Anita Notaro (14 September 1955 – 26 November 2014), was a TV producer and director that worked for

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

for sixteen years. She directed the

Eurovision Song Contest 1993 The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 15 May 1993 at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), and pr ...

held in the Irish town of Millstreet and became the second female director for the contest after Yvonne Littlewood,

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

producer and director that organized the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 at

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

's Television Centre. She was also a journalist and the writer of Back After the Break, Behind the Scenes and The WWW Club.

Biography

Anita Notaro was born on 14 September 1955, in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland to an Irish mother and an Irish/Italian father. She had three younger sisters. Notaro became a journalist and got a job by winning an open competition for programming assistants in 1983. She worked for

where she went on to be a TV producer and director. In 1997, she directed a

Rory Gallagher William Rory Gallagher ( ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as "Ireland's first rock star", he is known for his virtuosic style of guitar playing and live performances. He has sometim ...

concert recorded at the Cork Opera House. She was also responsible for directing The

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

and the Irish General Election before she took redundancy to try out her writing career. Notaro returned from time to time to direct several episodes of the Irish soap, Fair city. Notaro also worked for the BBC and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. She continued writing despite a cancer diagnosis in 2005. In 2008 Notaro won the Popular Fiction Book of the Year. However, in 2011 Notaro was given a diagnosis of front-temporal dementia. Notaro was married to Gerry McGuinness from 2004 and although they moved to their dream home in Brittas they mostly lived in Dublin where they returned when Notaro became unwell. She died in Dublin on 26 November 2014.

Bibliography

* ''Back After the Break'', 2003 * ''Behind the Scenes'', 2004 * ''The WWW Club'', 2007 * ''Take a Look at Me Now'', 2007 * ''No Ordinary Love'', 2010 * ''A Moment Like This'', 2012

References and sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Notaro, Anita 1955 births 2014 deaths 21st-century Irish women writers Irish television producers Irish women television producers Irish television directors Women television directors Mass media people from County Dublin