Jimmy’s pain at son’s death

LEGENDARY sports commentator Jimmy Magee never got over the death of his son Paul, his family reveal in a moving documentary.

RTÉ’s Memory Man, who died in September last year aged 82, was devastated by the death of his wife Marie and his mother in 1989. But when his son Paul died from Motor Neurone disease aged just 51 in 2008, it shattered him.

Daughter Linda, 58, said: ‘They were more like brothers, very alike. They looked alike, they had the same interests, same sense of humour.

‘I genuinely do not know how Dad kept going. I think it was his faith.’

Jimmy’s son Mark, 47, also told Cloch Le Carn – Jimmy Magee: ‘I don’t think Dad really ever recovered from the passing of Mum.’

But Mark said he ‘definitely never could cope with a child pre-deceasing him. It just didn’t sit right.’

In the documentary, Jimmy gives a moving tribute to Paul himself: ‘He was my son but he was also my very close friend.’

Jimmy’s family reveal that he was sometimes ‘embarrassed’ by his nickname, The Memory Man – but at the same time, he loved it.