Deirdre Reynolds: ‘When I die, don’t let Dave Fanning write my tribute’

He’s never actually met me, but based on his homage last weekend to someone he has, I’m not taking any chances.

As one of Ireland’s leading voices on all thing music-related (and definitely not just because he happened to be in the building at the time), the presenter was invited onto Saturday with Claire Byrne on RTE Radio 1 to say a few choice words about Christy Dignam, the Aslan frontman who had died at home earlier in the week aged 63 after a long fight against cancer.

And, for a lifelong supporter of Irish artists, it was surprisingly mean-spirited. Listening in the car, indeed I wondered who had p***ed in Fanning’s porridge, as he said how he wasn’t on the panel alongside Frances Black and Ronan Collins to “deify the guy”.

There was no fear of that, as he went on to describe how the beloved Crazy World singer “blew” the band’s chance at global stardom because of his heroin addiction.

Sparking more than 40 messages of “negative feedback” to the broadcaster, the muso also claimed there were “much better frontmen” and that the group “didn’t mean a thing elsewhere”.

Jesus, I mean I don’t subscribe to never speaking ill of the dead, but the criticism should at least be deserved, and come after they’re six feet under, and Fanning’s contribution met neither criteria, as evidenced by the thousands of family, friends and fans who lined the streets of a rain-sodden Finglas for the dad of one’s funeral last Saturday.

The veteran 2FM DJ had, to his credit, the good grace to row back on his “incredibly ill-timed” and “poor taste” remarks, admitting on Tuesday that having listened back to the controversial segment, that listeners’ “comments were right, I was wrong – it was bad.”

“Christy was ALWAYS a gentleman who deserves better than that from me,” he added.

In what, let’s face it, hasn’t been a great week for RTE amid Paygate, the radio star could do with having a word in Ryan Tubridy’s shell-like about the fine art of back-pedalling.

Having done it more than once now (the eulogising, not the back-pedalling), I know it’s an unenviable task trying to distil someone’s whole life, work and loves down into a soundbite in part designed to soothe others’ sadness.

As a professional writer or, in Fanning’s case, talker, it’s even worse as people expect you to have exactly the right words, when often you’re just as stumped as the rest of them.

When someone dies, you’ll often well-meaning mourners come up equally short as they tell the bereaved: “I have no words”.

Although, in some cases, that may well be for the best.