Media

Tributes paid to journalist and current affairs TV editor Paul Tanney (50)

Journalist remembered as ‘steadfast character through thick and thin’

Paul Tanney grew up in Belfast’s Stranmillis area. Photograph: Rip.ie

Patsy McGarry
Sun Feb 4 2024 - 15:08

Tributes have been paid to the late RTÉ journalist Paul Tanney (50) who died last week after a prolonged illness.

Paul was fondly remembered at his funeral Mass in the Church of St John the Baptist, at Blackrock, Co Dublin, on Thursday. Deputy editor of Prime Time, the Belfast man died at Dublin’s St James’s Hospital on January 27th, following a prolonged battle with leukaemia.

His childhood friend Dale Connolly remembered a man who was “a fierce protector, a steadfast companion through thick and thin. His loyalty, a testament to the strength of his character, was an unwritten law etched deep within his soul. He cared deeply for his family, Jessica, Sadhbh and Daniel”.

The pain at his loss was “immeasurable as the joy and humour he brought to us all”. There were “no words to explain the suffering we all feel at his departure”. His death left “an immense void, bigger than his diminutive 5ft 6in stature, not just in the realm of journalism, but in the hearts of all those who had the privilege of knowing him”.

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RTÉ's Miriam O’Callaghan said: “We’ve a tough enough bunch of warriors in RTÉ's news and current affairs. We’ve seen a lot, we’ve been through a lot together, all of us, but the outpouring of affection and grief when the news broke this weekend that Paul had left us and gone to heaven was so profound and so real.”

Another colleague, David McCullagh, said: “Paul was probably the smartest and certainly the funniest programme editor that I have ever worked with.” He also had a talent “for truly appalling puns” with “a keen sense of the ridiculous, which certainly helped working in RTÉ and I really would like to have heard what he would have made of recent events”.

His humour “at times could be on the dark side. No matter how dire the situation, he would always find some reason to raise a laugh about it”. Humour “was his way of dealing with whatever work, whatever life happened to throw at him”.

Arthur Beesley of The Irish Times remembered his former colleague and friend of 26 years; his “love of family, his great bravery in the face of illness, his infinite curiosity, his excellence at his job and his gift of friendship”. They had “shared jollity in the office, jollity in cafes, in bars, at weddings, later at playgrounds with tiny kids and in walks on the pier”.

Paul ”was always excellent at his job” and “always a good colleague” who “drew on vast knowledge, held it lightly but held it with precision. I once heard an old timer in the job speak of the commitment to quality and the things that shouldn’t be done if you were committed to quality. The expression he used was ‘people like us in a place like this, shouldn’t do that’ in terms of the easy way, and that became one of Paul’s mantras. ‘People like us,’ he would say, ‘in a place like this ...’”

The oldest of three children, Paul Tanney was born in 1973 and grew up in Belfast’s Stranmillis area. He attended St Bride’s Primary School on the Malone Road and then Methodist College Belfast. Ties from both schools were among the symbols presented at his funeral on February 1st.

He attended Trinity College Dublin and later studied for a postgraduate Diploma in Journalism at the University of Ulster before beginning his career at The Irish Times, working on the website, and then in the Dublin newsroom and Belfast office.

Following that, he moved into broadcasting, working first as a producer with Newstalk radio in Dublin before going to RTÉ, where he worked on the Six One and Nine O’Clock TV news and as editor on RTÉ radio 1′s Morning Ireland. From there he moved to television current affairs, becoming deputy editor of Prime Time.

He is survived by his wife Jessica, children Sadhbh and Daniel, his mother Enda, his father Brian, his brother David and sister Claire.

The funeral was attended by RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst as well as many media colleagues, including from RTÉ, The Irish Times, and Mediahuis Ireland.

In a tribute, managing director of The Irish Times Group Deirdre Veldon said “Paul was a warm and generous colleague, a curious and earnest journalist and the very best of company.”

Kitty Holland of The Irish Times NUJ chapel expressed “deepest condolences from Paul’s former colleagues” while NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley expressed his condolences “to Paul’s family and friends on his untimely death. A committed and dedicated journalist he made an enormous contribution through his work in RTÉ and The Irish Times.”

Burial after the funeral was at Kilternan Cemetery Park in Dublin.

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Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry is a contributor to The Irish Times

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