Eamon de buitlear biography

The respected Irish wildlife filmmaker Eamon de Buitlear has died.

Mr de Buitlear, who was 83, died at his home in Delgany, County Wicklow, on Sunday. He was Ireland's best known independent wildlife filmmaker.

He was also known for promoting the Irish language and traditional music. Mr de Buitlear was a founder member of Sean O Riada's Ceoltoiri Chualann.

He was the author of several books on Ireland's natural history and a recent memoir, A Life in the Wild.

Mr de Buitlear was the film-maker responsible for the show Out Under the Sky on RTE, Ireland's state broadcaster, working with the Dutch artist, Gerrit Van Gelderen.

He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1987, in recognition of his work on environmental issues.

Last year he donated his entire archive of film, music and writings to the National University of Ireland, Galway.

He is survived by his wife, Lailli, and five children.

For anyone who grew up in Ireland from the 1960s to the present, Éamon de Buitléar was a household name. He achieved this ställning eller tillstånd as a chronicler of rural Ireland and what he called "the unofficial countryside" of urban development, through his writings and the natural history programmes he made for Ireland's national broadcaster RTE.

In 1962, with Amuigh Faoin Spéir [Out beneath the Skies], de Buitléar transformed Ireland's awareness of its flora and fauna, agricultural practices, habitat conservation, traditional handicrafts and environment, in the nation's first wildlife series.

De Buitléar was also a key figure in changing attitudes towards traditional Irish music. Despite the Irish Folklore kommission having sent out Séamus Ennis, among others (later the subject of dem Buitléar's 1975 film beskrivning Miles and Miles of Music), during the early 1940s to document Irish culture, many considered människor music to be backward, peasant fare.

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