Christian O'Reilly

I first met the late Tommy Gorman, long-time RTE correspondent and latterly RTE's northern editor, in January 2021 amidst a chorus of farewells.

It was his leaving parties from RTE and, as it was deep in the first year of Covid, it was not only invitation only, but online only.

I was in my first few months as British Ambassador to Ireland and honoured to be paying tribute to a giant of public service broadcasting.

The screen teemed with famous faces.

Former President Mary McAleese in one little box, Tijog Micheál Martin in another.

For a politics enthusiast like me, it was like an Irish edition of ITV's Celebrity Squares.

I was there to deliver a special message to Tommy.

With a taste for the dramatic, I did not initially reveal who had written it, but just began to read it out.

The message opened conventionally enough.

Tommy Gorman has been a great servant to Irish public broadcasting.

But about halfway through, when the writer referred gratefully to Tommy's role in organising a visit for him and his wife to Mulloch Moor in 2015, the penny dropped.

And indeed the jaw dropped, and Tommy clocked that the greeting I was reading was from the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles.

That virtual meeting was the start of my friendship with Tommy.

Tommy had a great capacity for friendship, shy yet chatty, forthright yet discreet.

He was a journalist to his fingertips, but always an optimist, never a cynic.

And a special highlight of our friendship was a weekend my wife and I spent together with Tommy and his wife Kira in their beloved Sligo.

The Saturday in particular was unforgettable.

Tommy took us first to Classy Bonn, the former home of Lord Mountbatten, Prince Charles's beloved uncle and mentor, murdered by the IRA in August 1979.

He took us then to the little harbour where Lord Mountbatten and his young family and their friends had set off on that summer morning, most of them never to return.

Finally, he took us to Ben Bulbin and to Yeats's grave in the churchyard.