Gay Byrne RIP

KWAG2019 wrote: »

Guests who will be joining Ryan tonight to pay tribute to Gay Byrne include President Michael D Higgins, Mary McAleese,
Bob Geldof, Pat Kenny, Joe Duffy, Mike Murphy, Andrea Corr, Sharon Shannon, John Sheahan, Finbar Furey, Nell McCafferty, John McColgan, Tommy Tiernan, (1/2)
Pat Shortt, Jon Kenny, Rosaleen Linehan
Eamon Dunphy, Twink, Fr Brian D'arcy, Paddy Maloney,
Donal Lunny, Nell McCafferty, Michael Carruth, Moya Doherty, RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes, Vincent Browne, Mary Black, Frank McNamara and Aonghus McAnally.

Brace Brace Brace

Imagine the impact it would have on the country if a bomb went off in that studio tonight. You'd have to just shut the country down. The current president, a former president, the sole remaining Dubliner, all of the D'unbelievables and one of the Corrs all wiped out in one fell swoop.

And with Fr Brian D'Arcy gone too, there'd be nobody to do their funerals.

He was undoubtedly a phenomenal presenter and opened the platform for many of the debates that led to the cracking of many taboos and the unbuckling of the conservative straightjacket that we had managed to allow ourselves to be fitted with.

To me Gay Byrne is a zeitgeist, you can get a sense of 20th century Ireland from his radio and TV shows and track how it changed and very often those shows were the platform where the debates that mainstreamed those changes took place. You can't really watch him through the lens of 21st century progressive Ireland. He was operating in a society that was incredibly buttoned up, conservative and judgemental, at least in terms of how it was run from the top down by the state and church.

You also have to remember his broadcasting career kicked off in the 1950s. The style of presentation was of its era but the audience was also far less sophisticated about media, television still had a somewhat magic quality and I think that's where you get the sense of things being that bit more patronising. It was the style of most broadcasters of that era.

He also had a definite sense of balancing debates and playing devil's advocate, even if it might come across as pretty harsh, he probed, he questioned and he opened debate in an Ireland that was closed, top down conservative and in a broadcasting organisation that ultimately could have been censored back in the day.

To me he's someone who pushed out the envelope. He was clearly an eloquent, witty, intelligent guy with remarkable communication and presentation skills. You can tell he was a natural on air and, much like Terry Wogan, seemed to be completely at home in front of a mic or a camera.

He's someone who definitely deserves to be remembered as having been a huge part of Irish life for decades and a facilitator of social change by opening the door and letting the light in.