Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 7 Nov 2024
KATHLEEN WATKINS, writer, broadcaster and musician, has died at the age of 90.
Kathleen, who was married to Gay Byrne, turned 90 on 17 October.
Gay Byrne, who hosted the Late Late Show from 1962 until 1999, died five years ago – on 4 November 2019.
Kathleen enjoyed acclaim as a harpist and folk singer before joining RTÉ as a continuity announcer on television. She was the first announcer to appear on screen on the opening night of Telefís Éireann on New Year’s Eve 1961.
In later years, she enjoyed success with her series of children’s books.
She and Gay Byrne married in 1964 and had two daughters, Crona and Suzy. A statement issued today by their daughters confirmed the news.
“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Kathleen Watkins,” the statement noted.
“Kathleen died peacefully earlier today surrounded by her loving family in the wonderful care of the Team at the Blackrock Clinic.
“Kathleen’s family are devastated by the loss of their much loved mother and devoted Nanakit to her grandchildren Cian, Sadhbh, Kate, Saoirse and Harry.”
Funeral arrangements will be announced later, the statement added.
Taoiseach Simon Harris was among the first to pay tribute, describing Kathleen as “a magnetic person with a warm and witty personality and presence, as well as her considerable artistic talent”.
“She and her husband, Gay Byrne, were one of Ireland’s most famous couples and it was always obvious to see their devotion to each other and their family throughout their long and loving marriage,” Harris said in a statement.
“Whilst Gay Byrne is perhaps the most famous face RTÉ has ever produced, Kathleen will always be one of the first faces to appear on screen on RTÉ’s opening night.
She was multi-talented in her own right, and indeed like many households around the country, her books and Pigín have a special place on the bookcase in my home.
“To her daughters, Crona and Suzy, her grandchildren and wider circle of family, friends and colleagues, I am sorry for your loss. May she rest in peace.”
President Michael D Higgins also paid tribute, saying he and his wife Sabina learned of Kathleen’s passing “with great sorrow”.
“We were among the many who had the greatest regard and affection for her. I know that this was shared in particular by all of Kathleen’s colleagues in RTÉ.
“Sabina and I convey our sympathy to them, along with so many in Ireland’s cultural life to which Kathleen made such a memorable contribution.
“These talents were demonstrated through her work as an artist and broadcaster, as well as a writer who was appreciated by people of all ages.”
Kathleen was the beloved life partner of Gay Byrne who we remember now, recalling the joy of their unique partnership.
“We recall also the warmth of Kathleen’s personality, her humour and kindness – she represented the best of her generation in so many ways and during such a formative period in our country.
“I hope that all who loved Kathleen will be comforted by these memories, her truly remarkable legacy and her inspiring life.”
President Higgins offered his condolences to Kathleen’s daughters, grandchildren and wider family.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Another fu€@ing corner, we must be going in circles so
Yip……. You got it in one…….. We turned all four corners
We going around in circles
Come on you pessimists surely you’ve realised by now it’s a spiral, we will continue to turn corners the entire way up!
I’d sooner believe Bertie’s stories he told to the tribunal than that ERSI crowd!
It’s more of a maze really, nobody reall knows how to get out of it
Economic clowns.
@Stephen ~ Wonderful comment.
Charles haughty once said “” I will take your cow to the mart and I will give you half of what I get for it”
Enda came along and said ” no no let me take it and I will everything I can get for it,”
As it turns out Charlie’s half was twice as much as all of Endas full
I was gonna see what Gerry would do but was afraid he might shoot it on the way
Sounds very positive! Not saying I’m 100% convinced by it all but I’m going to let my optimism increase by the same .9% that the country is expected to grow by next year, ah that feels better!
Sounds very like Geirge Orwell’s 1984
*george Orwell
It does seem positive, Teddy. I’m starting to see a bit of positivity around the place myself. I’m still quite cynical because of all the tripe the government has spoken so it’s hard to know what to believe. Either way, I feel the best thing to do is hit the bars.
Keeps the economy ticking over and the Capitaine in good spirits, win win as far as I’m concerned. Anywhere decent at this hour on a Wednesday?
tell that to all small buisness that wont see the end of january, its a bit late for them.
Turned the corner…and walked into a wall.
