Best Irish Radio DJ at the Meteor Music Awards on three occasions, in 2002, 2008 and 2009. O'Shea has also been nominated for three PPI National Radio Awards, winning a bronze award in 2011. In 2009 he was winner of Entertainment.ie's "Sexiest Radio Voice" award and was quoted as saying "This is the first thing I've ever won in 16 years of being a broadcaster. I am thus very excited and hideously embarrassed at the same time. Thanks."