A FORMER chairman of the RTÉ Authority, who was a member of the first Queen's GAA team to win the Sigerson Cup, has died at the age of 76.
Tom Savage, who was from Riverstown in Co Louth, had a hugely influential career in media, consulting and public relations, working as a communications advisor to former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
Along with his wife, Terry Prone, and their son, former Today FM presenter Anton Savage, he set up The Communications Clinic in 2008.
Prior to his career in communications, Mr Savage had been a Catholic priest and was dispatched by Cardinal William Conway to welcome British troops into the north.
He went on to present a number of programmes on RTÉ and was the founder-producer of its flagship radio news programme Morning Ireland.
Mr Savage was chairman of the network's governing body from 2009 until 2014, steering it through crises including its 'Mission to Prey' broadcast, when it falsely accused an Irish priest in Kenya of having fathered a child.
In 1959, Mr Savage was part of the first Queen's University side to lift GAA's Sigerson Cup.
A lifelong member of the Cooley Kickham GAA club in Co Louth and former senior inter-county footballer for Louth, he won an All-Ireland junior medal in 1961.
After graduating, he became Director of Social Welfare in the Archdiocese of Armagh, a post he held until 1972, the year he was appointed to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA).
He worked for and edited several publications in his career, and joined Carr Communications in the mid-1970s.
In 1999 he published a book on negotiation skills, 'How to Get What You Want', which sold internationally.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin paid tribute to Mr Savage, saying he had "played a behind the scenes, yet crucial, role in the early years of the peace process".
