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RollingNews.ie

'He heralded a huge change in Irish life': How Gay Byrne brought sex to Irish TV

The broadcaster passed away yesterday aged 85.

GAY BYRNE YESTERDAY passed away at the age of 85. 

Through those eight and a half decades on this earth, Byrne, Uncle Gaybo or whatever you called him at home, became the quasi father of the nation. 

On 5 July 1962, Byrne sat down in RTÉ’s studios to front up a new chat show which was supposed to only run for six weeks. We all know now that that was the Late Late Show, a programme which is the longest-running live chat show in the entire world. 

After 37 years at the helm, Byrne released his grip on the show to Pat Kenny in 1999. But through those nearly four decades, Gaybo had guided the show, and essentially the nation, through its formative years and into adulthood. 

Under his guidance, sex was spoken about on Irish television. The Late Late, with Byrne leading the charge wilfully or not, became the place where matters of public decency or indecency (whichever side of the debate you sat on) were discussed in front of the nation. 

So proud was he of the show, that in March 1966 as an argument about the Catholic clergy reached fever pitch, a man shouted from the audience that Byrne should stop bringing people on to the show to “slag off the clergy”, to which Byrne responded: 

“Wait a minute. I did not bring people in here to slag the clergy. We have a programme and we are proud of it as a programme on which you are allowed to say what you want.”

Dr Finola Doyle O’Neill, Broadcast Historian at UCC, described Byrne as the “boldest and brightest of the new media revolution” of the 60s. She said that his legacy is one of a man who has left a huge cultural impact on the island of Ireland. 

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, she said: “I think all the greatest dramas were staged on the Late Late Show and the Gay Byrne Show, he was like a very sort of like a convivial ringmaster. 

“He moved Ireland from an insular establishment country to one that was much more emerging and outward looking. In a way, people could relate to this kind of an everyman of a modernising Ireland.

“He asked the questions we wanted to hear. He was the boldest and brightest star of the new media revolution.”

However, it wasn’t just his interviewing style and skills which endeared Byrne to the public. He started talking about things conservative Ireland would not dare countenance.

Doyle O’Neill added that there were very few issues for Byrne which were totally off limits and he used his position and power within RTÉ to do the shows he wanted to do. 

“He discussed sexual issues openly. He was the first to talk to David Norris about homosexuality and he always included the non-nuclear family. There was also the story in the 80s of a woman with AIDS on his radio programme. This was at a time when people were very ignorant about it and how it could be transmitted. It was hugely enlightening.” 

But Doyle O’Neill argued that when Byrne started his career in RTÉ, he was despised by the men of Ireland. 

file-photo-gay-byrne-has-died-end Gay Byrne with his wife Kathleen Watkins. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

“In his younger days he was despised. The men of Ireland went to work and then Gay Byrne was at home with their wives, the conduit was Gay Byrne.  He heralded a huge change in Irish life. We will never see a broadcaster of his calibre again.”

For all the charisma and excitement Byrne brought to his broadcasting style, those who knew the man spoke of him as a quiet and almost shy person, someone who could be very insecure.

But this did not deter him from courting controversy.

Byrne regularly found himself in hot water as the show sought to document societal changes and balance topical issues like divorce, the role of the Church and the AIDS crisis with the usual mix of interviews with comedians, actors and sports stars.

One of the best known incidents from the early days of the programme underscored the transition taking place in Irish society, when a woman unwittingly sparked a major controversy by taking part in a throw-away quiz item.

Eileen Fox and her husband Richard appeared on the Late Late in 1966 and took part in a quiz item for married couples.

When asked by Byrne what colour nightie she had worn on the night of their honeymoon, she replied that she hadn’t worn any.

Laughter followed, and the show continued as normal. However, the Bishop of Clonfert, Dr Thomas Ryan, was less than amused and phoned The Sunday Press to announce that he planned to denounce the item in a sermon and called on parishioners to boycott the show. They didn’t.

Éanna Brophy, former reporter and columnist with The Sunday Press, said the fact that Byrne was his own producer in the early days of the Late Late meant he was effectively his own boss.  

The switch to helming the Irish weekend chat show came after Byrne’s early successes in the presenter’s chair in the UK. 

