David Timlin:DAVID TIMLIN, who has died aged 73, was for many years a radio and television newsreader with RTÉ. He also worked as a news reporter and presented music programmes and television documentaries.
In 1970, he himself made news, as reported by The Irish Times: "The RTÉ newsreader, Mr David Timlin, who has been missing from home for five weeks, returned to Ireland yesterday with his wife, who had gone to Morecambe in Lancashire when informed by the police he was there. He is now in a Dublin hospital suffering from 'nervous exhaustion'."
Having recovered, he resumed his career and remained at RTÉ for a further 31 years.
Born in Clontarf, Dublin, in 1938, he was the only son of Albert E and Julia Timlin. He was educated at St Joseph’s CBS, Fairview, and St Paul’s College, Raheny.
His first experience of broadcasting was as a child actor when he was a member of the cast of the popular Raidió Éireann series The Foley Family.
He sold small ads door-to-door for the Irish Pressbefore moving to the newspaper's accounts department.
He then became a copy boy in the newsroom, and eventually became a subeditor.
He next joined the sound department at Raidió Éireann, where he was responsible for sound effects.
“One producer loved hearing in his plays the sound of an actress leaving the scene in a rustling dress. I spent a lot of time getting that one right, in dubious and devious ways. Like ruffling the lower half of a dirty old Mac from my scooter. Sounds kinky,” he recalled.
After failing an audition for the Raidió Éireann Players, he became a radio announcer and presented a number of music programmes.
With Charles Mitchel, Andy O’Mahony and Maurice O’Doherty, he was one of the early Telefís Éireann newsreaders, the first stars of the new channel.
On November 3rd, 1967, his midday radio newscast was interrupted by the IRA, who broke into the RTÉ frequency with the message that it would be “disastrous” if Ireland joined the Common Market.
He was presenter of the television series Landscape, which charted the geological history of Ireland. This newspaper's television critic was impressed: "Mr Timlin puts it across pleasantly and professionally and, with the aid of well-chosen photographs, clips of film and explicit graphs, makes a bit of education a very painless process."
He believed that radio had one big advantage over television. “Nobody knows if you read the morning bulletin in pyjamas. Not that I have. But I once read it in a dress suit!”
He retired from RTÉ in 2001.
He enjoyed reading as well as listening to jazz and classical music. He played golf and liked walking and was a former cricketer with Clontarf. In 1968 he married Carol Leonard, and they had three children.
He is survived by his wife Carol, daughters Sandra and Natasha, son Kenneth and grandchildren.
David Timlin: born 1938; died September 26th, 2011