Arguably one of Ireland’s greatest ever songwriters, Shay Healy has sadly died aged 78.
Shay, from Sandymount in Dublin, originally worked in RTE as a cameraman but later found fame in programmes such as Nighthawks.
He wrote the 1980 Eurovision winning song, “What’s another year?”, sung by Johnny Logan.
Shay is predeceased by his wife in 2017 and is survived by two children.
In 2018, Shay spoke candidly on Claire Byrne Live about how he dealt with being a widower, how he still enjoyed life and how he dealt with his debilitating Parkinson’s Disease.
Shay, whose late wife Dymphna was his life partner and best friend, said that sometimes the view isn’t as enjoyable as the climb.
The analogy was about life and how people strive to get to the top but perhaps the view along the way is even nicer.
A softly spoken Shay conveyed this very important message to the public in somewhat of a rhetorical way as he almost appeared to be thinking about his own life at that time.
RIP