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Ryan Tubridy remembers his ‘genial and gentle’ friend Larry Gogan

The legendary broadcaster sadly passed away this morning

VIPIRELAND.COM

Ryan Tubridy has remembered his ‘genial and gentle’ friend Larry Gogan.

Friends, colleagues and and listeners took to the airwaves on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning, to pay tribute to the veteran broadcaster following the sad news of his death. 

An emotional Ryan said: “Strange days, strange days indeed. I was coming in to present one show and by 7.30 that all changed because of the news that our friend – and I mean that, he was a friend of ours and he was a colleague – Larry Gogan has died.”

“There’s no getting around it because it’s particularly poignant because of Marian’s passing last week and indeed Gay’s not so long before him.”

VIPIRELAND.COM

“There is that sense that this trinity of talent that has dominated the Irish airwaves have all left us now and we are very very sad today about Larry.”

Ryan recalled that it was when he was presenting The Full Irish on 2FM that he really got to know Larry.

“He would come in at Christmas and he would be the first person on the airwaves who was allowed play a Christmas song as far as we were concerned,” he said.

“He was genial, he was gentle, he was giving and he was also good craic.”

A number of listeners contacted the show to recall their fond memories of Larry, who last year celebrated 40 years working at 2FM.

Ronan Collins, who had worked with Larry for decades at RTÉ, described him as his “pal”.

“In the last few weeks, with Gay going and with Marian…extraordinary colleagues, extraordinary broadcasters…they were great broadcasting colleagues and indeed great mentors, but Larry was my friend,” he said.

Ronan described how Larry had encouraged him to take a job with RTÉ Radio 1 and that “he was so encouraging down through the years.”

“He was such a great friend, he was a great friend to many of us through the years. He was extraordinary, you talk about people in life who are happy… Larry was personally happy and he spread that so much,” he added.

Dave Fanning said: “So much has been said already and Ronan put it so much into context, it’s astonishing, he was the Daddy of it all.. the best one, the nicest guy you would ever meet and all it was about for six decades was pop music.”

“Everybody loved Larry Gogan and for a very good reason, he was one of the nicest guys you could meet in your entire life.”

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