RTE has paid tribute to legendary Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne with a touching highlights reel of 'uncle Gaybo's' best bits.
The national broadcaster created a short highlights reel showcasing some of the special moments with Gay from over the years.
From telling prankster Mike Murphy, dressed as a French tourist, to "f**k off" to shooting the Late Late Toy Show audience with a water gun, the short clip is a touching tribute to the household name.
The former Late Late Show host, who spent 37 years at its helm, had been ill for some time and sadly passed away at the age of 85.
RTE Director General Dee Forbes today paid tribute to Mr Byrne and said: “We are all greatly saddened by the passing of Gay Byrne, who has been a household name in this country for so many years.
"Gay was an exceptional broadcaster whose unique and ground-breaking style contributed so much to the development of radio and television in this country. Gay’s journalistic legacy is as colossal as the man himself – he not only defined generations, but he deftly arbitrated the growth and development of a nation.
"Ireland grew up under Gay Byrne, and we will never see his like again. My deepest sympathies to Kathleen and his family.”
Chair of RTE Moya Doherty said: “Writing about the importance of Gay Byrne has for me both a professional, as Chair of the RTE Board, and a personal dimension, as a close and cherished friend for many years.
"The more I considered it the more I realised that this was not a contradiction in any way since this is exactly how Gay existed and worked bringing the professional and the personal together to increase understanding in the audiences he addressed. In many ways Gay was the epitome of the old adage that the personal is political.
"He was, of course, fortunate to be working at the moment when television and radio were in their golden age, when Ireland was beginning to think deeply about what it meant to be a global presence in a rapidly changing social and cultural world. But into this context Gay brought two unique gifts.
"He was able to see around societal corners and predict what the next emerging social, political, or cultural issue was, the new issue which needed to be brought to the public stage, whatever the ensuing controversy. To these issues Gay brought an unswerving curiosity asking exactly the questions his audience needed answered.
Gay Byrne is survived by his wife Kathleen, their daughters Crona and Suzy, and their families.
