Biography

To mark his retirement as host of the long-running chat show The Late Late Show (1962) on 21 May 1999, Gay Byrne was presented with a brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle by the Irish rock group U2 live on national television. Byrne used the bike regularly, until January 2003 when Byrne and U2 auctioned the bike for The Children's Medical & Research Foundation at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

The now defunct pop group Boyzone made their first public appearance on the show. The success that the group went on to achieve fulfilled a line of the song which plays over the closing credits - 'it started on The Late Late Show'.

Gaybo and Kathleen have two daughters, both adopted, Crona and Suzy

In 1999 he was granted the Freedom of Dublin City.

After leaving school, he was due to go to university and had chosen Trinity College, Dublin, but his father's death meant he had to go out to work instead. Many years later, in 1988, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Trinity College.