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Friends and colleagues pay tribute to Marian Finucane on Late Late Show

Claire Byrne was tonight among friends and colleagues of Marian Finucane to appear on the Late Late Show to pay tribute to the late broadcaster.

Joined on the couch by Olivia O’Leary, Clare Duignan and Maureen Gaffney the broadcasters told host Ryan Tubridy their fond memories of the 69-year-old.

Claire recounted her early experiences working alongside Marian, as she presented a radio show straight after Marian’s ended.

RTE

“Someone came up with the idea that I should go into Marian and tell the audience, her audience, what was coming up on my programme.”

“And of course me being relatively newly arrived in RTE; ‘here is the Queen of Irish broadcasting, now go in and impress her… if you don’t mind’,” she said.

“I would walk in there and Marian would be in there with the glasses perched on the nose, the steely blue stare over those glasses.”

VIPIRELAND.COM

Claire recalled Marian’s work habits, saying she was always well dressed – with newspapers strewn across the studio.

“Always impeccable, beautiful, so well groomed. I was always jealous of her clothes , I remember that.”

“There was always papers flying, and remember the lyrics competition? She always had to do that last.”

“And the lyrics competition would be happening, and she’d have people talking in her ear and I always felt like I just had to get through it and get out.”

“Then about every third week she would throw a question at me, so she was listening all the time, and she would say; ‘That’s not what happened in the last election’,” Claire laughed telling the audience how Marian would catch her out.

“It was an education in a way to see how she worked.”

“She had that fearlessness, and I really learned from that. It’s really difficult when you’re coming into this game to have that confidence and self-belief and it rubbed off on me.”

VIPIRELAND.COM

Marian joined the national broadcaster in 1976 as a continuity announcer.

She began presenting The Marian Finucane Show filling the 11 am weekend slot in 1999 when Gay Byrne retired from the station.

The head of RTE Radio Tom McGuire has confirmed that Morning Ireland presenter Rachel English will present Marian’s slot on the station this weekend.

Marian Finucane died suddenly aged 69 at her home in Kildare on Thursday January 2nd.

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