Joe Duffy's life off-air, family life, insecurities, and biggest fear as RTE star announces retirement
Liveline is a beloved staple of Irish airwaves, and Joe Duffy has been at the helm of the programme for a remarkable 27 years. We've shared countless laughs with listeners as they chat with Joe. The magic of Liveline is its unpredictability - anyone can come on the show to vent about absolutely anything. But while Joe Duffy's voice is well known, his off-air life isn't quite as public. So, as Joe hangs up his headphones and announces his retirement, we're delving into his world, exploring his family life, and uncovering his deepest fears. Joe Duffy's early life and beginnings in RTE Duffy was born to mum Mabel and dad Jimmy on 27 January 1956 in Mountjoy Square. He was brought up in Ballyfermot, as one of five siblings. Duffy attended De La Salle Boys' primary school, St Lorcan's B.N.S. and St John's De La Salle College. He pursued a degree in social work at Trinity College. enrolling in 1977. He was one of the first people from his local area to attend the prestigious university. And while there, he also served as the President of Trinity's Student Union, before going on to become President of the Union of Students in Ireland. He led protests on campus highlighting access to education and spending two weeks in Mountjoy Prison as a result. After working in the probation service, he joined RTÉ originally as a radio producer, in 1989, and came to prominence as a reporter on the legendary Gay Byrne Show. He was shaped and nurtured by his mentor Gay, and the two had a close relationship when Duffy was starting out his career. He presented programmes like Soundbyte before taking over Liveline in 1998. In his 27 years in the Liveline hotseat, both Joe and the programme itself have become national institutions, with the programme frequently attracting some 400,000 listeners. Joe Duffy's family life - wife June, triplets, and struggles of brother Brendan Joe met his wife June Meehan in Trinity College, and the couple famously had triplets - Ellen, Ronan, and Sean, who they welcomed into the world on March 28 1995. The birth of the triplets was announced on The Gay Byrne Show, and in a segment on the same show when the triplets were six months old, they said: "The key to survival is being incredibly organised, after that it’s not hard work. "Every day is fun." On a more personal note, Joe's brother Brendan has had a tough struggle with addiction - a topic Joe has touched upon candidly in his own autobiography. In an emotionally raw interview following the book's release, Joe admitted Brendan remains one of his biggest concerns. He said: "When our phone rings at four o'clock in the morning, I say to my wife June 'that's something to do with Brendan'. "That's the dread." Joe has previously expressed his fears that his brother could have succumbed to alcoholism, especially after the death of his close friend Gerry Ryan, who died from a drug overdose. Joe Duffy's most painful moment - the tragic death of brother Aidan The most painful moment in his life, according to Joe, was the tragic death of his brother, Aidan, in a tragic van accident over 30 years ago. Aidan was 25. Joe said: "Without doubt the single biggest wound in my life is Aidan's death. He was a good lad, he was a great worker, very bright, he was the youngest in our family. "The chassis collapsed and Aidan's van careered under a truck, and the truck pushed Aidan's van back, killing him instantly. And it pushed Aidan's van back and under a coach that was coming behind him, that was full of Spanish students. "And one of the teachers was killed, so there were two people killed in that. But he was only 25, he'd just moved in with his girlfriend, he was doing well, a great worker. "And the hardest thing I ever had to do in all my living life was go up to tell my mother that Aidan was dead." Joe Duffy's beloved mother Mabel - and her death in 2022 Joe paid an emotional tribute to his mother Mabel as she was laid to rest. The RTE broadcaster’s mother passed away in Kiltipper Woods Care Centre, surrounded by her loving family at age of 92 in February 2022. Holding back tears, Joe said: “Thank you for coming and thinking of Mabel. We have come a long way because of her lifetime. “Mabel, we were blessed in your often hard life, blessed in your easy passing, and after 94 years on this earth, blessed beyond belief that you were our mother. So in this church, your favourite, we say goodbye today. And like so many in your generation, Mabel, you sank the well and we drank the water.” Speaking to the packed funeral mass at 11:30am in St Matthew’s Church in their native Ballyfermot, Joe remembered his mother’s life and hardships she has faced in the past. He said: “On the day Mabel was born in 1929 the new Dail was debating the closure of workhouses, which had existed in Ireland since before the famine. “And it is fair to say that Mabel and her siblings with their parents did not have an easy life. Mabel unfortunately could not recall if she made her communion or confirmation as she lived in 19 different places in Dublin city before she was 19. “But the six girls were