Gerry Ryan is 10 years dead

Hangdogroad

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Was anyone else here shown that anti drugs video he did in the early 90s in secondary school?

You mean this one?

Harry Palmr

2FM RIP

arcticmonkeys

1:08 Gerry asking the important questions lol. 2FM's never been the same for better or worse some will argue.

CoBo55

Lollipops23 wrote: »

You mean world's biggest hypocrite dies of massive coronary caused by years of coke abuse died 10 years ago.

Yea hay:pac: Has to be a boards record:mad:

He was great at one time but was well past his best at the end. I felt sorry for his poor girlfriend. She was sidelined by his family, who loved him so much that he died alone with poor Melanie finding his body.

The Nal

arcticmonkeys wrote: »

1:08 Gerry asking the important questions lol. 2FM's never been the same for better or worse some will argue.

11.30 "Maybe we should give Stan a ring?... We're going to give Stan a ring".

Chalk McHugh

topper75 wrote: »

I fear you missed the point. I'm not picking on him for talking about bread. He sighed about the bread going up in price as though it were a problem for him.

The only other alternative to that cynical take was that he was sighing on our behalf as it were or in some kind of remote sympathy. Think what you will of that.

You remember Gerry sighing about the price of bread? Just to be sure was it a slice pan, batched or perhaps even brown bread he was talking about that fateful morning over 10 years ago?

notsoyoungwan

I think he epitomized the word ‘vulgar’

Deebles McBeebles

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Lottie is twice the man he was.

She's about 1/50th the radio DJ though.

KaneToad

I heard his radio show a few times. I wasn't a fan of it. His TV work wasn't to my taste either. I never understood his popularity. A sad and premature death for his family & friends.

Xertz

To be fair to Gerry Ryan and his legacy, I think you need to look at the earlier years of his radio show. It was very fundamental in shaking Ireland out of deep, deep conservatism in the back in the late 80s and into the early and mid 1990s.
Topics were discussed, with total irreverence to the social mores that dominated Ireland at the time, with a lot of humour and a whole lot of intelligence too and it drove debate, brought people out of various dark corners and was a hugely useful forum.

He was a truly great radio broadcaster and by all accounts I've ever heard, a very decent colleague to many over the years too and very down to earth, despite the profile. Unfortunately, like many a celeb before him and probably many after him, he went off the rails towards the end of his life and let's face it, Ireland's not exactly immune from substance abuse issues be they drugs or alcohol. I think we can become rather holier than thou on these issues and it's a big part of why we don't face them down as a society too.

However, I think you have to see him in context and across the full span of the Gerry Ryan Radio Show. He did have a big impact on Ireland over those years and in many ways that show was one of the key places where post-conservative Ireland emerged. It was the 'auld wans' (and I remember many of them) tuning in saying "Oh he's a disgrace" while listening to items about topics that were previously totally taboo mixed with solidly entraining radio. He also wasn't a shock jock in the modern sense, he had the intellect to really tease out topics and often dealt with very serious issues in a nuanced, caring and very decent way, very much in the tradition of Irish radio broadcasting going back over the years.

To me, Gerry Ryan is definitely a legendary Irish broadcaster and I think you just have to see the positives with the negatives and the person for who he was, flaws and all.

I find the whole holier-than-thou thing, where people are written off because of something like a drug issue or whatever else is just a load of moralising b/s. People have flaws, but they're not exclusively defined by them. It's important to be able to see the whole person and their whole career in context - that's how we actually learn and that's what life is like in general. It's rarely perfect.

_Brian

Last few years of his broadcasting was car crash stuff. Lack of interest and no concentration on the job, probably drug related.

It’s sad he died. But at the time of his passing he was riding on past glory and wasn’t fit for mainstream media.

I doubt we need a thread next year saying he’s 11 years dead, enough is enough.

Xertz

I don't think TV was ever his medium, but he was decent on the radio probably from 1988-mid-1990s. He was very much a reflection of the Celtic Tiger in this later days and I think the show was coasting along and probably would have ended up becoming annoying and fizzling out.

However, I still think you have to just see the guy and his career in context. It was a sad end to someone who had a lot of talent and really put it to use back in the day.

Seamai

Lollipops23 wrote: »

You mean world's biggest hypocrite dies of massive coronary caused by years of coke abuse died 10 years ago.

I can remember listening to his show one morning in work, a year or two before he died when a woman called in from inner city Dublin beside herself as she was witnessing a drug addict who was injected into his groin in full public view. Ryan went into one of his "Scum of the earth, lock them up and throw away the key, prison is too good for them" rants.
What a hypocrite.

