Gay Byrne
Gabriel Mary Byrne was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was as the first host of The Late Late Show over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. The Late Late Show is the world's longest-running live chat show. He was affectionately known as "Uncle Gay", "Gaybo" or "Uncle Gaybo". His time working in Britain with Granada Television saw him become the first person to introduce the Beatles on-screen, and Byrne was later the first to introduce Boyzone on-screen in 1993. According to Byrne, Paul McCartney asked him to be the Beatles' agent during a sound check for his show but he declined the offer.
From 1973 until 1998, Byrne presented The Gay Byrne Hour – later The Gay Byrne Show when it expanded to two hours – on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday morning. After retiring from his long-running radio and television shows, Byrne presented several other programmes, including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, The Meaning of Life and For One Night Only on RTÉ One and Sunday Serenade/''Sunday with Gay Byrne on RTÉ lyric fm. In 2006, he was elected Chairman of Ireland's Road Safety Authority. In his retirement he was described as the "Elder Lemon of Irish broadcasting".
In 2010, The Irish Times'' said Byrne was "unquestionably the most influential radio and television man in the history of the Irish State". He was approached to run in the 2011 Irish presidential election but declined to run, despite topping early opinion polls.
Early life
Byrne was the son of Edward Byrne, who joined the Irish Volunteers in 1912. In 1913, Edward Byrne enlisted as a professional trooper with the British Army's 19th Hussars cavalry regiment, given a background as a horseman from his father's employment by the Earl of Meath as a coachman in County Wicklow. On the outbreak of World War I he was mobilised and went with his unit to the Western Front, where he took part in heavy fighting in the Ypres Salient and at the Battle of the Somme. He was discharged from the British Army at the war's end in 1919. He later took part in the Irish War of Independence.In the early 1920s, Edward Byrne was employed by Guinness' St. James's Gate Brewery, where he worked for most of the rest of his life on the barges that operated on the River Liffey, transporting wooden casks from St. James's Gate Brewery to sea ships at the North Wall in Dublin. Byrne's father, Edward, married his mother, Annie, in 1917, when briefly home on leave from the war. The two had met near Bray just before the war began. Both of them were from County Wicklow. His siblings were Ray, Al, Ernest and Mary; all but Mary predeceased him.
Byrne was born on 5 August 1934 and grew up in The Liberties in Dublin. He first lived with his family at 17 Rialto Street, Rialto, Dublin, before his parents moved to 124 South Circular Road, Dublin, in 1944. Byrne's mother, Annie, died in late 1964.
Byrne attended Rialto National School and several other schools for short periods. Subsequently, he was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers at Synge Street CBS. He and two classmates bought a jazz record when Byrne was fourteen years old in January 1948, at a time when Radio Éireann refused to play it because of its "licentious" content. In December 2009, Byrne returned to his old primary school on Synge Street to launch an online children's book club, and read an extract from Marita Conlon-McKenna's storybook In Deep Dark Wood. In 2009, whilst celebrating the 250th anniversary of Guinness, he revealed that he had once tried unsuccessfully to earn a job in the brewery near his childhood home.
When he was young, Byrne was inspired by the broadcaster Eamonn Andrews, who had a successful career on British television, and "wanted to be what he was". Andrews was friendly with Byrne's eldest brother. In 1958, he moved over to broadcasting when he became a presenter on Radio Éireann. He also worked with Granada Television and the BBC in England. At Granada, Byrne became the first person to introduce the Beatles on television when they made their small-screen debut on a local news programme People and Places. In 1961, Telefís Éireann was set up. Byrne finally worked exclusively for the new Irish service after 1969. He introduced many popular programmes, with his most popular and successful programme being The Late Late Show.
Radio career
Byrne began his broadcasting career on radio. Radio Éireann gave him a 15-minute slot on Monday nights which he used to play Jazz recordings, his first broadcast for the station being in 1958.He is now best remembered for his two-hour morning show, The Gay Byrne Hour, which was later renamed The Gay Byrne Show. For many years the show was produced by John Caden. Joe Duffy was a reporter and occasional co-presenter on The Gay Byrne Show.
