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JOE DUFFY HAS said he kept thinking of the advice of his friend and colleague Gay Byrne as he announced the death of the legendary broadcaster on the Liveline programme.
The host received widespread praise for the manner in which he kept his calm to deliver the sad news live to listeners across the country on Monday.
Duffy was approaching the end his Liveline programme when the show returned from a commercial break for the presenter to inform listeners that his mentor had passed away.
“It is just coming up to a quarter to three on November 4th 2019 and it is with great sadness for this station, for this organisation for this nation but above all for his loving family Kathleen, Crona, Suzy and their families that I have to announce the passing of Gay Byrne,” Duffy said.
A broadcasting colossus, he died at the family home surrounded by his family, his loving family. Tranquil and peaceful earlier today.
An emotional Duffy went on to say that he visited Byrne over the weekend and has struggled to put his legacy into words.
He described how the “dulcet, challenging and bemused” voice of Gay Byrne was the facilitator of a changing Ireland through his stewardship of The Late Late Show.
Duffy also spoke about Gay’s hobbies, his “incredible circle of friends” and his love of family.
“He loved a tidy desk, tidy cars, tidy people who are also punctual and he didn’t have a big interest in sport until his beloved grandchildren, you have no idea how he loved his five grandchildren,” Duffy said as he spoke uninterrupted past Liveline’s allotted timeslot.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Duffy said he was only told during the break about the death of his friend and that the family wished it be announced on his show.
“I was given a five-minute warning so I just had to call an ad break, the family wanted it announced at 2.45 on Liveline. I didn’t know he had died obviously because I was doing the programme until I was told by my boss during the ad break and I just, I tried to compose what to say, that was it.”
Rosita Boland / TwitterDown the country on a job and found myself sniffing in the car after listening to @joeliveline #gaybo
— Rosita Boland (@RositaBoland) November 4, 2019
Paul McQuillan / Twitter@joeliveline Lovely tribute from Joe Duffy for the late Gay Byrne,a true legend of Irish Broadcasting,who'll be sorrly missed,Rest in peace. #gaybyrne
— Paul McQuillan (@PaulMcQuillan76) November 4, 2019
He also says he heard Gay’s voice in his head as he was speaking:
Luckily in the weekend just passed I’d been asked by a newspaper to write a piece and I’d written a piece. So we just basically I chopped and edited that for broadcast and I’m glad I didn’t make any mistakes. And Gay would have been annoyed anyway, I just could hear his voice in my head as I was speaking:’Make sure your pronunciations are right, slow down, slow down, slow down and no blubbering, no blubbering, it doesn’t do the listener any good’.
“I didn’t want it to be too over the top, he had a good life, but it’s been hard. It’s been awful watching him over the last three years with the pain and the treatment,” Duffy says, adding that Gay himself did not feel unlucky.
“He’d keep saying ‘there are so many people worse off to me and so many people going through this’. And he’d say, ‘I had great health’, which he did, for 82 years. He never took a Panadol, he took a Rubex every day,. He thought Solpadeine was a Spanish football player, I don’t think he ever heard of it.”
Duffy says he’s been struck by the warmth towards Gay since his death but is not altogether surprised, not just because of his talent but because he became friendly with so many.
“People are offering condolences to each other because so many people know him. He’s got such an enormous breadth of friends all the way from Donegal to Dublin.”
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Radio was the carrier of his voice to millions, to rural boreens rarely trodden. The wireless was carried from room to room in homes, farms & outbuildings listening to radio eireann and Gaybo, sometimes the only friend to many who lived alone. RIP Gabriel Byrne
‘His voice was the facilitator of a changing Ireland through his stewardship of the Late Late Show’. How beautifully put and exactly how I will remember him. Rest in Peace Uncle Gay.
@Benja: Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann. RIP
Nobody fetishises misery quite like Joe Duffy.
@ken gray: that’s a very low comment. Why even commenting get a life
@Pete Gilmartin: Irelands biggest misery junkie.
