Well, where to start. I first met Ian on a BASI course and because I then went to live in Dublin during the Summer for a few years, I became familiar with his RTE work. I used to meet Ian for lunch at the RTE canteen quite regularly. As you can imaging the main topic of conversation was skiing. One day I turned up to meet him for lunch and was told that he was in the RTE Radio recording studios. I toddled over there just in time to meet Ian coming out of one of the studios with a musician. He introduced me to Don McLean. To this day, whenever a Don McLean song comes on the radio, I tell everybody that it’s “my mate Don” singing. Then along came Jane and very shortly afterwards, Tamsin & Kirsty. Ian and I worked as trainers on many BASI courses, sometimes assessing together. Whether it was in Scotland, France or Austria, Ian’s morning greeting was always the same “Top of the morning to you” (to be honest, before I heard Ian say it, I thought it was a bit of Irish folklore). On one course in Scotland many moons ago, Ian asked me if I’d “ever seen one of these”? He had an original Sony Walkman and I don’t think anybody on the course had ever seen one. It was huge by todays technological standards. Anyway, to finish, I would just like to say that, you would be hard pushed to find a nicer, kinder gentleman than Ian. Sláinte.
- Martin Rowe