Hangdogroad

[Deleted User] wrote: »

You mean this one?

Yes. That's a clip from it, it mostly consisted of laughable dramatised scenes interspersed with various eejits rapping.

Xertz

To be honest, a drug addict injecting themselves in the groin in public is more a sign of absolutely horrendous late stages of addiction, including a total lack of self-awareness and just a terribly sad state for anyone to be in. They're just desperately sick and addicted and it's those up the line who are selling that stuff that need to be tackled.

I generally find anyone calling anyone like that 'scum of the earth' is not getting the point and there is definitely a 'socially acceptable' side of the drug abuse problem in Ireland (and elsewhere) that tends to glamourise certain drugs - notably cocaine, and then divorce itself from the reality of the whole supply chain and also the horrendous side of it like heroin and from the gangland crime that the whole supply chain is driving.

However, I think it's something that is societal and as long as there are people willing to turn a blind eye as they snort a line of whatever it is, the drug problems will keep going on. They're all sad addicts, just some of them can keep a facade on it while others can't. That's the sad reality of it - it destroys lives and careers be they a successful media person who goes off the rails, or some guy who is mainlining stuff in a bus shelter. It's ultimately different shades of the same screwed up problem.

B.A._Baracus

For the life me I can't remember the year (but narrowed it down to 2005-2009 and I was walking out of the point depot and I see some guy in a suit. So as I walk past I am going to myself "where do I know that chap from? I know him" Then it hits me... "Oh wait it's Gerry Ryan :pac: "

I imagine he must have got that all the time. Ie, "here's another wan*er trying to remember where he knows me from again" :pac:

branie2

Lottie should bring the Ryan Line back

C__MC

A lifestyle based on the economic success of the Celtic tiger

In saying that his death finished 2fm

Zascar

I remember how someones posted here that their mate put him in an ambulance, so we knew but the family etc didn't.

Can't believe that's 10 years ago. Fun times.

pgj2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtzOlsCgRqQ

13:17



never knew he was only 53, what a waste. I dont understand all the flack he gets about his coke use, sure half the country snort that up their nose these days, thats who the hypocrites are.

Jurgen Klopp

We have Mary on line 1

Good morning Gerry

How are you Mary? How is your morning going?

Oh just been hanging out the washing Gerry

Mhmmmmmmm, did you hang out many pairs of knickers?

Stovepipe

A former colleague of mine lived very close to Ryan's place and was often in their house and knew them all (and still does) and said that Ryan was a really decent guy, genuine and funny and deeply devoted to his family and was essentially playing two roles, the home guy and the radio guy/man about town/big shot with lots of money.Not known for lacking an ego, too but very close to his friends and family. Personally, I think he wasted his talents and was casting about for another outlet when he died.

elperello

De mortuis nil nisi bonum.

mikemac2

Sluurp his tay and munching his sandwiches while on 500k plus to read newspapers. Near the end he didn't give a fook

I remember his light entertainment show Secrets. There were some games and chatting with guests and at the end a sing a long with the studio audience. Harmless stuff, certainly not serious and it was good

Strazdas

He was an interesting guy, definitely a big personality and charismatic.....much more in your face than more reserved broadcasters like Gay Byrne and Terry Wogan (who were both about 20 years older).

The cocaine use shouldn't have surprised us. He was a maverick and non conformist, so drug use would have been very much in keeping with his big personality.

chrissb8

You'd swear because he did coke he's an abhorrent person. Weird irrational logic.

Howitzer the 5th

chicorytip wrote: »

I thought the furore surrounding his use of cocaine was unfair on his family and somewhat unjustified and hypocritical. Cocaine use is common enough in broadcasting, journalism and music circles, even in RTE. Ryan never portrayed himself as a paragon of virtue in regard to his own lifestyle. Gareth O' Callaghan, on the other hand, is a preachy, self-righteous, pompous little p---k.

O'Callaghan is reasonably tall but the rest of your summation probably still applies to some degree. However he's also in advanced stages of multiple system atrophy and is likely to be in great great physical pain after a life also haunted by mental illness. Not everyone has it handy even if they grate on people's nerves with their often sanctimonious opinions. He played the role of virtuous do gooder and it never served him very well I reckon.

MrMusician18

chrissb8 wrote: »

You'd swear because he did coke he's an abhorrent person. Weird irrational logic.

You know where it comes from?

Level 5 Vegan

Anyone remember the t-shirts