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This obituary appeared in the Guardian today, June 22nd:
By Anne McHardy Tuesday June 22, 2004
Barry Cowan, who has died aged 56, after a long illness, was an incisive broadcaster, whose journalistic talents earned him respect across Northern Ireland's political divide, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, during some of the most bitter years of violence.
He joined the BBC in Belfast in the early 1970s as a studio manager, but quickly moved into freelance reporting and presenting. In 1974, at the time of the first loyalist workers' strike, he became an anchorman on Scene Around Six, then one of BBC Northern Ireland's most prestigious current affairs programmes, chairing fierce debates between such heavyweights as the SDLP's Gerry Fitt and Ian Paisley, of the Democratic Unionist party.
In the late 1970s, Cowan moved to Dublin as one of the founding presenters of RTE's television current affairs programme Today Tonight. In 1981, he returned to Belfast to found Talkback for BBC Radio Ulster, after which he worked on most of BBC Northern Ireland's news and television programmes, including Good Morning Ulster and Evening Extra.
Cowan was born within the Protestant community in Coleraine, County Londonderry. He was educated at Ballymena Academy and graduated in physics from Queen's University, Belfast. He had been an enthusiastic student drama performer, and his first job was as an actor, at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. His interests in the arts and leisure were reflected in the mid-1980s, when he founded his own production company, Bridge, whose film topics ranged from golf to Northern Irish history.
As a broadcaster, Cowan was always even-handed, and respected on all political sides. The controller of BBC Northern Ireland, Anna Carragher, said his sharp intellect, ready wit and ability to fly a programme by the seat of his pants made his programmes "an island of sanity". He left the BBC in March 2000 to freelance.
He is survived by his wife Sue, and two children.
· Barry Cowan, journalist, born February 1 1948; died June 16 2004
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