Gay Byrne: The very model of a motoring fine gentleman

Gay Byrne certainly brings profile to the new Road Safety Authority, at least to those over 35. He also brings an impatience with bureaucracy and procrastination. And he is an exemplary driver himself, probably never having had even a scrape throughout his lengthy driving career.

He is fussy about his car. Fussy about oil gauges, about the sound of the engine, the air pressure in the tyres, the heating system. He drives carefully within the speed limits, watches traffic ahead and in the rear and wide mirrors, observes all the signal regulations, stops dead at stop signs. The very model of a motoring fine gentleman (to paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan).

He knows a bit about organisation as well. He was editor/producer/presenter of the Late Late Show for decades and thrived on the responsibility. Whereas he was not producer of his radio programme, he was de facto producer. His life is or at least was organised to the minutest detail: got up at the same time every weekday morning, left home at the same time, travelled the same route, arrived at the office at the same time, went down to the radio studio the same time, left the radio centre at the same time, arrived in the television centre the same time, went home the same time, went to bed the same time.

But there are a few hurdles with the Road Safety Authority that may befuddle him. First, the terms of reference of the new Authority are not very clear and he won't be good at ensuring they are adequate to do the job he thinks needs be done. Neither will he be good at ensuring that the Authority is adequately resourced, simply because he has no experience here. The commitment to an annual budget of €30 million and a staff of 300 seems impressive but there may be many devils in the detail – the civil service has a stockpile of devils.

Gabriel Mary Byrne was born on 5 August 1934 (72 this year). Educated at Synge Street CBS, after which he became an insurance clerk. One of his "hang-ups" has been that he never went on to third level education but he made up for that by being awarded an honorary doctorate by Trinity College and being made a Freeman of Dublin by Dublin City Council.

He started in radio doing what were known as "sponsored programmes", quarter hour programmes, broadcast at lunchtime on behalf of company sponsors – the programmes were hugely popular. He then got a TV gig at Granada television in Manchester and was the first to introduce the Beatles live on TV.

He presented the Late Late Show from 1962 until 1999, and a regular morning radio show from 1972 to 1999. Both were hugely successful, albeit at a time when RTÉ had no domestic competition in either radio or television.

On 21 May 1999 he presented his last Late Late Show and on that programme Bono presented him with a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He rode on it around Dublin and into the countryside for some time, dressed in leathers and helmet, revelling in the rare anonymity. The bike was later auctioned for charity.

RTÉ had been alarmed for years at the prospect of him defecting to a rival station or retiring early. He almost joined Oliver Barry in Century Radio in 1989 and indeed his decision finally not to do so (this was after Oliver Barry had brought a bank draft to his home for IR£1 million to entice him to jump) proved fatal to the survival of the new station.

As he grew older and more tired, RTÉ accommodated him by having him broadcast on radio just three days a week but that experiment never worked. Eventually, when, aged 65, he retired from the radio programme and the Late Late Show, it was feared armageddon (the final battle between the forces of good and evil) would break, listeners would defect in droves. In fact the loyalty factor proved a formidable defence as did astute programming decisions particularly on radio. Listenership and viewing figures continued to drop (the decline had begun on Gaybo's watch) because of increased competition, but armageddon was forestalled.

He returned to the airwaves with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the Gay Byrne Music Show and Make 'Em Laugh, a series about comedy in Ireland. He has most recently presented a television series called Class Reunion. They were all disappointments and, in retrospect, probably a mistake for the halcyon days of his stellar broadcasting career had gone forever.

He is married to Kathleen Watkins for over forty years. They have two children, both now adults, one of whom got married last year. In 1989 he wrote (wth Deirdre Purcell) his autobiography entitled The Time of My Life. It was largely unrevealing, aside from the angst it displayed over being "robbed" of his "life's savings" by the then deceased accountant, Russell Murphy. Actually that episode emboldened Gaybo to demand from RTÉ the kind of salary his huge popularity and professionalism merited and, in the end, he probably emerged as even better off as consequence. In any event Russell Murphy probably enjoyed the money more than Gay Byrne was ever capable of enjoying it.

The appointment as chairman of the new Road Safety Authority is a welcome one for him. In spite of his protestations to the contrary, he cannot have enjoyed the relative indolence and obscurity of his retirement. This appointment brings him back into the public arena but it may prove eventually exacting in a way he may not welcome. If road deaths do not decline he may be prone to take it personally – and stressfully.

Vincent Browne