Business as usual on his last broadcast

GERRY RYAN’S last broadcast provided no hint that it would be the final time his legions of loyal listeners would hear his voice.

Business as usual on his last broadcast

On Thursday morning, he presented his show on 2FM as normal, engaging listeners in a debate on whether it was ever acceptable to discipline a child by slapping.

He drew on his own experiences and the challenges of child-rearing but stressed how much he adored his children and found them brilliant to get along with.

At 10.30pm on Thursday night, he rang colleagues at the radio station and told them he didn’t feel well and wasn’t sure if he would be able to make it in to work the next day.

On Friday morning, he failed to show up for work and breakfast show DJs, Colm and Jim Jim, extended their show by an hour to cover for him, while occasional presenter Fiona Looney was called up at short notice to fill in after the duo until the show’s normal finish time at noon.

She joked unwittingly that she hated getting early morning calls, because she always feared it must mean somebody was dead. It was clear from the on-air banter that no one had any inkling that Gerry was anything other than a little under the weather.

Colleagues had meanwhile tried to contact him but got no response. His worried partner, Melanie Verwoerd, also tried but failed to reach him by phone and arrived at his Upper Leeson Street apartment in Dublin to check on him.

She tried to get in but found the door chain-locked and asked some workmen in the area for help. They managed to get the door open for her and she found Gerry dead beside his bed.

It was clear that he had been dead for a while and that it was too late to get an ambulance.

Gardaí were called and summoned a doctor to formally declare the presenter’s death.

They sealed off the scene while forensic experts carried out a technical examination. This was completed by late afternoon and Gerry’s body was removed from the scene by ambulance.

A postmortem was scheduled to be held last night and an inquest hearing will follow in the months ahead.

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