Gay Byrne

Gay and his wife adopted 2 daughters, Crona and Suzy. Then a few years after the Late Late started, he also undertook a radio programme, called the Gay Byrne Hour, which broadcast in the middle of the morning, Monday to Friday. Again, it was light entertainment, music, jokes, lively news stories.. but it became more serious and became a focus for Irish people to write in and discuss issues. Gay got a letter from a woman listener (most of the audience were then stay at home wives) describing her silent marriage, where she and her husband did not speak to each other and communicated via their children. He said how sad it was, and then was inundated with letters describing the same problem, a silent marriage where 2 people had grown to dislike or hate each other but had no prospect of divorce. Another issue, even more tragic, came along in the early 80s where a young girl, Ann Lovett, who lived in a country village, gave birth to her baby alone, in a field, and both of them died. She was only 14. Gay then found, to his horrified amazement, that he got hundreds of letters about this, about the shame that an illegitimate birth still caused in rural Ireland. There were stories of young girls some under age, who had pregnancies and attempted to abort themselves. Some even killed their babies, or their family had killed off the child. Mostly, at best, they were forced to give the child up or to bear the child in secret. People who had had nowhere to turn, in the secretive society of Ireland were able to write in and pour out their woes to Gay.. and it sparked off discussion. The Late Late Show, while still being a fun chat show, discussed issues like homosexuality, contraception, AIDS, sexual molestation and rape, women's issues and the like. There were also unusual shows, like the one where all the audience were priests. There was another one where the audience and guests were all members of the travelling community. Gay was not really a card carrying liberal.. he tended towards middle class conservatism in many ways but he had an instinct for what people wanted to see and how Ireland was changing... He was also willing to be critical of the Catholic church when it still held a lot of sway over the people. In the 1980s, Gay had a major disaster when he found that his accountant, Russell Murphy, had been stealing from him. He had left his money affairs in this man's hands, as he was a freelancer and then when the man died, realised that Murphy had stolen his money, raised loans on his property, and not paid any taxes for him. Gay considered leaving Ireland, when he was offered a talk show job in the US which would pay much better. Yet he felt he was happiest in Dublin where he was well known and had a close circle of friends who were loyal to him.. and he did not go to America. He retired from the Late Late show, after more than 30 years, and it was taken over by other presenters. He continued to work in broadcasting, doing a music programme. He had a tv show where people talked about their religious beliefs... which was much admired. He gave up the radio show as well, but he continued to work. In 2019, he died of cancer, much admired and loved...