“The whole country seems to be mourning tonight.”
Friday night’s Late Late Show opened with a touching tribute to Ashling Murphy.
The entire country grieved this week, when 22-year-old Ashling was murdered in broad daylight while out for a jog in Co. Offaly.
She was a talented musician and fiddle player and was remembered with a traditional Irish music session. An empty chair was left in the circle of musicians, with a fiddle resting on it, in her honour.
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Viewers took to social media to praise the heartbreaking tribute.
“The empty chair for Aisling is both devastating and beautiful,” one person wrote.
Another described it as “so simple and poignant”.
“This is a classic and heart wrenching example of how brilliant the Irish mourn and lament the passing of loved ones. So beautiful,” a third added.
Host Ryan Tubridy offered his condolences to her family, friends and her pupils and colleagues at Durrow National School.
Tonight, we remember Ashling Murphy x#LateLate pic.twitter.com/Glmy96t7NQ
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) January 14, 2022
“The traditional music community are a close-knit family and they like all of us up and down the country are very shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by the senseless events in Tullamore this week,” he said.
During the musicians’ session, he told them: “You get the sense that music like this, musicians like you come together at a time like this and make sense of the senseless.”
“The whole country seems to be mourning tonight. Something happened, something changed in the makeup of the island.”
Taoiseach Michael Martin also appeared on the show and said that Ashling’s murder had provoked a “powerful act of solidarity” by the Irish people.
"I think men want to step up to the plate here"#LateLate pic.twitter.com/IXqS4leVyK
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) January 14, 2022
“For me I just visualise the classroom for those pupils I have a passion for education.
“See the smiles on the faces of the kids when she walked in to that classroom, the affirmation she would bring to the classroom and all that’s been taken away. And I think people are saying that people are reflecting on all of that and saying enough is enough and this cannot happen and should not happen again.”
He said that the government will act to combat violence against women – and that work was already underway on a “major strategy”.
“I think men want to be part of the solution,” he added. “For the vast, vast, vast majority of men are repulsed by this. I think I think men need to listen more to women. We need to listen more to what women are saying to us.”
