Cathal Barry
Sir Terry Wogan Sir Terry Wogan spent his final hours surrounded by his family who held prayers before his death, it has been reported.
Paying tribute to the broadcasting legend, Fr Brian D’Arcy told The Irish Catholic that Terry was a “wonderful” man.
Acknowledging that the broadcaster was a self-described atheist, Fr D’Arcy insisted that “God knew him and he knew God”.
“He was a man, as he said himself, who just couldn’t figure out the structure that went up around religion. He knew more intellectually about religion than any lay person I have ever met. He was very well-read and very well-versed in all of that but he just couldn’t bring it together,” he said.
Noting that “the God that was presented by institutional religion was not a God that was personal to Terry”, Fr D’Arcy insisted that this “didn’t mean he wasn’t a very good man”.
Spirituality
“That didn’t mean he hadn’t a spirituality. That didn’t mean he hadn’t a way of looking at life that wasn’t extraordinarily good.
“He had a belief in goodness and for me that’s God. He believed in love, he believed in goodness, he believed in family, and they in my view are all God-centred things,” Fr D’Arcy said.
The Limerick-born broadcaster’s career spanned more than four decades and he was known for his work on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, Children In Need and the Eurovision Song Contest.
He was educated by the Jesuits in both Crescent College Comprehensive in Limerick and Belvedere College SJ in Dublin.