The \u201cmuch-loved\u201d Northern Ireland journalist broadcaster Gerry Kelly has died aged 77.<\/p>\n
The former UTV and BBC Radio Ulster presenter conducted many high-profile interviews, including with an eight-year-old Rory McIlroy as the young golfer chipped balls into a washing machine.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Kelly revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer two years earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cGerry Kelly was one of Northern Ireland\u2019s best known and much-loved broadcasters,\u201d UTV head of news and programmes Simon Clemison said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis UTV chat show Kelly ran for 17 years and became a \u2018must-watch\u2019 on Friday nights, featuring some of the biggest names in entertainment. <\/p>\n
\u201cGerry Kelly was back on UTV just a couple of years ago fronting The Kelly Years, a series reflecting on the hundreds of stars from the world of film, television, music and sport who had come through our studio doors. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe send our sincere condolences to Gerry\u2019s wife, family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo sorry to hear of the death of Gerry Kelly, a face and a voice that so many generations across Northern Ireland were familiar with,\u201d deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said.<\/p>\n
She said he was \u201ca much loved presenter with a huge character\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe interviewed so many, many hundreds of people across decades including his famous clip with a young Rory McIlroy and the wash machine! <\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThinking of all his family and friends at this time of mourning, sending my deepest condolences and may God be with them and comfort them at this time of sad loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry to hear that Gerry Kelly has died,\u201d broadcaster William Crawley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a rare gift for drawing out a guest with deep curiosity and genuine warmth; he made interviews feel like real conversations. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe inspired, encouraged and mentored other broadcasters too. A big star who was always a gentleman.\u201d – PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cmuch-loved\u201d Northern Ireland journalist broadcaster Gerry Kelly has died aged 77. The former UTV and BBC Radio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1578,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-569692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bbc","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}