“He was doing quite well in England – over at Granada Television – he met The Beatles before they were really really famous as well and there’s a great story about Paul McCartney coming up to him and saying ‘we’re looking for a manager’. As he had no management experience, he said ‘it’s just as well I turned them down, I could have been a multimillionaire or dead from drugs at age 30′.”

Almost instantly, his star began to rise, so much so that he could decide what they were going to discuss on The Late Late, according to Brophy. 

He added: “He got so well-established that if he was going to go for a bit of controversy he had the status to do it by then. I remember being told by an RTÉ producer that Gay was worth £8 million a year in ad revenue to RTÉ, and that was decades ago so you can multiply that a few times in today’s money.”

Gay’s success continued and his pals in RTÉ began to take notice. But they also took notice of the fact that Gay was terrible at negotiating new contracts with management, much to the annoyance of his colleagues who themselves were looking for raises and couldn’t dare ask for more than what Byrne was on. 

“I remember on one thing Mike Murphy said. For years none of them could negotiate decent money because Gaybo was afraid. He was settling for a lot less than what he was bringing in. They were all saying ‘Gay, for God’s sake go get a proper contract’ and he’d turn around and say ‘ah you wouldn’t know with management – ah they can turn around and say you’re gone’ so there was that insecurity with him as well.” 

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    Mute S K
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:03 AM

    I don’t have a problem with ads in theory as I understand that’s how we get stuff for free. The problem is when the ads are so intrusive that it makes it next to impossible to enjoy the content, then I’m going to block them. Having thirty second non skippable ads on YouTube after every second video, or ads with crazy flash videos, or articles split over multiple pages to increase advertising space drove me to install ad block.

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    Mute little jim
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:13 AM

    Then the content is rubbish, and hence the problem.

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    Mute An Observer
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:55 AM

    *THIS IS NOT A JOKE*

    You are the One-Hundreth-Millionth reader of

    this page. You have won an iPhone 6sPlus.

    Please clink the link below to claim your prize!

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    Mute Ciaran
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:05 AM

    what about likes of greedy rte that we already pay TV licence put have to sit threw full screen pop up ads and about 5 ads before a program even starts!

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    Mute Darach Malone
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:17 AM

    your TV licence fee doesn’t even begin to cover rte costs. without the ads they would be extinct.

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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:16 AM

    The RTE and BBC license fees are very similar. The Beeb has no ads and is arguably the best content creator in the world. Yes, it has a much bigger license base. But it’s network of stations and channels both in the UK and abroad is much bigger than RTE.

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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 1:20 PM

    The beeb also have 16 times the population to collect the licence fee from

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    Mute cooperguy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 2:53 PM

    @Sean, you have to be joking! The BBC license fee is massively more revenue than what RTE get. If you want an ad free rte you would need need a massive license fee increase.

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    Mute Sean Oige
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    Sep 12th 2015, 5:21 PM

    They should get rid of the ads so! RTE an absolute waste of money….

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    Mute cooperguy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 6:11 PM

    why exactly, their viewing numbers says different. Your not supposed to like everything they do. that’s the point of public broadcasting, not everything has to appeal to a mass market

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    Mute Fergus O'Neill
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:18 AM

    I’ve had just over 200,000 ads blocked in just over a year. 200,000 – there’s your reason for installing a blocker.

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    Mute Mark Malone
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:28 PM

    156,742 for me in around the same length of time. Ludicrous amount.

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    Mute Thomas Mac
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:59 AM

    I wouldn’t be able to watch my favourite online sports channel only for adblocker plus .

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    Mute Enda O Brien
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:49 AM

    No problem with subscription models i have a few but you would want to be providing a good service.

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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:00 AM

    The take a whitelist approach, an adblocker can be quite useful for security reasons browsing websites you’re in familiar with. However websites I visit frequently will get whitelisted as long as there are no autoplay video ads. More broadly the issue is very similar to that of music, film and game piracy. A generation of people now seem to find the idea of artists and writers being paid for the content they produce completly alien. They also refuse to acknowledge this act as stealing

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    Mute Enda O Brien
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:02 AM

    Honestly the way the music industry was so explotive of people when the likes of napster did not exist was the reason noone had a problem with using the likes of napster.

