Gay Byrne

Who is Gay Byrne?

Gabriel Mary "Gay" Byrne is a veteran Irish presenter of radio and television. His most notable role was 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 chat show. His time working in Britain with Granada Television saw him become the first person to introduce The Beatles on screen.

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. Since retiring from his long-running radio and television shows, Byrne has 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. Since retiring he has become 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". In 2011, he was approached to become President of Ireland but declined to run, despite topping opinion polls.