I’d put cutting out social media on a par with giving up smoking. The fruit of putting the gadget down is reading, enjoying live shows, and participating in real life, writes Gerard Howlin

There will be a lot of fanfare over the coming weeks to mark Gay Byrne’s 80th birthday, which falls in early August, as there has just been plaudits for Bill O’Herlihy, as he stepped away from the anchor seat of RTÉ’s sports department, having steered us through 10 World Cups and 10 Olympic Games on TV. And rightly so.