Ask yourself one question Ted… Who pays the ERSI wages? This would have held more credence if it came from OECD or an international body with authority
Maybe perhaps “all the tripe” wasn’t tripe afterall??!
When people start working non job bridge affiliated jobs then personally I will feel we have turned a corner
The total number of people working on Job bridge schemes is about 6500. It’s a tiny fraction of the total number employed (over 1,900,000)
In saying that, I don’t like the idea of the Job bridge scheme, but we shouldn’t let ourselves think that there are tens of thousands of people on these schemes or that it’s completely distorting employment figures. It’s such a small number.
Well done Enda
Call Donnelly. Stop upsetting people with your figures. If these people want to be miserable, then let them!
It’s not only job bridge numbers what about the CE schemes thousands walking around with yellow vests cutting grass and picking up papers then you have back to education and Fas courses 22 months to finish a ECDL course and if you pay it only takes 6 weeks. This is just to keep the live register down
Call & pat
You guys can whitewash it if you want it’s still slave labour
What’s the numbers on the amount of people who achieve full time employment thru job bridge very small I think you would agree
The issue with the ECDL is less and less employers value it thats according to someone I know teaching it
Foxy. Your an employer. After years of turmoil, the economy has turned to the level where you can employ one person.
There are two candidates. One who has been working through job bridge for 2 years. And the other has been unemployed for two years and not worked in any capacity.
Who are you more likely to pick for thr job?
No one should have two years unpaid work experience. I’d hire the guy from job bridge though cause he’s obviously a sucker that will do a full time job for very little money.
Pat
In that situation you hire the person who you feel is more suited to the job
And the person more suited to the job, assuming they have equal qualifications, is probably the guy who didnt want to sit on his ass for two years.
Pat
If they are both equally qualified in all aspects then I flip a coin
This being the same EARI that didn’t see the crash coming?
6500 people is not a “tiny” amount. Especially when they are being exploited by MNCs.
0.34% is not a tiny amount?
So many corners in this country.
We cut corners, turn a corner… We’re living in a bloody maze.
It genuinely has picked up in the last year.
Houses and land On the market for years, have sold in 2013.
Increase in house prices in some areas.
Higher passenger # on Dublin Bus.
Tax returns slightly higher than forecast.
I see some new start-ups doing well nearby.
Some long-term unemployed people that I know have secured fairly decent jobs in 2013.
But I suspect another (just one more?) austerity budget will knock this shaky start back down again.
Helen of course new start ups are doing well.Most of them managed to get good deals on rents, service charge ect (fairplay to them) but small retailers that started up 8/10 years ago are being hammerd by crazy rents that landlords will not negotiate with .They have struggled for the past 2 or 3 years , for many of them its to late.
How did that ‘soft landing’ they were talking about a few years ago go?
Did you hear Pat Kenny is moving to newstalk?
Good news. Glad to hear it. Seems quite positive. Here’s to the future. Hope the upturn continues.
Or…
Politicians are all b&stards. Bankers should be shot. I refuse to be enthused. Leave me wallow.
(I’ll go with the former approach please)
Are you on jobsbridge Colin?
No…what’s the point of that question?
The point is Colin, there are people in this country that have genuine reason to give out about current state of things, like politicians, the banks etc. And just because you’re doing alright doesn’t mean you can patronise them.
God Ronan, sorry. I never realised people were having serious financial, health and emotional problems.
I thought everyone was fine.
I never thought about how tough it must be for people these days and that the best way to help them is to continue to moan and whinge about everything, EVEN GOOD NEWS!!
Appreciate your help in putting me right.
So you’re saying, you are aware but happy to patronise anyway. We’ll as long as you’re alright Colin, thats the main thing.
No Ronan, as long as you’re ‘right’, that’s the main thing.
Is this the same ESRI that said that it was going to be a soft landing into recession a few year’s back.
No. It’s the same ESRI how predicted the housing crash 8 years before it happened, though.
Go out and spend, spend, SPEND! Oh and get that house now – there’s only a few LEFT!
Exports, Exports. Falling into the trap of depending on one sector to keep the economy propped up again.
The corner shop pays a higher rate of tax than a multinational.
What sector is that?
“Exports” is not a sector.
