seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: The Late Late Show (Irish talk show)


by Leave a comment

Death of RTÉ Presenter Gerard “Gerry” Ryan

Gerard “Gerry” Ryan, presenter of radio and television employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), is found dead in the bedroom of his home on Leeson Street, Dublin on April 30, 2010. He presents The Gerry Ryan Show on radio station RTÉ 2fm each weekday morning from 1988 until hours before his sudden death. He is presented with a Jacob’s Award for the show in 1990.

Ryan is born in Clontarf, County Dublin on June 4, 1956. He describes his father, Vinnie, as a “slightly eccentric” dentist from a Presbyterian background and his mother, Maureen, as “a flamboyant woman” who comes from a theatrical background and works in the theatre. His godfather is broadcaster Eamonn Andrews. He is educated at St. Paul’s College, Raheny.

Ryan hosts several series of television shows, including Secrets, Gerry Ryan Tonight, Ryantown, Gerry Ryan’s Hitlist, Ryan Confidential and the first three series of Operation Transformation. In 1987, he earns notoriety and the moniker “Lambo” after an unpleasant incident in Connemara. He is also noted for co-presenting, with Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, Eurovision Song Contest 1994 and, in 2008, presenting an edition of The Late Late Show, television’s longest-running chat show, in place of the then regular host Pat Kenny.

Ryan marries Morah Brennan in 1988 and they have five children: Lottie, Rex, Bonnie, Elliott and Babette. In 1997, Morah famously telephones her husband’s show and, under the name Norah, tells half a million listeners intimate details concerning his personal household habits. Gerry and Morah announce their separation in March 2008, which Ryan calls “a very painful experience.” He soon begins a relationship with the former South African Ambassador to Ireland and the then UNICEF Ireland executive director, Melanie Verwoerd.

Ryan is noted for his love of fine food and wine. He battles a weight problem for several years and takes Reductil (Sibutramine), a “slimming pill,” which he says is effective and safe. Ryan concedes in his autobiography Would the Real Gerry Ryan Please Stand Up, released in October 2008, that he drinks too much for his own good.

Among the dignitaries to send tributes following Ryan’s death are Bono, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, and President Mary McAleese. His funeral takes place on May 6, 2010, and is broadcast on 2fm, the home of Ryan’s radio show and a first for the predominantly youthpop-oriented station. His death also comes sixteen years to the day after he hosted Eurovision 1994.

An inquest shows that the cause of Ryan’s death is cardiac arrhythmia and that traces of cocaine found in Ryan’s system are the “likely trigger” of Ryan’s death. A considerable public controversy erupts when Ryan’s long-term use of cocaine comes to light. RTÉ eventually admits to having given insufficient coverage of Ryan’s cocaine habit in the aftermath of the inquest.


by Leave a comment

Birth of Alice Taylor, Writer & Novelist

alice-taylor

Alice Taylor, best-selling Irish writer and novelist particularly known for her nostalgia works looking back at life in a small village, is born on February 28 , 1938, on a farm in Lisdangan, Newmarket in northern County Cork.

Taylor is educated at Drishane Convent. She works in Bandon before marrying Gabriel Murphy. They have four sons and one daughter. When she marries she moves to Innishannon in the southern part of the county in 1961. There she runs a guesthouse, the local post office, and a shop.

In 1984 she edits and publishes a local magazine, Candlelight, and in 1986 she publishes an illustrated collection of her poetry. However it is the launch of her book To School Through the Fields, published in May 1988, which brings her fame. She has numerous interviews on national shows including RTÉ Radio‘s Gay Byrne Show and The Late Late Show. The next books are equally successful and have been sold internationally. Since then she has moved on to novels which have also become best sellers.

Her husband dies in 2005. Taylor remains very connected to the village of Innishannon where she continues to live. Since her eldest son has taken over responsibility for the shop, she has been able to devote more time to her writing. One of the programs she has been involved in is the restoration of the old Innishannon Tower.


by Leave a comment

Birth of Broadcaster Pat Kenny

pat-kenny

Patrick “Pat” Kenny, veteran Irish broadcaster, is born in Dublin on January 29, 1948. Kenny currently hosts the daily radio show The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk and the current affairs show Pat Kenny Tonight on TV3.

Kenny is educated at the O’Connell School and obtains a chemical engineering degree from University College Dublin (UCD) in 1969. Subsequently, he is a postgraduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology and then a lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Dublin. He begins his broadcasting career in parallel to his academic “day-job” by working as a continuity announcer on RTÉ radio in the mid-1970s. He subsequently becomes a radio disc jockey.

Kenny has a 41-year high-profile career at RTÉ, in which he is their highest paid presenter for several years. He presents the radio show Today with Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday morning between 10:00 and midday until 2013. He hosts The Late Late Show from September 1999 until May 2009, however, returns as a stand-in host in January 2013. He presents the current affairs programme, The Frontline, each Monday night from 2009 until its cancellation in 2013.

Kenny is the co-host of Eurovision Song Contest 1988, as well as numerous other television shows, including Today Tonight, Saturday Live, and Kenny Live, and works for both RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ 2fm, sometimes simultaneously, in a career that has spanned five decades. He is the holder of a Jacob’s Award and is perennially cited as the highest paid employee in RTÉ’s possession. He is named 23rd most influential person of 2009 by the magazine Village.