Marian Finucane was broadcasting royalty, the first female presenter to anchor a show on RTÉ Radio One, paving the way for others to follow in her footsteps.
Her Saturday and Sunday show that has been running for almost 15-years attracted huge audiences.
From being hired in 1974 as a continuity presenter to one of RTE’s most highly respected and highly paid stars, hers was a journey of some note.
In the Ireland of our childhoods, where church and state were one in the same Marian was brave and fearless.
In 1979 and in again in 1980 she won the Prix Italia for a documentary programme on abortion.
Still a taboo subject at the time she made a radio programme which was massively controversial.
Interviewing a woman about to have an abortion in England before travelling with her, documenting her experience, and interviewing her after the procedure.
With the Eighth Amendment repealed we now live in a very different island.
However, at that time Marian took a risk, there was a backlash but it was the start of conversations about something - that had until then existed in the shadows – now being brought out into the open.
A few years ago, when an RTÉ producer rang and asked would I be a guest on the Sunday newspaper panel as part of the Marian Finucane show I was a nervous wreck.
The show is an institution, but more than that I was worried I’d be star struck in the presence of such a giant of broadcasting.
Seated in the RTÉ studio at Donnybrook with minutes until air and there was still no sign of the legendary presenter.
Then in she wafted, a vision in beige cashmere, less than 60 seconds later the show was live and she was broadcasting to the living rooms and workplaces of Ireland, her distinctive voice like warm gravel effortlessly presenting in a way that came as natural to her as breathing.
After the programme she would take time to speak to all her guests, not all presenters at the top of their game do.
In the times since then when I’ve returned to do the show she was always the same, funny, interested and interesting, professional and yet accessible.
Never meet you heroes they say as they often disappoint.
Marian was the exception to that rule, interested in her guests, supportive and generous with her time.
Her style was probing but never aggressive.
She had lived a life of highs and extreme lows. Her daughter, Sinéad, died of leukaemia in 1990 at the age of eight, and as such she had a natural empathy with those she interviewed.
She was the first of her kind, she cleared the way for others never pulling the ladder up behind her.
She will be sadly missed and impossible to replace. My sympathies to her family, friends and colleagues.
May she rest in peace.
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