Eamon Dunphy has worked closely with Bill O'Herlihy seem to have been sitting around the same table for almost forty years. The pair worked together for the first time at the 1978 World Cup.
An emotional Dunphy spoke to RTE's News at One about today's news. He paid tribute to his friend and colleague's journalistic ability as well as his qualities as a man.
The core of good journalism is making people engage with the subject... you render it human.
It's a great tribute to him that RTE would give that job in sport, and not just soccer but the Olympics as well, a great current affairs broadcaster before that with a range of interests and a grasp of his subject, no matter what it was.
He was a fantastic broadcaster and a very, very nice man. A decent man and great fun.
He had a journalist's sharp instincts and he'd often pull me up, or Liam Brady in particular. Behind it all, we were all great friends.
He also said that O'Herlihy was the most important person on the panel and 'the catalyst for all that was good on it'.
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/207123204" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]
Towards the end of the interview, Dunphy became choked up as he recalled O'Herlihy as 'a fabulous man, husband, father and broadcaster'.
You can listen to the rest of the interview here.
