For Irish radio listeners of a certain vintage, David Hanly was the news. The broadcaster and writer, who has died aged 81 in Dublin, was presenter of RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland for its first two decades, where his gruff delivery and no-nonsense approach helped establish the show as the country’s highest-rated radio programme. But while his brusque interviewing style left many political guests mauled – not for nothing was he nicknamed “the Great Growler” - Hanly was a far more rounded and thoughtful personality than his daunting on-air image suggested, as his writing and broadcasting life attests.
Indeed, he didn’t start out as a journalist. Born in Limerick in 1944, Hanly first worked for RTÉ as a script writer in the 1960s, contributing to shows such as radio series The Kennedys of Castleross and rural television drama The Riordans. After seven years at the network, he joined Bord Fáilte as a public relations officer with special responsibility for the US media, broadening his horizons while travelling widely in America. He quit this job in order to write his 1979 novel, In Guilt and In Glory: its plot about an American television crew filming in Ireland was praised in the New York Times for conveying “a powerful sense of contemporary Ireland.”
Despite his literary promise, however, Hanly’s greatest gifts lay as a broadcaster. Rejoining RTÉ, he teamed up with the late David Davin-Power as inaugural co-host when Morning Ireland was first broadcast in November 1984. One hour in duration, starting at 8am, the programme got off to a rocky start, alienating morning audiences more used to presenters like Mike Murphy.
With Hanly behind the mic, however, the show hit its stride. The turning point was Hanly’s 1985 interview with Fianna Fáil dissident Des O’Malley, who accused Charles Haughey as no longer fit to be taoiseach. (Hanly, thorough as ever, later chastised himself for not asking O’Malley why he had served Haughey as minister for so long.)
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It set the template for Hanly’s signature style: incessantly probing, impatient with spin, his richly rasping tones primed to jump on any inconsistency. For the next 20 years, until his retirement, he personified the agenda-setting style of Morning Ireland. As Tánaiste Simon Harris said in tribute: “David was the voice we woke up to every weekday.”
Hanly didn’t confine himself to news, however. As well as working as a columnist for The Sunday Tribune, he presented the television show Hanly’s People, where he showed his more reflective side, interviewing figures from the world of politics, sport and, most notably, literature: acclaimed US authors Norman Mailer and Saul Bellow were among his guests. His literary interests were further underlined in his Radio 1 poetry programme, The Enchanted Way. (Full disclosure: Hanly interviewed my father Seamus Heaney on several occasions, and they were also friends.)
Married twice, with two sons and a daughter, Hanly suffered from ill health in his later years. But with his wide-ranging mind and indefatigable approach, he was one of Ireland’s most distinctive broadcasters, influencing every hard-charging radio anchor since, and changing the way Irish listeners consume news.
President Catherine Connolly said he “brought his trademark intelligence, integrity and warmth to his many interviews”.
“David’s contribution to Irish public service broadcasting and the arts over many decades has left an indelible mark,” she said.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said of Hanly: “He was sharp, highly intelligent, and always had a sense of perspective. He put Morning Ireland on the map. His voice was unmistakable.”
Tánaiste Simon Harris said “his unambiguous and commanding voice etched him into the public psyche”.
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