- To mark his retirement as host of the long-running chat show The Late Late Show (1962) on 21 May 1999, Gay Byrne was presented with a brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle by the Irish rock group U2 live on national television. Byrne used the bike regularly, until January 2003 when Byrne and U2 auctioned the bike for The Children's Medical & Research Foundation at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.
- The now defunct pop group Boyzone made their first public appearance on the show. The success that the group went on to achieve fulfilled a line of the song which plays over the closing credits - 'it started on The Late Late Show'.
- Gaybo and Kathleen have two daughters, both adopted, Crona and Suzy
- In 1999 he was granted the Freedom of Dublin City.
- After leaving school, he was due to go to university and had chosen Trinity College, Dublin, but his father's death meant he had to go out to work instead. Many years later, in 1988, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Trinity College.
- He was the first person to introduce The Beatles on television when they made their small screen debut on Granada Television's local news programme People and Places (1957).
- 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 second longest-running chat show.
- Byrne died on 4 November 2019 at his home in Howth. On 5 November 2019, a special live edition of The Late Late Show was broadcast on RTÉ One, with various tributes made to him.
- He was affectionately known as "Uncle Gay", "Gaybo" or "Uncle Gaybo".
- Gay Byrne was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television.
- He was a qualified private pilot.
- 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 1988, Byrne was awarded an honorary doctorate in letters from Trinity College Dublin.
- 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.
- He holds the record for the greatest number of Jacob's Awards ( Irish television awards ) received, winning a total of six for his radio and television work.
- He was approached to run in the 2011 Irish presidential election but declined to run, despite topping early opinion polls.
- 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 his retirement he was described as the "Elder Lemon of Irish broadcasting".
- 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.
- Byrne performed a one-man show in front of a sold-out audience at the Gate Theatre on 18 September 2011. The performance was part of a benefit night to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society. British Ambassador Julian King and Senator David Norris were among those in attendance.
- In later years, Byrne revealed he had hearing loss in one ear. He thought originally that it was due to working in the television and radio industry for over 50 years that caused his hearing loss, but later found out it was genetic as his mother, his sister and three brothers all had hearing problems.
- A wax figure of Gay Byrne has been put on public display at Wax Museum Plus on Dublin's College Green.
- According to Ryle Dwyer, writing in the Irish Examiner, Byrne "had more influence on changing life in this country than any of the political leaders".
- 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.
- He received a Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2007 from Irish Film and Television Network.
- Byrne attended Rialto National School (since closed) and a number of other schools for short periods. Subsequently, he was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers at Synge Street CBS.
- His funeral took place on 8 November 2019 at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin and was shown live on RTÉ; several thousand fans lined the route of his cortège from his home in Howth to the Church with thousands more gathering outside the church.
- In 2010, The Irish Times said Byrne was "unquestionably the most influential radio and television man in the history of the Irish State".
- In 2006, he was elected Chairman of Ireland's Road Safety Authority.
- 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.
- Byrne relied on an accountant friend, Russell Murphy, to manage his finances, and was personally distraught when upon Murphy's death in 1986, it was found that most of his savings had been squandered, and this had been hidden from him.
- Alongside Terry Wogan, Byrne was one of two Irish broadcast giants,[76] but he was also described as solely "the most famous Irish broadcaster in history", and he was lauded by the media as "the man who changed Ireland".
- Byrne was married to Kathleen Watkins, formerly a well-known harpist. Watkins was also the first continuity announcer to appear on-screen on the opening night of Telefís Éireann on New Year's Eve in 1961.
- He received an "Outstanding Achievement PPI Radio Award" (2009). The newspaper "Irish Independent" wrote about the event: "The only surprise is that it has taken so long for Gaybo to get it".
- Credited with being a catalyst in the transformation of Irish society since the 1960s, Byrne broke several societal taboos by engaging in discourse on subjects like contraception, homosexuality, and abortion. For example, when Barry Galvin-then Cork's state solicitor-guested with Byrne on The Late Late Show in 1992 to discuss Ireland's mounting problems with the illegal drug trade, he was subsequently given the post of first-ever head of the important Criminal Assets Bureau.
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