{"id":405666,"date":"2026-03-26T22:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/405666\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T22:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:35:09","slug":"michael-lyster-funeral-hears-of-a-devoted-family-man-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/405666\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Lyster funeral hears of a devoted family man \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Lyster was a devoted family man with \u201ca curiosity for all things in life and a passion for his hobbies that was infectious\u201d, his funeral has heard.<\/p>\n

At a celebration of his life attended by family, friends and colleagues, his son Jack said the outpouring of public affection for his father since his death last weekend had provided \u201ca light in a very dark time\u201d for those who loved him.<\/p>\n

He was, he said, \u201cmagic in human form\u201d.<\/p>\n

For all of the fame he had achieved over his long career in journalism and as a presenter on television, most memorably with The Sunday Game, which he presented from 1984, five years after he had arrived in RT\u00c9<\/a> from the Tuam Herald, it was \u201cwhen he had no audience except for his family that he shone most brightly\u201d.<\/p>\n

In addition to the GAA<\/a>, Lyster\u2019s love of rally driving and music was highlighted at the service at Mount Jerome in Dublin. A Led Zeppelin album was among the items placed on his coffin by family members as mementos of his life. His hurl and the gloves he wore when competing in rally drives were also among them.<\/p>\n

His son Jack recalled his father\u2019s fondness of telling stories at the dinner table, his love of Galway and his assessment of Ulysses after he had read it: \u201cA bit wordy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the way he made us laugh,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking about his father\u2019s devotion to his wife, Anne, he said his father \u201cspent his life going on adventures and she was his partner in crime for every one of them\u201d. <\/p>\n

The ceremony, which was overseen by RT\u00c9 broadcaster and Rising Time presenter Shay Byrne, was attended by former colleagues from the national broadcaster including Joanne Cantwell, Eileen Dunne, John Saunders, Bill Lalor, Roy Willoughby, Paul Byrnes and Dave Keenan. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Michael Lyster had the skill and talent to make his job look effortlessOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Many more could not attend, it was acknowledged, because they were in Prague for Ireland\u2019s World Cup<\/a> game. Among those from the world of Gaelic games to attend were Joe Brolly, former Cork footballer and hurler Tom Mulcahy and Galway football manager P\u00e1draic Joyce. Three time all-Ireland winning Galway hurling manager, Cyril Farrell, who like Brolly worked with Lyster many times on The Sunday Game, was also present, along with Ronan Morgan, the former rally co-driver.<\/p>\n

The President was represented by her aide-de-camp, Capt Cian Fusco.<\/p>\n

Lyster\u2019s long-time friend, the sportswriter Vincent Hogan, who rallied with him for 12 years, said the pair had come to know each other when they shared a house in the early 1980s. \u201cMichael was the worst timekeeper and his dress sense …\u201d he joked, \u201cbut you couldn\u2019t help but warm to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled their social circle\u2019s bewilderment at Lyster\u2019s appointment as manager of the RT\u00c9 women\u2019s football team and how seriously he seemed to be taking the role, until they realised there was a two-word explanation: Anne Morrison.<\/p>\n

Hogan recalled the occasion in 2015 when \u201cwe nearly lost Michael\u201d after he discovered him by chance shortly after he had had a heart attack. \u201cAnne saved him. She did CPR for the seven or eight minutes that it took to keep Michael alive until the ambulance arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paramedics still had to work on him for so long that Hogan found it hard to believe he had survived, but when he went to see him in hospital the following week, Lyster sauntered up and asked: \u201cHow are you, boss?\u201d<\/p>\n

He had, Hogan said, \u201can easy likeability, a decency with people, a complete absence of self-importance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another old colleague and friend, Martin Breheny, said Lyster was \u201cone of the great broadcasters and one of the great people\u201d.<\/p>\n

He is survived by his wife, Anne, his children Mark, Rebecca, Ellen and Jack, his sister Anne and grandchildren, Molly and Tadhg. <\/p>\n

They left the chapel to the sound of Led Zeppelin\u2019s Whole Lotta Love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Lyster was a devoted family man with \u201ca curiosity for all things in life and a passion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,183530,18,13,14,5286,6,19,17,46040,11,12,14779,15,16,5,1181,111371,7,8,16003],"class_list":{"0":"post-405666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eileen-dunne","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-gaa","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-joe-brolly","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-led-zeppelin","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-rte","26":"tag-shay-byrne","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories","29":"tag-ulysses"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116297867654723296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}