Michael Lyster (born 11 April 1954) is an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

. He mainly covered sporting events, such as

Gaelic games Gaelic games () are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the most popular of the s ...

and

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. He is best known for presenting '' The Sunday Game Live'', which he hosted from 1984 to 2018.

Early life

The son of a member of the

Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace") is the national police and security service of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards". The service is headed by the Garda Commissio ...

, Lyster was born in

Dungarvan Dungarvan () is a coastal town and harbour in County Waterford, on the south-east coast of Ireland. Prior to the merger of Waterford County Council with Waterford City Council in 2014, Dungarvan was the county town and administrative centre of ...

County Waterford County Waterford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. ...

. When he was four years-old his father was transferred to Barnaderg,

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

, where Lyster spent his formative years. He was educated at St Jarlath's College in nearby

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

. After leaving school, he started working in the lab of the local sugar factory.

Career

Journalism

Lyster began his journalistic career as a junior reporter with ''

The Tuam Herald ''The Tuam Herald'' is a weekly Irish newspaper, founded in 1837 by Richard Kelly, which serves the town of Tuam and County Galway. It has a circulation of about 10,000 copies. The newspaper is printed (but not owned) by Celtic Media Group. ...

'' where he wrote a music column. He spent seven years with that newspaper before moving to television and radio.

Television and radio

In 1980, Lyster joined RTÉ as a sports bulletin broadcaster with Radio 2, however, as his career progressed he began presenting programmes and covering high-profile sporting events. In his first year at the national broadcaster he also covered the

on radio. One of the highlights of his early career was covering the

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

and

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

All-Ireland hurling finals for radio. In 1984 Lyster took over as presenter of ''

The Sunday Game ''The Sunday Game'' is RTÉ's main Gaelic games television programme. It is shown on RTÉ2 every Sunday during the Football Championship and Hurling Championship seasons. It is one of RTÉ2's longest-running shows, having been on air since 1 ...

'', a post he held for 34 years. That same year he was one of the main presenters for RTÉ's television coverage of the

Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

, co-hosting the morning slot with

Moya Doherty Moya Doherty (born 1957, in Pettigo, County Donegal, Ireland) is a Dublin-raised Irish entrepreneur and the producer and co-founder of ''Riverdance''. Early life Doherty was born in Pettigo, a village in the south-east of County Donegal in Ul ...

. It was RTÉ's first venture into

breakfast television Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...

with the slot combining action from the Games with cookery and dance classes amongst other things. In 1988, Lyster won a

Jacob's Award The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients ...

for his work on ''The Sunday Game''. Since then Lyster has covered a number of sports for RTÉ across all codes and has been an ever-present feature on RTÉ's coverage of Olympic Games. He remains, however, mostly associated with

and has been one of the main presenters of the

All-Star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

and the

RTÉ Sports Person of the Year The RTÉ Sports Person of the Year Award is the titular award of the RTÉ Sports Awards ceremony, which takes place each December. The winner is the Irish sportsperson (from the island of Ireland) judged to have achieved the most that year. The ...

awards shows. In 2007, Lyster took part in '' Celebrity Jigs 'n' Reels''. Famously, when a penalty was applied to

Hannah Craig Hannah Craig (born 10 February 1983 in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland) is an Irish slalom canoer. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she competed in the K-1 event, finishing 10th in the final. In 2012, she was reported to be from Armoy. Telephone cal ...

during the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, Carl Dunne, head of the Irish canoeing team, telephoned RTÉ's analyst to discuss the possibility of appealing the decision. The analyst took the telephone call live on television as a bemused Lyster watched on. After suffering ill health, Lyster decided to retire from ''The Sunday Game'' at the end of 2018, with the

2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final The 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 131st final of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and the culmination of the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in Gaelic football. The match was played at Cro ...

his last as presenter.

Personal life

Lyster has been married to his wife Anne since 1985 and together they have two boys and two girls. They live in

Cabinteely Cabinteely () is a suburb of Dublin's southside. It is in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, County Dublin, Ireland. The population of all electoral divisions labelled as Cabinteely was 15,864 as of the 2022 census. Geography Cabinteely lies around t ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Lyster has been interested in rally driving which he has enjoyed since the early 1990s. He has partook in many main events including the Cork International Rally where he finished third in 1992, the

Circuit of Ireland Rally The Circuit of Ireland International Rally is an annual automobile rally, which was first held in 1931 making it the third oldest rally in the world. The most recent event was held in 2025. ''The Circuit'', as it is colloquially known, is org ...

and the Killarney Rally of the Lakes. His co-driver is ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

'' sports writer Vincent Hogan.

Health

On 5 June 2015 at 11:32pm Lyster had a major heart attack and was rushed to hospital. He had been playing golf in Galway with friend Vincent Hogan who drove him back to Dublin afterwards. He left his mobile phone in Vincent's car who he rang from his house phone asking him to return to the house with the mobile. Hogan returned to find him collapsed on the ground in the hallway. Lyster's wife Anne performed CPR while Vincent called for an ambulance. He had a pacemaker fitted after receiving treatment. Lyster later disclosed that he had suffered from a heart condition for a number of years prior to the attack.RTE star Michael Lyster tells of how his wife Anne saved his life with CPR after he had cardiac arrest
independent.ie; accessed 21 December 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyster, Michael 1954 births Living people Gaelic games commentators Irish columnists Irish sports broadcasters Jacob's Award winners People educated at St Jarlath's College People from Dungarvan Motorsport people from County Waterford RTÉ television presenters RTÉ 2fm presenters The Tuam Herald people Broadcasters from County Waterford