His Name Is Ozymandias

I just walked in to my desk through reception. There was only one person sitting there, serenely reading the Irish Times. Gay Byrne.

There is something inherently wrong with the broadcasting giant that still walks amongst us having to wait politely in the reception area he strode through on his way to work for so many years.

I would have gone over, just to pass and say good morning but he would have no idea who I am. he gave Ruth and I a great interview one Christmas Eve on the phone about the Late Late Toy Shows of yore and I did sit around a large table with him and his lovely wife at a function once a couple of years after that and he briefly offered me some advice, but I’d become a bumbling idiot trying to explain who I am and rightly so.

If you do ever pass him on the street, smile and be polite, as we would, NONE OF US, be doing radio today if it weren’t for him whether we know it, or like to admit it, or not.

One day, if I am extremely lucky, that man sitting in reception will be me.

2 thoughts on “His Name Is Ozymandias

  1. Gay Byrne should have to wait for no man. I saw Pat Ingoldsby doing his shopping yesterday. Imagine the genius that brought us Pat’s Hat and wrote Wanderly Wagon doing his own shopping…>What’s the world coming to !

    I’d set your aspirations a bit higher than sitting in the reception of RTE when you’re odler Rick….personally I’m aiming for the Hugh Heffner style retirement with plenty of nubile young things around me and pots of money at my disposal (nearest I might get is sitting in a nursing hom soiling myself while some young nurses try to feed me pureed dinner but one can dream!).

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