The death has taken place of Mr Denis Fitzgibbon, known for many years as "Din Joe", the presenter of the RTE radio programme Take the Floor. Mr Fitzgibbon was 77.
He was born in Cork and went to school at Presentation College. He was a well-known rugby player, playing for Dolphin and becoming one of the youngest men to play for Munster. He studied accountancy and moved to Dublin to work for Smithfield Motors.
He was to spend his working life in the motor business. He became sales director for Volkswagen in 1960, building up a nationwide dealership before moving to become managing director of Toyota in 1975. He also served as chairman of the Marketing Institute of Ireland.
He was active in amateur variety shows in the early 1950s and was a panellist on a radio quiz show chaired by Joe Linnane. In 1953 this led to him being asked by Radio Eireann to fill in for six weeks as presenter of a new radio variety programme. The programme was Take the Floor and it lasted off and on for most of the next 25 years.
In the 1950s and 1960s "Din Joe" - as he was known, although his middle name was not Joseph - became one of the best-known voices on radio. His inimitable style made the programme, based around ceili bands and acts like the Rory O'Connor Dancers, a national pastime. He also worked with singers like Edmund Browne, musicians like Kathleen Watkins and actors like Eamonn Keane, who played the seanchai on the programme.
Take the Floor was recorded live all over the country, and Mr Fitzgibbon had to drive back through the night to Dublin to begin his day job the next morning.
He left the programme briefly in the late 1960s to present a TV show, but he did not like television and returned to present Take the Floor for several more years in the 1970s.
The broadcaster Mr Ciaran Mac Mathuna said last night that Mr Fitzgibbon was "a very genial and popular man. He would tell jokes in his lovely Cork accent. People used to joke that Take the Floor was the only place in the world where you could learn Irish dancing on the radio." Mr Fitzgibbon is survived by his wife Emer, a son - the journalist and columnist Mr Frank Fitzgibbon - and five daughters.