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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:29 AM

    I’m not old enough to have been exploited by the music industry pre Napster I wasnt even ten when they got sued and there are people only about 5 or years younger than me who have never paid for music in their lives

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    Mute Sean McGovern
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:07 AM

    I stopped using Vodafone because of the amount of ads they force you to watch on YouTube and other web sites.

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    Mute Andy Cahalan
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:27 AM

    What did I just read?

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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:10 AM

    I don’t mind ads. I do mind bad, poorly targeted ads. I would have thought in 2015 the might of Google would have figured out that making me sit through a few seconds of advertising to watch a ten second cat video is stupid. Especially when they’ve been collecting data on me for years and haven’t figured out that maybe an ad for L’Oréal shampoo is probably the wrong product to target me with. Some of the American services are the worst though. They put ads in services that you actually pay for like NFL and MLB live streaming and then the ads are exclusively targeted at American audiences. Absolutely pointless.

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    Mute Rochelle
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:29 AM

    I’m entirely fine with web based businesses failing to succeed and the internet going back to being mainly driven by hobbyists. Those motivated by passion and interest rather than monetary gain.

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    Mute Search Eagle
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    Sep 13th 2015, 10:12 AM

    “Passion” doesn’t cover the massive costs required to host the videos you enjoy. An awful lot of hobbyist content relies on tools that are made free by advertising revenue.

    But I am also fine with web-based businesses failing because people won’t click their ads. However, the internet won’t change into the passion and interest haven you seek, instead people with the resources and money will consolidate their control by introducing other paid models. See, for example: blip which deleted the videos and kicked out all its hobbyist content creators to focus on its 4000 stronger more commercially lucrative partners.

    There’s also nothing wrong with seeking monetary gain for doing something you enjoy. Why should the people who produce the content you consume be required to do so for free?

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    Mute Michael Fallon
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:55 AM

    Is there an adblock for ipads and where can I get it?

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    Mute David Ronan
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:05 AM

    Use this, great for blocking all ads on all devices connected to your network, small bit of DIY involved but worth it http://lifehacker.com/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-an-ad-blocker-with-a-single-co-1686093533

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    Mute Life in no motion
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:21 AM

    Block Party was working for me on ios 9 beta

    Used it on the indo site. I’ve a 6+ and the poxy ad for Ribena takes up almost all the page

    Ridonculous

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:22 PM

    I’m sick of adverts everywhere… Next toilet paper unless you use newspapers?

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    Mute Paul Murphy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 3:11 PM

    Ads are great as long as they stay in one place, don’t make any noise (unless I click on them), don’t slow down the website and don’t try to install stuff on my computer/phone/whatever.

    Otherwise yer blocked.

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    Mute Andrew McCarthy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 2:08 PM

    Worse than the distraction and delays, there’s the growing problem of malvertising — ads that are actually malicious content that can infect your browser/PC/phone without any interaction from you. Blocking flash helps a bit, but really I’ve found blocking all ads best.

    Take a look at https://blog.malwarebytes.org/malvertising-2/ for some of the most recent ones including major sites like Yahoo and MSN. Worth the risk?

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    Mute Gusty McBlow
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:50 PM

    Hosts File!

    That is all.

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    Mute Jim Nielsen
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    Sep 12th 2015, 4:35 PM

    entirely agree – in my case it stops 99% of adverts and it’s a small matter to add new hosts entries when needed. the only drawback with the hosts file approach is when add sites are using https://…/ as i have seen happening with mrgreen betting and a couple more..

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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Sep 12th 2015, 3:39 PM

    It’s called “click-bait”.
    Just below this very article were:
    12 frightening facts your pilot will never tell you.
    23 facts about left-handed people.
    and surprise surprise…
    50 of the funniest cats.

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    Mute Kane Abel
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:58 AM

    Dumb logo – Really looks like AdRoil….(?) I predict failure….

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    Mute ScewMadd
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    Sep 13th 2015, 2:00 PM

    This ad reminds me of this cringey video.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67ZZUSpeS4k

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