Byrne featured on radio occasionally after retiring from The Gay Byrne Show – in 2006, he began presenting a weekly Sunday afternoon show entitled Sunday Serenade on RTÉ lyric fm. After 2010, he could be heard playing jazz on Sunday afternoons on lyric fm. This two-hour show began after an encounter with Head of Lyric FM Aodán Ó Dubhghaill at the National Concert Hall. Sunday with Gay Byrne attracted 55,000 listeners through "word of mouth": no advertising and no mention in the RTÉ Guide. The show was broadcast weekly approximately from September to March, with a break during the intervening six months. Byrne once commented on the emptiness of RTÉ at this time of the week:
Television
''The Late Late Show''
On 5 July 1962, the first episode of The Late Late Show was aired on Irish television. Originally the show was scheduled as an eight-week summer filler. The programme, which is still broadcast, has become the world's second longest-running chat show. The show became a forum where controversial topics such as the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, contraception, AIDS, unemployment, homosexuality, abortion, divorce and other hitherto taboo subjects were discussed openly in Ireland, alongside book reviews, celebrity visits, and music acts such as the Boomtown Rats, U2, Sinéad O'Connor, Elkie Brooks, Boyzone and Noel Gallagher. Other guests included Presidents of Ireland, successive Archbishops of Armagh, minor members of the British royal family, politicians, actors and authors.The show had much to do in shaping the new Ireland that was emerging from the 1960s. Indeed, it was famously said by politician and Papal Knight, Oliver J. Flanagan that, "there was no sex in Ireland until Teilifís Éireann went on the air". Bishop of Galway Michael Browne called him "a purveyor of filth" after he asked a woman what colour nightie she wore on her wedding night and she had replied that she believed she'd worn nothing.
More than a decade after departing his role as host of The Late Late Show Byrne is remembered for conducting memorable interviews with former politician Pádraig Flynn and then Bishop of Galway Eamon Caseys lover Annie Murphy, among others. Another memorable moment to occur on The Late Late Show was when he called the winner of a prize car live on air only to discover the woman's daughter had died since she had entered.
During the early years of Byrne's time hosting The Late Late Show, prior to about 1978 when the second national Irish TV channel was launched, he was employed by RTÉ on a continuously renewing 3-month contract, lest his employer might want to fire him any time they choose.
Byrne and The Late Late Show were central to the development of the careers of figures such as Mary Coughlan.
He was noted for wearing a "Bing Crosby sweater" when presenting The Late Late Toy Show.
On 21 May 1999, Byrne presented his last edition of The Late Late Show. He was presented with a Harley-Davidson motorcycle by Bono and Larry Mullen, Jr. Pat Kenny succeeded Byrne as presenter in September 1999, subsequently succeeded by Ryan Tubridy in September 2009. Byrne gave Tubridy his blessing upon taking over the role, saying: "He has all the qualities required, the light deft touch together with a serious mind. I think it's a great adventure that he's setting off on". Byrne returned to The Late Late Show as a guest twice during Tubridy's first season as the presenter, the latter appearance on the day of Gerry Ryan's death.
''The Meaning of Life''
In April 2009, RTÉ One began broadcasting a series called The Meaning of Life, during which Gay Byrne interviewed public figures about issues of meaning and life. He preferred not to discuss his own faith: The programme has contained a number of significant moments, including actor Gabriel Byrne's admission that he had been abused as a child at the start of the second series and Stephen Fry's denunciation of God during the tenth series.Other television work
In the 1960s, Byrne presented Let's Dance for Granada Television with popular singing star Marion Ryan. The programme was filmed in the Ballroom at Belle Vue, Manchester and also featured original Come Dancing stars Syd Perkin and Edna Duffield.Byrne compèred the finals of the Castlebar Song Contest in 1966 and 1967. He also presented the Rose of Tralee festival for 17 years until 1994. Between 1989 and 2001, Byrne hosted the RTÉ People in Need Telethon several times.
After "retiring", Byrne hosted the Irish version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. He also hosted The Gay Byrne Music Show and Make 'Em Laugh, a series about comedy in Ireland, Gaybo's Grumpy Men and Class Reunion. Class Reunion, which was broadcast on RTÉ One in 2005, was compared by some sources to This Is Your Life and featured special guests who were reunited with former classmates to recount stories from their schooldays. Guests on the show included Adi Roche and Pat Spillane.
In the summer season of 2000, Byrne hosted The Gay Byrne Music Show, which was a studio-based show aired on Saturday nights as a summer filler between 8 July and 19 August 2000 and showcased all genres of music in the company of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. From 2011, he presented more summer filler light entertainment in the form of For One Night Only.