Departures of note

Gerard Kelly was born on 20 September 1948 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Before entering broadcasting, he worked as a teacher and lecturer at St. Mary's College in Belfast, and as a leisure development officer for Belfast City Council. His broadcasting career began at Ulster Television as a part-time GAA reporter, and he later returned to UTV in 1979 as a reporter and presenter.

Kelly became one of Northern Ireland's best-known broadcasters through his weekly talk and variety show Kelly, which aired on UTV for 17 years from 1989 to 2005. The programme attracted high-profile guests from television, music, politics and sport, including country legend Garth Brooks, footballer George Best, and a young Rory McIlroy. The show was twice voted the most entertaining programme in Northern Ireland, with the George Best special reaching 367,000 viewers.

After leaving UTV, Kelly joined BBC Radio Ulster in 2009, presenting weekly programmes until 2019. He continued working in television, presenting documentaries and returning to UTV for The Kelly Years, a series reflecting on the stars who had appeared on his show. In 1993, he received the Sony Gold Award, and in 1998 he was inducted into the Royal Television Society Hall of Fame. Kelly died at his home on 26 July 2026, aged 77.