a strong and lively sisterhood working together in the same factories from an early age. My god she worked hard, long before she was married. Like so many then, rearing six children, she was very disciplined with us and herself. “Remember this was a woman who hardly ever drank or smoke, yet insisted on buying low fat Flora for herself until the day she left Claddagh Green in November 2020. That being said, when we were growing up she never asked for or accepted help. “I seldom saw my mother sitting down.” The Dubliner also spoke of her difficulties with her health in recent years, after a battle with Covid, and suffering a fall in her home and a stroke whilst living alone during the pandemic. He added: “She enjoyed good health. Even when she bet off nighttime intruders with her curtain rail while living alone a few years ago. “The brilliant Gardai in Ballyfermot wanted her to go to hospital. But when the paramedics arrived they discovered she had a healthier blood pressure than the assembled younger uniformed men around her,” he added laughing. “But her vision began to fail dramatically,” he went on and told how she went through a long regime of painful injections. Joe sobbed as he said: “She refused any painkillers, any. But gradually her health began to fail and frail which she found hard to accept.” Recalling how this left her ‘almost clinically blind’, he added: “But falls at home and a stroke brought the inevitable. And in the middle of the Covid pandemic in 2020 when St James Hospital insisted she needed 24 hour help, she contracted Covid before vaccines arrived “And she reluctantly went into Kiltipper Care Centre where she lived and was cared for brilliantly since December 2020.” Paying tribute to his siblings - especially his sister, Pauline, Mabel’s only daughter - Joe thanked them for their love and support for their mother throughout her life in sickness and health. “Us boys got the wooden spoon on the back of the leg when we mitched school, but to see Mabel branching a frying pan, with the eggs still in it, running towards Pauline was a lasting laugh I know you’ll never forget,” he joked. The dad-of-triplets also remembered his late brother Aidan, who tragically died in a car crash in 1991, and his father Jimmy, who passed away seven years before the accident. Joe sobbed, as he told the congestion of family and friends: “Her beloved youngest Aidan was tragically killed in a car crash in 1991, aged 25. This was seven years after our father died, aged 58. “When she died last Sunday, Mabel was six years longer a widow than she was a wife.” He later added: “Aidan’s early death when he was on the cusp of a great life was a wound which has never healed for any of us.” But the doting son also remembered the good times with his beloved mother, including her pride and love of her home in Claddagh Green. “She was 24 when her first son James was born. She was living in Mountjoy Place. But things changed dramatically in 1958, when Mabel and Jimmy's name was picked out of a lottery at City Hall and they got a house at 6 Claddagh Green. “She moved there with James and myself, four more were to arrive later. And Jimmy headed off sporadically for work in England. “She lived in Claddagh Green for over 60 years, refusing any other better offers. And when she eventually bought the house off the corporation, with her own money, she carried the deeds around in her handbag. “She loved living in Ballyfermot, her life began to improve. Which I mean, our lives.” Choking back tears, he went on: “She loved her garden and growing rhubarb for her gorgeous tarts out the back and flowers on the front. She insisted on cutting her grass with her shears and a push lawnmower up to the time she was 90. This was after she finished polishing the steps outside the hall door on her knees. "She loved dancing, and she could move. The picture in front of the Missalette was taken at her 90th birthday with a high speed camera as we couldn’t get her to slow down." Joe Duffy's biggest insecurity Joe is proud of his working class roots, but admits it's also the source of some of his biggest insecurities. He said: "I'd be very insecure, I've never had a sense that I was entitled to a job or entitled to stuff in life. "There was never an expectation that I would go to college or any of us would and I was the first of a thousand generations to go to third-level." And despite his long-standing career in radio, he has always maintained that he's only as good as his latest programme. He said: "I'm in RTE on a contract, which can be terminated by the end of a broadcast if they so decided, without any consequences. I think I can relate to people more because I've been through a lot of things in my life, both from where I was born, my upbringing, my experiences leaving school then going back to third-level after three years, becoming a social worker, becoming a probation officer, the family I'm from." Join our Dublin Live breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive your daily dose of Dublin Live content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. For all the latest news from Dublin and surrounding areas visit our homepage.
