Social history
Another year, another Late Late season.. Thomas Myler looks back on the highs and lows of an Irish institution as it approaches its 60th anniversary
The idea came from a producer, Tom McGrath, who had seen episodes of America’s The Tonight Show while working for a Canadian station. He liked its lively discussions with celebrity guests and proposed the idea to Telefis Eireann.
RTE Stills Library
It started as a summer filler on the newly-opened Telefis Eireann, as RTE was known then, on Friday 2 July, 1962, starting at 11.20 pm when most people were either in bed or preparing to go to bed.
Most of the controversies centered around Gay Byrne when he presented the show, not surprising considering he was host for 37 years. How well do you remember them?
McGrath suggested a young Dublin broadcaster named Gay Byrne, who had been with Granada Television in Manchester show, notably the likes of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid and was hosting a quiz show on Telefis Eireann called Jackpot and the Bishop of Clonfert condemning it as ‘blasphemes, at the time. He had been the first person to introduce the immoral, and totally unacceptable in a predominantly Beatles on television, on a Catholic country.’ Granada programme The hierarchy called People and Following one show in which women’s clamped down Places. He was 27. nightwear was under discussion, Loughrea heavily on the show, Town Council called it ‘a dirty programme notably the likes of which should be abolished altogether.’ Telefis Eireann agreed Archbishop John to give it a try on a Here we are now, 60 years on, wondering Charles McQuaid temporary basis, and what all the fuss was about. so the Late Late Show was born. After the Will there be another 60 years of the Late Late? ‘It sounds summer season, it was ridiculous but 60 years ago I’d say they never imagined it’d still decided to keep it running be running in 2022,’ Ryan Tubridy said. ‘It’s in a very healthy on a weekly basis, but place. Irish people love to talk and love moving it to an earlier spot. watching others talk. Sixty years on, it is still here, and showing no signs of stopping or even slowing down. It remains the second longest-running late night live chat show in the world, topped only by America’s The Tonight Show which started in 1957. This current season will be Ryan Tubridy’s 13th to act as host,. Back in 1962, after a light-hearted, chatty start, it gradually developed into a forum for contentious opinion and debate, involving topics such as divorce, contraception and a number of areas hitherto unspoken of. There were complaints from viewers all over the country, with many unprepared for a show bringing such discussions into their homes. The hierarchy clamped down heavily on the 6 Senior Times | July - August 2022 | www.seniortimes.ie
One of the most controversial Late Lates’s was in 1993 when a young American divorcee Annie Murphy came on the show, hosted by Gaybo at the time and spoke about her affair with Bishop Eamonn Casey 20 years earlier. ‘The show still has a role to play in Irish life. You can stream to your heart’s content but you can’t download soul. There’s
