“I want to say good night.”
And so marked the beginning of the end for Ryan Tubridy, as he brought down the curtain on his 14-year career as host of The Late Late Show, on RTÉ.
In keeping with the words he stated in advance of his final show, Tubridy kept on the theme of gratitude for his farewell address before singer Cian Ducrot closed the show with a musical number.
It was hard, he admitted, to fully process the video messages he had received from the likes of Paul McCartney, Saoirse Ronan, Bono and The Edge, Jessie Buckley, Brendan O’Carroll and more. Tubridy joked that his parting gift of a personalised red vespa from U2 felt ‘like a fever dream’. PJ Gallagher had the honour of scooting it onto the set, as the band was off touring.
It's not a proper Late Late show send-off until the U2 lads spring for a motorbike 😅 pic.twitter.com/ht5b2ZSzTC
— JOE.ie (@JOEdotie) May 26, 2023
Ryan Tubridy delivers special message within a message
“If you don’t mind me saying,” Ryan Tubridy continued, “I’ve dedicated the show tonight to my family.”
It was here that he was forced to pause, as he welled up. The warm applause from the studio audience gave him a beat before he continued with a lovely story about his supportive mother. “That’s what it is all about, when it is said and done, family. I want to say how much I love and admire her, who, with my brothers and sisters, is the rock.
“But especially, my two girls. So, to Ella and to Julia, you know this as I’ve said it to you so many times – I love you so much, they haven’t created the word for it yet. And that’s the truth. They’re the ones I dedicate this last show to. They’re my constant. I love them so much, and I want them to know that.”
The 49-year-old then thanked the viewers ‘who stuck by us, and by me, over the last 14 years’.
Tubridy finished off nicely with this – “Good night, good luck, thank you. And there’s a line I used to say a lot, I’ll say one last time – Mind yourselves and mind each other.
With that, Cian Ducrot played us out with The Beatles’ classic, All You Need Is Love.
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