Conor McAnally

Conor McAnally (born 24 March 1952) is an Irish television writer, producer and director. He worked in Ireland up to 1989, moved to London and worked in the United Kingdom until 2004 when he moved to the United States. He is based in Austin, Texas. His productions have won more than 20 awards including 5 British Academy Awards and 3 from the Royal Television Society. He is best known for music and entertainment programs and is an expert in live broadcasts.

McAnally was born in Dublin, Ireland to actors Ray McAnally and Ronnie Masterson. He is the eldest of four children. His brother Aonghus is a radio and television presenter/producer at RTÉ in Ireland. He was educated at St. Josephs's Primary and Secondary Schools in Fairview, Dublin and then attended Rathmines College of Commerce Dublin Institute of Technology where he graduated in Journalism.

McAnally joined Independent Newspapers in Dublin in 1970 as a junior reporter and worked for the daily Irish Independent, Evening Herald and the weekly Sunday Independent. During a 5-year newspaper career he was an investigative reporter, crime reporter, health and social welfare correspondent, deputy motoring correspondent and a columnist. He won the Journalist of the Year award in 1972 for breaking a story on how the Irish Republican Army was training volunteers to fight in Northern Ireland. He met his first wife Roisin Finnigan at the Independent where she worked as a copy taker.

In 1975 McAnally joined the Irish Broadcast service RTÉ as a radio and television reporter. He worked in the Newsroom for two years before moving into program presenting on The Politics Program and Youngline. As the host of Youngline he was the first person to introduce the fledgling U2 to a TV audience. In 1980 McAnally became RTÉ's youngest Producer/Director. He produced Ireland's Eye, Non Stop Pop, Moving Hearts in Concert, Stockton's Wing in Concert, Christmas at the Castle, and directed a number of other shows.

In 1982 he left to form Spearhead Productions and directed 152 shows in his first year. In 1984 McAnally joined forces with radio DJ Vincent Hanley (aka. Fab Vinny) to form Green Apple Productions where they created MT USA, Europe's first terrestrial music video TV series and Hanley became Ireland's first VJ. The show was broadcast on Sunday afternoons and repeated on Friday nights, and continued until 1987 when Hanley died of an AIDS-related illness. McAnally and the other Green Apple partner Bill Hughes decided to end the program series rather than continue without Hanley. Shows at Green Apple included Rapid Roulette, Finding Fax Future, The Write Stuff. In 1987/1988 he made a trilogy of documentaries on AIDS. He would later describe them as a tribute to his friend and partner Vincent Hanley.

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