Suzy Byrne, daughter of the late presenter Gay Byrne, has described compiling the new book, PS Gay: More Letters and Memories from the Gay Byrne Show as bittersweet.
Suzy Byrne whose mother was the late Kathleen Watkins, has said that the book, which is a follow up to 2023's bestseller's Dear Guy, is a tribute to her late parents and to the avid listeners of the Gay Byrne Show, which ran on RTÉ Radio from 1973 to 1998.
Having started the book before her mother's death, Suzy Byrne admitted that it was difficult to return to the project following her death.
"It's a year ago next Friday that Mum died", she said. "We'd done a huge amount of work, myself and Alice O'Sullivan, in the run-up to Mum's death. And it felt at the time when she died, I just couldn't do it. I actually couldn't go near it again".
She continued: "A few months later, Alice persuaded me to go back in [to the RTÉ Archives]. We decided to go last February, to go back and finish it, because a lot of the research that I had done... Mum had been at home in Sandymount, and I'd be going down from RTÉ to her with funny stories of things that we'd found, her own writing in the various requests to Dad to say requests on the radio, etc. She was so excited about the book, so it kind of felt like a bit of a tribute to her to finish it. And also, a tribute to all the women who listened and were part of the story of PS Gay".
Suzy Byrne also revealed that compiling this book was difficult as she had to listen to her father's voice and read her parent's handwriting.
She said: "Grief, as everyone knows, is a very lonely place, so you're sometimes just taken off into moments," she continued. "And their writing, particularly, Dad's voice very much so, but a lot of it is upbeat and it's kind of almost of its time. Whereas Mum's writing and Dad's writing, which are all over the files, it's funny because they were so together and stuff, and she was so involved in our lives and his life. But yes, it was quite emotional at times. It depends on the day".
Despite this, she insisted that the project was "such a privilege".
"I don't know anybody else that has had the privilege of going in and really understanding their own parents, where they've come from and the jobs that they did", she said. "As a teenager and growing up, Gay Byrne/Late Late Show was part of our lives, but we were mortified a lot of the time by it! You know, they're talking about sex, about the Church, about things and - [we] didn't want to know about it!
"Whereas as an adult, to go back in, it really was an incredible privilege, to now understand why everybody loved him and the show and the work that went into it and everything. So, it was upsetting at times but emotionally a privilege, I think, all in all. So, as they would say themselves, the show must go on.".
Suzy also paid tribute to the "brutal honesty" of Gay Byrne's listeners, as well as the sense of warmth, compassion and humour she felt when reading the letters. She said that these were people who "sat down and poured out their hearts", "often at personal risks to themselves".
PS Gay: More Letters and Memories from the Gay Byrne Show, which was published by Gill Books, was published yesterday (October 30).
