Radio legend Gerry Ryan would want his former colleagues to mind his daughter Lottie as she kicks off her career in radio.
RTE’s Brenda Donohue – who worked on Gerry’s show for 18 years before his death – knows he would want to know that 28-year-old is being looked after in the station.
“Obviously Lottie works in 2FM – and she’s doing brilliantly and she doesn’t need any of my help,” she said.
“But I’d always feel a little bit protective towards her, and I’d be delighted for her because I’d know he’d want us to keep an eye out for her.”
Following on: Gerry with daughters Lottie and Bonnie | VIPIRELAND.COM
But Brenda, who now works with Mooney on Radio 1, says she still dreams of Gerry – and especially misses him when she has dirty emails to forward on.
She added: “You roll on, because obvious we have a very similar sense of humour. He loved the boldness in me, and I loved his sophistication, so to speak.
“So I’d come across something dirty and I’d go to email him and I’d go, ‘Awww.’ He’s the only one who would get that.
Former colleague: Brenda with new show presenter Derek Mooney | VIPIRELAND.COM
“So that took a little while. And you would dream about him occasionally, and things like that.”
But Brenda told Late Lunch Live that she will never forget the day Gerry died in 2010, on her son Harvey’s first birthday.
“For me the day he died, it was my little fella’s birthday. He was one on the day, it was his first birthday party,” she explained.
“And then I got the news, it was awful, and we had to go on the Late Late that night, and we were talking about someone in the past tense. It was just crazy.”