Thank You, Gerry

🎧 You can listen to Nicky read the entire post at the end of this edition.

I’m posting this just after getting home from a wonderful family break in the Algarve.

We spent two lovely weeks together with family, enjoying beautiful restaurants, stunning places, and making memories that, as always, seemed to pass far too quickly. The weather was glorious. As I write this, it’s Monday evening, just after 7 p.m., and it’s still over 30 degrees outside.

Yesterday we wandered around Faro before having dinner and drinks at a rooftop bar overlooking the harbour, with views stretching out towards the sea and the airport beyond. It was one of those evenings you wish you could bottle.

Then, while we were away, I received some very sad news. Louis Walsh text me to tell me Northern Irish broadcaster Gerry Kelly had passed away.

I was genuinely shocked.

I’d only been speaking to Gerry six or seven months ago. I know that’s half a year, but it honestly feels like yesterday. He’d sent me a WhatsApp asking if I’d come on his YouTube series, In Conversation with Gerry Kelly. I happily agreed and drove up to Belfast last November to record it.

We had a wonderful conversation, our first proper sit-down in years since we first met. We reminisced about caos and how the roads had to be shut outside the TV center when Westlife were in town. Those early days were insane. The episode we recorded was only released a few months ago, and looking back at it today makes it even more special.

As I was leaving the studio that day, I remember saying to him, “You should come down to Dublin and do my podcast.”

Without hesitation he smiled and said, “I’d absolutely love to.”