The shock news that much loved broadcaster, Johnny Lyons, has passed away has unsurprisingly been meet with the kind of tributes that come when you are held in such high regard by those who knew you. There have been plenty of lovely words said but one in particular has stood out.
Paul Howard broke character from his usual Ross O'Carroll Kelly musings to relay some stories of his former colleague and it really does just give a sense of the kind of guy Lyons was away from the microphone.
Howard picked a few of his favourite stories but perhaps the most enjoyable is a rather simple one of how Lyons began his career in radio.
One last memory. Back in the early 1990s, Johnny did a Saturday night shift in the Tribune, collecting basketball results...
— Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
It meant phoning around the club PROs between 9pm and 10pm, collecting the results. Johnny's personality turned it into a performance.
— Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
One day, Elaine Geraghty of 98fm was in the building and she said, "Who's that on the radio?" She was told, "That's not the radio."
— Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
Elaine said, "He needs to be on the radio." Anyway, the following week, he was on 98fm.
— Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
Ringing around for the basketball results is not exactly high up on the totem pole of the media machine and to be able to turn something so run of the mill into a performance that got him noticed takes a very special individual. And, just as a bonus, Howard also relayed the time Lyons got on the wrong side of Mick McCarthy in the run up to one of the biggest games in Irish football history.
It’s hard to pick a favourite Johnny Lyons moment. Although it would hard to beat the time he turned up to the press conference...
— Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
before Ireland played Holland wearing a Dutch jersey [Dutch football was his passion]. Mick McCarthy refused to take questions from him...
— Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
until he took it off.
— Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
A man who will be missed by those who knew him and by those who just felt like they did as a result of that incredibly distinctive voice.
