RTE Director General Kevin Bakhurst opens up about his friendship with 'fine man' Marty Morrissey
The pair have been pals for several years after meeting during his previous stint at RTÉ as head of news and current affairs
by Sandra Mallon · Irish MirrorRTE’s Director-General Kevin Bakhurst has opened up about his friendship with the station’s sports commentator Marty Morrissey – calling him a “fine man”.
The pair have been pals for several years after meeting during his previous stint at RTÉ as head of news and current affairs. Speaking to Sean O’Rourke on his Insights podcast, Mr Bakhurst said Marty is a “fine man”.
He said: “Marty is a very good friend of mine, as people know. Initially he invited me along to a couple of Hurling finals. I went with him, and I deliberately wanted to sit with him while he commentated and not go into one of the boxes at that stage. Our friendship developed from there - he’s a fine man.”
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He also opened up about how he used to love travelling to Clare to visit Marty’s 94-year-old mother Peggy Morrissey, before she died in a car crash in December 2021.
“Yeah. His mother was lovely. She was always very welcoming every time I went down to Clare. I always used to enjoy going in to see her and having a chat. She was in her 90s when she died but to get to hear her stories from her and her early life and their life in New York, that was always lovely.”
Mr Bakhurst even risked missing out seeing his son in America when he travelled to Clare to attend Mrs Morrissey’s funeral. He said: “It was during one of the tricky Covid periods and I was about to head off with my wife to see my son in America, we’d not seen him for a couple of years because of the Covid travel restrictions.
“Then, very sadly, Peggy died, and I think it was about a week or so before we were heading to Nashville and my wife totally understood… it was tricky if I caught Covid, I wouldn’t have been able to go to the States obviously.”
Mr Bakhurst also opened up about the sadness he felt when he returned to RTÉ as Director General after the passing of his good pal Keelin Shanley, who died in February 2020 after a two-year battle with cancer.
He said: “Keelin was another person I became extremely good friends with when I was here and with Conor and the family as well. We stayed in close contact after I left the previous job here. We met up here and in London a couple of times. Everyone said what a clever, kind, wonderful person she was.
“If there’s one sadness coming back to this job, Keelin is not here because that would’ve been nice and she would’ve liked to have seen that. I spoke to Conor when I came back. I had lunch with him. We laughed and he said Keelin always thought you’d come back,” he added.
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