Bobbie Hanvey is a Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 photographer. In 1985, 1986, and 1987 he won the Northern Ireland Provincial Press Photographer of the Year Award for himself and the Down Recorder newspaper of Downpatrick

Downpatrick

Downpatrick is a medium-sized town about 33 km south of Belfast in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the county town of Down with a rich history and strong connection to Saint Patrick. It had a population of 10,316 at the 2001 Census...

. In 1985 and 1987 he also won the Northern Ireland overall award for ‘Best People Picture’. These were the only three years that he entered the competitions. His work has also been publicly exhibited at Down County Museum. His photographs have appeared in The Sunday Times and he currently supplies the Belfast Newsletter with a weekly column which feature his photographs.

Born in Brookeborough

Brookeborough

Brookeborough is a village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It lies between Enniskillen and Belfast just off the A4 trunk road, about five miles from the County Tyrone boundary....

, Co Fermanagh, his autobiography, The Mental, offers a rare view of everyday life in Fermanagh during the 1950s and charts his time as a psychiatric nurse in the Downshire hospital, Downpatrick during the 1960s.

Bobbie has been hosting his popular programme, ‘The Ramblin’ Man’ on Downtown Radio, for 28 years.

Guests on his programme have included Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) leader Gusty Spence, Provisional Irish Republican Army

Provisional Irish Republican Army

The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...

 (IRA) veteran Joe Cahill, the last three Chief Constables of the RUC, Sir John Hermon

John Hermon

Sir John Hermon, OBE, QPM was the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary from 1980-89.John Charles "Jack" Hermon, was born in Castletown, Islandmagee, County Antrim. He had a grammar school education and gave up an early career in accountancy to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1950...

, Sir Hugh Annesley

Hugh Annesley (police officer)

Sir Hugh Norman Annesley is a retired Northern Irish police officer. He served as Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary from June 1989 to November 1996....

, and Sir Ronnie Flanagan

Ronnie Flanagan

Sir Ronald Flanagan, GBE, QPM, was the Home Office Chief Inspector of Constabulary for the United Kingdom excluding Scotland...

, and the current Chief, Mr Hugh Orde

Hugh Orde

Sir Hugh Stephen Roden Orde, OBE, QPM is the current President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, representing the 44 police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Between 2002-2009 he was the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland .Sir Hugh joined London's...

. They have also included writers such as Eugene McCabe

Eugene McCabe

Eugene McCabe is an Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and television screenwriter. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Irish emigrants, but moved with his family to Ireland in the early 1940s. He lives on a farm near Clones in County Monaghan near the border between the Republic of...

, Maurice Leitch

Maurice Leitch

Maurice Leitch is a renowned author, born in Northern Ireland. He is author of The Liberty Lad, Poor Lazarus, Silver's City, and many other works. In 1969, he moved to London to become a producer in the BBC's radio drama department...

 and J. P. Donleavy

J. P. Donleavy

James Patrick Donleavy is an Irish American author, born to Irish immigrants. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II after which he moved to Ireland. In 1946 he began studies at Trinity College, Dublin, but left before taking a degree...

, who have been interspersed with soldiers, sailors and travelling people. In fact, people from all walks of life in Northern Ireland have featured on his lively half-hour programme.

Bobbie is also one of Ireland’s leading photographers. His first photographic book, Merely Players, presents a stunning array of portraits taken over the past 30 years, of poets, playwrights, paramilitaries, priests and politicians. They include Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

, Brian Friel

Brian Friel

Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...

, David Hammond

David Hammond

David Hammond is a director and acting teacher in the American theatre. He trained for the theatre at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and received his M.F.A. from the Carnegie Mellon University Drama Department. He did his undergraduate studies at Harvard University and graduated Magna Cum...

, Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...

, Danny Morrison, Sammy Duddy

Sammy Duddy

Evan Abbott Samuel Duddy , known as Sammy, was a Northern Irish loyalist, having joined the Ulster Defence Association shortly after its formation in 1971...

 and many, many more. His most recent photographic book, The Last Days of the RUC

Royal Ulster Constabulary

The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...

, presents the only historic account of the transition to the Police Service of Northern Ireland

Police Service of Northern Ireland

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary which, in turn, was the successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary in Northern Ireland....

 (PSNI).

He lives in Downpatrick, County Down. He has three children: Steafán, Ciaran and Sarah Ann.