Tributes have been pouring in for Johnny Lyons, the 98fm sports broadcaster who was found dead at his home yesterday.
A cracking character both on and off the air, it’s quite easy to tell that he wasn’t just a much-loved figure within the sports journalism field – he was its backbone, and the voice of Dublin sports.
Nobody summed up his mad, unpredictable and utterly brilliant personality quite like Paul Howard, however. The Ross O’Carroll-Kelly writer, who is one of Ireland’s top sports journalists, fired out a short series of tweets in the early hours of the morning about a guy who will be sorely missed by colleagues and listeners alike.
It’s hard to pick a favourite Johnny Lyons moment. Although it would hard to beat the time he turned up to the press conference…
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
before Ireland played Holland wearing a Dutch jersey [Dutch football was his passion]. Mick McCarthy refused to take questions from him…
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
until he took it off.
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
I remember being in Tehran with him not long after 9/11 and the locals mistook him for a rock star and mobbed him…
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
A huge heavy metal fan, he arrived at Tehran airport wearing dark glasses and a t-shirt with “Anthrax” on it…
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
And I remember being in Tblisi with him in 2003 in a bar he found that had an AC/DC tribute band. I think that’s how I’ll remember Johnny…
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
Middle of the dance floor, down on his knees, head-banging.
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
He was one of those people who changed the energy of a room by simply stepping into it. I always felt about 50% happier for having met him.
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
Sad, sad news.
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
He once turned up to interview Ian Botham in the Shelbourne Hotel with a ghetto blaster. He left Botham minding it while he went off to get
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
batteries. Not surprisingly, Botham thought he was fantastic.
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
One last memory. Back in the early 1990s, Johnny did a Saturday night shift in the Tribune, collecting basketball results…
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
It meant phoning around the club PROs between 9pm and 10pm, collecting the results. Johnny’s personality turned it into a performance.
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
One day, Elaine Geraghty of 98fm was in the building and she said, “Who’s that on the radio?” She was told, “That’s not the radio.”
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
Elaine said, “He needs to be on the radio.” Anyway, the following week, he was on 98fm.
— Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) August 19, 2015
RIP Johnny.
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