Gerry Ryan

Gerard Ryan (4 June 1956 – 30 April 2010) was an Irish presenter of radio and television employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).

Ryan was born in Dublin in 1956.

He described his father, Vinnie, as a "slightly eccentric" dentist from a Presbyterian background and his mother, Maureen (née Burke), as "a flamboyant woman" who came from a theatrical background and worked in the theatre.

His godfather was broadcaster Eamonn Andrews.

He learnt to shoot with Charles Haughey's children.

He had two brothers, Michael and Vincent.

He was educated at St Paul's College, Raheny.

When RTÉ Radio 2 (now RTÉ 2fm) was launched in 1979, Ryan joined RTÉ as a DJ where he presented a selection of speech- and music-based programmes, including Here Comes the Weekend on Friday nights and Saturday Scene on Saturday mornings, which earned him £78 per week.

Ryan then moved to a night-time music show called 'Lights out' which accompanied Mark Cagney's grown-up album programme and Dave Fanning's The Rock Show as part of Radio 2's night-time line-up.

The trio brought their shows on tour around Ireland.

Ryan said they dressed as if they were in a band and behaved as such as well, booking into "awful hotels", drinking heavily and staying out late in "dodgy nightclubs".

Their excessive talking has led to Ryan dubbing them "the three big-mouths on at night-time".

They were good friends; Fanning was "a kind of hyperactive, Southside rock guru" and Cagney was "this obsessive, meticulous Corkman who would annotate every single millisecond of what he played on-air".

The trio also started to put on live shows, some of which Ryan described as being attended by crowds of 20,000.

In 1987, he earned notoriety and the moniker "Lambo" after an unpleasant incident in Connemara.

In 1987, Ryan and a group of volunteers spent time in the countryside of Connemara as part of The Gay Byrne Show.

Ryan claimed to have killed and eaten a lamb to survive, earning him the nickname "Lambo", though the story turned out to be a hoax.

The incident has been adapted for the stage.

Ryan's style was considered by some to be that of a motor-mouth shock jock.

The Gerry Ryan Show was subject to several upheld complaints to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), although once escaped punishment when he said "Would it be considered blasphemous if someone said on air that 'God is a bollocks?'".

Ryan was noted for the enjoyment he took in discussing topics such as sex, bodily functions, and food – as well as current social and political issues.

Disgraced former PR guru Max Clifford claimed, after Ryan's death, he could have, like Graham Norton and Terry Wogan, had a successful broadcasting career in the UK and said he was similar to "Michael Parkinson at his best".

He presented The Gerry Ryan Show on radio station RTÉ 2fm each weekday morning from 1988 until hours before his sudden death.

He married Morah Brennan in 1988 and they had five children: Lottie, Rex, Bonnie, Elliott and Babette.

The Gerry Ryan Show, began in March 1988 when he was offered a three-hour morning radio slot.

The G. Ryan Show, running from 09:00–12:00 on weekday mornings, consisted of interviews and phone-ins via the "Ryan Line".

Each morning he would begin by discussing the headlines of that morning's newspapers.

Following the news update at 10:00, Ryan would introduce that morning's Nob Nation, a satirical slot which featured impersonations of politicians and RTÉ media personnel comparable to rival station Today FM's Gift Grub.

Ryan presented RTÉ 2fm's only show which was regularly among the top twenty Irish radio shows in Ireland, a show which commanded around €4–5 million for RTÉ per annum, mainly through advertising (one thirty-second advertisement during the show cost €900).

This meant RTÉ would have earned €27,000 through advertising from Ryan per day.

He was presented with a Jacob's Award for this show in 1990.

Ryan hosted several series of television shows, including Secrets, Gerry Ryan Tonight, Ryantown, Gerry Ryan's Hitlist, Ryan Confidential and the first three series of Operation Transformation.

He was also noted for co-presenting, with Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, Eurovision Song Contest 1994 and, in 2008, presenting an edition of The Late Late Show, television's longest-running chat show, in place of the then regular host Pat Kenny.

In 1997, Morah famously telephoned her husband's show and, under the name Norah, told half a million listeners intimate details concerning his personal household habits.

Ryan's mother died on Christmas Day 2006.

Early in his career, Ryan was involved part-time in pirate radio – presenting a selection of programmes firstly for Alternative Radio Dublin (ARD) and then for Big D.

An autobiography, Would the Real Gerry Ryan Please Stand Up, was published in October 2008.

Gerry and Morah announced their separation in March 2008.

He soon began a relationship with the former South African Ambassador to Ireland and the then UNICEF Ireland executive director, Melanie Verwoerd.

Ryan was found dead in his Dublin home on 30 April 2010.