Good man yourself.
I don’t pretend to understand economics but didn’t the article say this is based on GNP and that GNP excludes income or whatever from multinationals? Or did I pick that up wrong. Anyway even if every job created is from a multinational paying no tax and shopping every profit they make overseas, it’d still be better than those people being on the dole costing the state a fortune, less people on the dole means less state spending means less tax and / or less cutbacks and means more money being spent by the newly reemployed means more new jobs and so on
I agree with you but a level playing field for all domestic SMEs and foreign multinationals is essential for growth.
Maybe it does,but does it employ tens of thousands of people!what sector exactly do you want to depend on to prop up the economy?the quango sector?the dole sector?
SMEs are important for job creation. The sum of people employed in SMEs is probably more than multinationals. Probably about 60-70% of our workforce.
It’s not good for a country to depend highly on one sector or industry
Correct Ronan. GNP is the total value of all goods and services produced within the country plus the income earned by that country’s citizens minus income of non residents in that country. This can also include Irish firms operating abroad where profits are repatriated to the home country. It’s a good indicator of the performance of an economy, ceterus paribus, higher GNP = higher standard of living for citizens.
How many jobs lost at the ESRI government mouthpiece?
Where have I heard that before?
Turned a corner?
Tell that to my 90 year old mother living on old age pension:
- phone allowance gone
- esb allowance cut hugely
- increased drug costs
- property tax
- reduced health insurance relief
- reduced home help
So for her miserable €12k pension these additional stealth charges have reduced her spending power by €2k = 17% pay cut.
So Enda and Eamonn what cut did you take this year?
What did the HSE managers take? Money from pensioners through increased car park charges at hospitals. Those extra one and two euro increases here and there DO hurt.
Indeed we have turned a corner. More like turned our backs on the vulnerable.
I long for the party hacks to call to my door next year.
Now im not being mean but she is relying as alot do on state pension. My own 89 yr old grandfather has private pension and lives comfortably. I do recognise that people paid taxes all their lives but still. Look at people now with no pensions heading the same way. I started mine at 20 I don’t ever wish to have to rely on the state.
Get in the real world.
Bruce, he is in the real world. By your own statement and your Grannies experience it is obvious you can’t rely in the state. Everyone needs to start planning their retirement and set up a private pension.
Money the state had saved to plug the looming massive pension shortfall has been used to pay the bond holders, troika etc etc. so now we have no savings but pension hole is still coming.
People did plan. They have gilt edge investments in blue chip companies. They vaporised.
You have all missed the point of my argument: vulnerable people have paid a hugely disproportionate price for the bailout.
Great news. Seems like a lot of people here could do with a little sugar in their tea. Leave out the lemons.
My father Lord rest him had a saying which best describes reports like that one;
“If my Aunt had balls she’d be me Uncle”.
What has your family history got to do with anything ?
That’s not a very good example actually, as the ‘Uncle Aunt Balls’ analogy refers to the notion of hypothesis, whereas this report is based on statistical fact.
Just sayin’.
Are you saying his Aunt had notions about being his Uncle?
Obviously Colin you did not read the ESRI report, otherwise you would have known your statement that “this report is based on statistical fact”, is incorrect.
For example the report uses phrases like
“should have a positive impact on the economy”
“we have excluded certain measures”
“Indicates that observations with such characteristics were dropped from the analysis”
“Estimates considered unreliable”
However this one takes the biscuit;
“Previous sector of employment information is not made available by the CSO”
In other words Colin, this report is based on aspirations and complied knowing that all information that should have been included was not.
So what would you call a report based on aspirations and missing information?
Even the Governments paid for broadcaster RTE Radio this morning stated this report assumes the greater European Economy will recover otherwise the growth figures contained in the report will not materialise. So how is that “statistical fact”?
The ESRI have zero credibility. I wouldn’t take heed of anything they say, good or bad.
They’re not sure if they’re a journal or not. They give off the pretence of being a recognised economic journal, yet they retain the ability to “unpublish” any article that “doesn’t go down well”.
ESRI are a state-funded quango who are paid (very well) to tell the public what the government want them to hear.
With all these corners we’ve turned our economy must be like a rubik’s cube.
