Tributes paid after RTÉ presenter Marty Morrissey's mother dies in Clare road accident

Morrissey (63) has been left devastated at the sudden death of his beloved mother Peggy following an incident at Annagh, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, at approximately 12.30am today.

Peggy Morrissey, who was aged in her 90s, was the sole occupant and driver of the car.

She was pronounced dead at the scene and her body was taken to Limerick University Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Gardaí at Kilrush garda station have issued an appeal for anyone with information to contact them.

Enda Rouane, sacristan at Peggy Morrissey's local church Our Lady Star of the Sea in Quilty, Co Clare, described her as “a lovely woman".

He said: “It’s very sad she was lovely and very independent. She really was a lovely woman. It’s a very sad way to go.

“Everyone around knew her and she was so well thought of.

“She was a very regular mass goer during the week and on Sunday. She was a Eucharistic minister.

“I think she was very proud of Marty, I’m sure she was. God rest her.”

Morrissey’s mother Peggy, whose maiden name was Twomey, was originally from Mallow, Co Cork, while his father Martin Morrissey came from Quilty in west Clare.

The sports presenter, who is an only child, lost his father on December 19, 2004.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Independent, the broadcaster described his father’s death as the saddest day of his life.

“He drove me to Shannon Airport from home. I said goodbye to him at departures,” he said.

His mother rang him when he arrived in New York to tell him the sad news and he said it was a “devastating blow” to the family.

Morrissey's parents left Ireland for New York as newlyweds in the early 1950s. There, his father set up a travel business, Morrissey Travel, in the Bronx.

Peggy, a former hairdresser, worked as a receptionist in a university.

When she became pregnant with Marty in 1958, she flew back to Ireland in order to have her baby in Cork. Marty was born at Mount Alvernia Hospital in Mallow.

Peggy returned to New York with her baby son one month later.

“She went back on one of those propeller planes for a 17-hour flight back to New York with me in her arms,” Marty said in recent years. “It was some journey. She was brilliant, to be fair to her.”