Kathleen Watkins has donated one of Gay Byrne’s iconic Toy Show jumpers in a bid to raise money for homeless charities in Ireland.
The author appeared on the Late Late Show on Friday night and gave the jumper to Ryan Tubridy, after a recent trip into Dublin’s city centre left her stunned.
“It really was a shocker. I found the homeless everywhere, three and four people lying side by side, huddled together in doorways. It was really very distressing,” she said.
“We are living in our comfortable homes with our comfortable beds and there are people out there who are really in a very bad way, so, I am hoping that maybe the sweater will help.”
Ryan promised to come up with a way to help raise as much money as possible over the coming weeks.
Gay Byrne sadly passed away in November 2019, surrounded by his loved ones.
Sharing her heartache, Kathleen revealed there are times she forgets he’s no longer here.
“You go through different stages. I remember somebody saying to me only a few days after Gay died: ‘Do you miss Gay?’ It was an awful thing to say to somebody because really you don’t know somebody is really gone yet, you just don’t,” she said.
“I remember a woman whose son was killed in the Omagh bombing, I remember her talking about him and she was saying ‘he is just gone, he’s gone’ and the word ‘gone’ stuck in my mind. That is what happens. You don’t realise the person is gone yet.”
Following his passing, thousands of people around the country got in touch, and Kathleen was blown away by the incredible support.
“They are from the four corners of Ireland and beyond. We knew that Gay was popular and loved but we didn’t know how much but we do now,” she said.
“All during the three years he was so ill people would stop me on the street, men and women, saying tell him we love him… It was just so nice and so essentially Irish and warm and genuine and real and sincere. Everything about it was just beautiful.”