Here is another institution that has no idea what a corner looks like never mind turn it!! I am correct in saying that these people should have seen the property trouble happening in advance. Needless to say, I am no faith in the ESRI!!!!!
True, they seem to be trowing predictions as if they can tell the future, why couldnt they predict the economic collapse?…because they’re bullsh.tting us folks…
Eh… actually they did predict it. They warned the government way back as far as 2000 but they were ignored completely! Why do people seem to forget that!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THWbrFy5NWM
Wow, and the government didnt even seem to take on board what they where saying. Fking idiots, thanks fianna fail, and the other idiots who voted them in.
Well I actually remember the Central Bank urging people to hold off buying property and can vividly remember what they were concerned but the people wanted to buy and the banks wanted to lend and who were the government to stop this seemingly fantastic money spinning machine!!! Ha Ha I’m an ordinary joe soap here but I even knew things were going to go pear shaped back in 2006/2007! The Micro economy is a good starting point.
Forecast after forecast.
Can anyone look at the economic forecasts made for the last 5 years and see if they were accurate predictions? If they weren’t then why are we paying any heed to this one?
I’ll stick to New York for now thank you very much…. Shove ye’re “prosperity” up year Gathering holes….. Ye must think we came up the river in a bubble!
I hate hearing good news like this. Moan…begorrah…moan…
Good news is always welcome but we can do without the bullshit….is there any chance the Journal could provide us with the ERSI’s predictions for the last couple of years just to see how accurate they are at forecasting?
If the ESRI says it, it must be true! Oh wait, aren’t they the organisation that withdrew a report last year because the content didn’t suit the Government?!!
The ponzi money system that is the core cause of this economic collapse has not changed one bit.
Our money – the euro is a perception resevrve currency with absolutely no solid asset linked to it that is manipulated like all fiat currencies by PRIVATE central bank owners.
We have just gone through the collapse and payback of extortions phase “economic recovery” should again start as the cycle reboots. Our nation assets have been liquidated and plundered ,which along with the debt/labour of the population, is the real wealth of a nation.
On top of that the government and more so the international bankers will hope we all forget the 64+ BILLION we are paying them that we never owed.
Wake up citizen slaves.
Would this be the corner that involves a cliff. We’re are these donkey’s getting their data. Working in a large Midlands town & the past few days it seems akin to an old western film set, all that’s missing is tumble weed rolling down the main street. There was some predictable amusement, the town council generously offering free parking for Christmas shopping at its own & public car parks with only one slight problem they decided to close the main ones to resurface. Only in ireland I guess.
Was in my local last night
Four people in it and there’s no corners
Vote yes for jobs. Ha ha.
That’s three corners we turned this year ???. Sounds to me like back at square one…. Round and round we go….
The MINE ME MOAN gang out in force this morning
If they say it often enough, it will become fact ??
Historically low interest rates, historically high stock market, Massive global printing of money, insolvent banks, stealth taxes through the roof, banks not lending, negative equity issues, thousands being thrown out of their homes, corruption still rife . . . And many more
But sure we’ve turned the corner don’t you know !
“This ERSI report was sponsored by Fine Gael” was missing at the bottom of the article.
Funny all the comments in the comments section complaining (commenting?) about people commenting in the comment section.
It may have but look at the trail of misery it has left us in that is not progress
Load o bollox
Water tax,property tax increase,further job losses,road tax and toll rises etc etc will soon put an end to any corner turning
Turned the corner, but the car is a little worse for wear after the crash. Next we need to find a crash repair garage
Wouldnt hold my breath on this turning a corner, I can recall the late Brian Linehan making a similar statement a few years ago!
Thank you so much Enda you are a terrific man
Another corner? Must be goin around in a circle by now!
Perhaps the whingers could organise a massive hunger strike, that would be fantastic, we really would listen to their concerns ;)
Survey of one here doing some building work all trades are occupied and difficult to get guys to commit to days and times. But lots want cash only, so Tax and dole situation needs to be sorted out to really take the shackles off IMO.
And in the words of another: “I did not have sex with that woman” and another who said: “There will be no whitewash at the whitehouse” and yet another wh……
lies, lies and statistics comes to mind when I think of Eire – mainly the former.
Wouldnt hold my breath on these predictions.
have your say