Myles to go before I sleep

Like the rest of the nation, Myles Dungan was shocked to find out that Gerry Ryan had died suddenly on that spring day almost a year ago now. The story continued to grow legs as little snippets of lurid information slowly emerged about the broadcaster's lifestyle. As a member of the RTE fraternity, Myles Dungan knew Ryan, although they were not bosom buddies. He knew the gregarious broadcaster to see around the sprawling Montrose campus and knew he was a vivacious guy. He didn't know he took medication for stress or that he was into hard drugs. Dungan recalls the day and the hour when he heard the news. He was driving from Kells to Dublin and listening to Sean Moncrieff on Newstalk. "There was stuff coming in on Twitter and he (Moncrieff) was saying it wasn't saying exactly what had happened, he was hinting - he was very sensible, he wasn't jumping the gun - he wasn't saying Gerry Ryan is dead. He knew there was something going on. I switched over to RTE for the three o'clock news and heard the details. I didn't crash the car but I wobbled," Dungan recalls. Ryan's passing was one of those seminal events that had a profound effect on Dungan. He compares it to other sudden and major news events such as hearing as a youngster that President John F Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Ryan's passing prompted Dungan to do something he had been planning for some time but had kept putting off; he went for a medical check-up. It proved to be a wise move as it was discovered he had dangerously high levels of cholesterol. Dungan looked fit and well when he met up with the Meath Chronicle in Margaret's Café in Kells one morning last week and tucked into a plate of home-made brown bread and butter, the café's speciality. "I knew Gerry but I wouldn't say he was a friend. Things like that (Ryan's death) can actually have an impact on you. Arising out of what happened to Gerry, I went and got a test done and was referred to a specialist and was told 'you have a problem, you have to start taking these tablets'," he recalls. "I exercise a lot but it (cholesterol) wasn't coming down that way, it was still creeping up. I wasn't being realistic but, after what happened to Gerry, I said I've got to get it done. I was told 'you've got a build up there, at any moment you could go'. It informs your psychology in that you know the way you say 'I'll do that tomorrow' or 'I'll do that in six months'. I don't want to exaggerate but there are millions of people walking around exactly the same way, some of them don't know about the threat to their health possibly. I'm somebody who does, so I'm careful." Myles Dungan has good reason to keep a check on things. His describes how his father, Bill, was playing golf one day in 1964 when he suddenly collapsed and died. He was 57, the age his broadcaster son is now. "I'm not overweight but I'm one of these people who has a cholesterol problem, but in 1964 nobody every heard of cholesterol. It was like a silent killer, and if my father was around, like me now, I would be pretty much the exact equivalent of him in that I have the same problems that he has, or he had, but I can take a tablet every day and minimise the risk." drivING FORCE As might be expected, the death of Bill Dungan had a huge impact on his 10 year-old son. Myles Dungan feels it may have been one of the major reasons why he is driven to succeed. He will usually have a number of projects on the boil at the same time - books he has to write, TV or radio programmes he has to make, teaching assignments to be fulfilled, studies to be completed. "I think the loss of my father inspired me to achieve. I would imagine it did, something certainly did. I'm not sure what it was (laughs) but I'm somebody who has always worked very hard. I wouldn't think of myself as somebody who would be the most brilliant at anything, nothing came to me particularly easy. I would describe myself as a slow learner but I get there in the end." Next September, Dungan is due to go to the University of California at Berkeley for a spell teaching history. He is currently in the throes of completing a PhD in Trinity College, Dublin, and he also takes tutorials there. His daughter, Lara, is also doing a PhD there in immunology. There is certainly something of the academic about Dungan; the way he will sometimes pause when talking about a subject, absent-mindedly run his hands through his hair and look up as if in search of inspiration, a word or a thought that will trigger his memory and come up with the definitive answer. When asked how many books he has written, he can't quite hit on the exact number. "Ten, maybe, or eleven, is it?" he asks rhetorically. He settles for 10, explaining that the issue is complicated by the fact that he wrote "half an novel" some years ago with a colleague. He loves his golf and has compiled two books related to the sport, including 'A Good Walk Spoiled', a collection of golfing quotations which, he ruefully admits, sold considerably better than some of his history books. He has to think long and hard before he comes up his most interesting person he has ever interviewed. It's an understandable problem considering he has talked to a multitude of politicians, writers and high-profile personalities. He eventually settles for Salman Rushdie, a man he found disarmingly honest and forthright. Dungan has written a number of books dealing with war, including one simply entitled 'Vietnam', based on his TV series of the same name. He has long been fascinated with the human story behind the big historical events; how the little guy is affected by big decisions. He is also driven by the desire to unearth the truth so often buried beneath the propaganda. Dungan's accent does not have the typical north Meath lilt, although he spent good chunk of his life living in the area. His father was a bank manager who moved around. Young Myles spent his first six years in Kingscourt before the Dungan family, which included four children, finally settled in Kells. These days Dungan - who is divorced from his first wife - lives outside Kells with Welsh academic Dr Nerys Williams, who works in the English Department in UCD. He has four children from his first marriage, all of whom have pursued a range of interests - Amber (who works in insurance), Rory (TV filmmaker), Lara (British Society of Immunology Young Scientist of the Year) and Ross (actor, speech writer and playwright). After some good-humoured banter with the staff in Margaret's Café, it's time for Myles Dungan to move on again. There's much to be done and, like any good historian, he's acutely aware of how time can slip away. • Myles Dungan presents 'The History Show' on RTE Radio 1 on Sundays from 6.05pm to 7pm, with guests exploring events ranging from medieval times to the recent past, looking at stories about people, places, objects, songs, events, movements, leisure and more. The show searches out fresh angles on familiar topics, seeks out the unfamiliar and doesn't shy away from bizarre or controversial issues, enticing the casual and the curious to join in celebrating the past. See also www.irishhistory.ie