This is getting ridiculous now . You think it was Martin Luther King or Gandhi had just passed away.
@stephen darling:
Well as a nation we were a bit short of heroes for a long while. If you don’t remember Gay in black and white then you probably wouldn’t understand.
@stephen darling: it’s a personal thing depending on your age . He was more than a tv presenter. He was like a close friend who made you smile on Friday nights
@stephen darling: Get a life !
@stephen darling: Or William Martin Murphy? Come to think about it the similarities do stand out!
@Grainnewhale: I have a great life . And a social life . Better things to do than sit in on a Friday night watching auntie gaybo.
@stephen darling: Much more important to Ireland that Gandhi or King. A voice that challenged much of the conservatism of the 1970′s and 1980′s. Perhaps you are too young to realise his importance in Irish broadcasting. There was a time when no internet or foreign Tv channels were accessible and where only a small percentage of women worked outside the home. Gay Byrne was for millions an educational lifeline on social and political issues, issues of sexuality that were ‘forbidden’ and the odd bit of craic.
@stephen darling: wtf is wrong with you
No matter who hosts the late late show Gabo is always in you head like Bond and Connery
@FlopFlipU: and brosnan.
Before I read any comment here . And after reading the story . My first thought was that I have never seen so much of joe Duffy in a couple of days .
@Aaron Luke: unfortunately!
Joe Duffy is really hijacking this news and making himself very much centre stage
@Fattybumbums: Bigtime ! Talk about Joe !
@Fattybumbums: ffs grow up
@Fattybumbums: He’s a serious self centred and egotistical piece of work
In my view Gay Byrne was the establishment, he did not ruffle feathers, he reflected the status quo. He was a conservative a man, a very conservative man. May he rest in peace.
@view2views: True for the second half of his career, for the first half he was of course in an establishment role but also saw his public service duty as lifting rocks to show what was underneath. He may not have driven change but helped inform those who did, and of course the public.
We will never see or hear the likes of the great Gay Byrne again..May he in peace.
Joe Duffy is a National Treasure. And so is Ray D’Arcy.
@Desmond Lyons: And Thelma Mansfield
@Damien Barton: and Daithi O Se
@Desmond Lyons:
And Dave Fanning
@Desmond Lyons: and Podge and Rodge
@eamonn farrell: and dustin
@Desmond Lyons:
BiBi Baskin always done it for me!
@Desmond Lyons: and aonghus mcanally
@Desmond Lyons: & Maura Derrane
@Desmond Lyons: and Bosco and Judge
@Desmond Lyons: AHHHHH jasus Desmond, Ray D’arcy is nothing more than a slut. He will sell his soul to the highest bidder and Kenny isn’t far behind him YUCK.
@Desmond Lyons:
@Desmond Lyons: Jesus, your a man for winding people up. D’Arcy peaked with a puppet called Dustin…..Duffy as a presenter answers his own questions if you disagree with him… National treasures a bit over the top there Des…
@Desmond Lyons: & Alan Hughes
Joe was the first to break the story. You could hear his voice shaking, he retained his composure very well. He was asked on two different shows to talk about his friend and colleague. Doesnt matter what you think of Joe, he and many of his RTE colleagues spoke very eloquently and movingly on all their respective shows, especially Joe and Marty Whelan on Lyric FM. They paid fitting tributes and they KNEW him. All you lot think youre so smart YOU dont work in RTE what do you all know.
Non story. Less Joe more Gay please.
That’s more national treasures than we can cope with.
@Dale Cash: Not to mention the state funerals!
Duffy is useless though
My heart and best wishes go out to Joe Duffy….
Sincerity is a fabulous trait in a person. Some people have the genuine article while others have perfected a fake version, so realistic one cannot easily tell which is which.
The fake version is particularly galling when applied in cases of bereavement and suchlike.
I wonder how long it will be before Mr Duffy brings out another ground breaking book, this time using the life and times of his great friend and mentor Mr Gay Byrne as the subject matter?
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