Raymond McCullough, from Co. Down, near Belfast, Northern Ireland, has been a professional writer for over twenty years. Beginning with technical articles and reports for UK magazines, he then began publication of an Irish Christian magazine, 'Bread', from 1990-96, with his first book, 'Ireland - now the good news!' in 1995 (published in Kindle edition, May 2012); co-edited by his wife, fiction author Gerry McCullough. He has also had articles published in the Irish Times, Dublin, and the Presbyterian Herald, Belfast.
In 1993 he hosted a radio show, 'In tha Name a' Gawd!' on 96.7 BCR, in Belfast, which later developed into his current satellite radio show of music, news and faith-based interviews - broadcasting around the world on several satellite networks. From 1996, for seven years, he and Gerry led a cell-based Christian fellowship in the Belfast area - also producing an album of Celtic & Hebrew worship music, 'Into Jerusalem' (2005) and a Celtic pop-folk album, 'Different'
(2008).
In 2008, he began 'Celtic Roots Radio' - a 30-minute show of Celtic, folk, folk-rock, Breton, Galician, bluegrass, Cajun, Cape Breton, acoustic and singer/songwriter music, now broadcasting on FM, satellite, webcast and iTunes podcast to more than 100 countries around the world - with around 18,000 downloads/month via iTunes - and syndication beginning on FM stations in Ireland and beyond. In April 2009, Raymond also set up a 24/7 'Celtic Roots Radio' web station on the Live365 network, which now has a playlist of over 800 tracks, from more than 400 individual artists and bands.
His 'Kingdom Come Trust' website (kingdomcome.org.uk) has hundreds of enthusiastic emails from satellite radio listeners in US, Canada and Caribbean countries. Raymond says, "They love the Irish music and culture - although the interviewees are from many parts of the world." A second series of this show will soon be in production and will also be broadcast in Ireland.
Raymond researched the subjects in 'The Whore and her Mother' for about forty years, off and on, but the events of 9/11 brought a new focus to his research and a real sense of increasing urgency encouraged him to complete the book in just four months!
In October 2011 he published the 'craic' from his Celtic Roots Radio scripts as, 'A Wee Taste a' Craic', and is working on a TV documentary, filmed mainly in Canada, entitled, 'Broken Treaties.' Raymond recently completed production of a series of half hour broadcasts for satellite radio ('Fresh Bread: Your Kingdom Come'), based on 'The Whore and her Mother' (also available on iTunes podcast).
