The funeral for veteran RTE journalist Tommie Gorman is to be held in Co Sligo on Saturday.
The married father of two died at the age of 68 after being diagnosed with cancer in 1994.
Gorman, a Sligo native, worked at RTE for more than 40 years.
He was RTE’s Europe editor before moving to Belfast in 2001 and was its northern editor when he retired in 2021.
Irish premier Simon Harris said people were “in a state of shock” after the news of Gorman’s death emerged on Tuesday.
I am profoundly shocked and saddened at the death of Tommie Gorman.
Tommie was a journalist of enormous standing who carried out his job and duty to report fairly and accurately with the utmost professionalism. https://t.co/bApj338ELU
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) June 25, 2024
President of Ireland Michael D Higgins said that Gorman was “a trusted source of information for the public during challenging years, the fostering of peace, and all that was achieved in Anglo-Irish relations” in that time.
Apart from his political journalism, Gorman also famously interviewed Roy Keane after the footballer’s row with manager Mick McCarthy at the Republic of Ireland team’s Japan 2002 World Cup training camp on the island of Saipan.
Gorman also tracked down poet Seamus Heaney on a Greek island after he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The ceremony will be held at 2pm in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Ransboro.
He is survived by his wife Ceara Roche, his children Moya and Joe and his wider family.