Todd Andrews

Andrews was born in Summerhill in Dublin in 1901. He acquired the nickname "Todd" because of his perceived resemblance to English comic strip hero Alonzo Todd, who appeared in The Magnet.[1] Andrews briefly attended St. Enda's School and completed his secondary education at Synge Street CBS.[1][2] He went on to study Commerce at University College, Dublin, and although his studies were interrupted by his participation in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War, he returned to the university and was awarded a degree in Commerce.[1]

Andrews joined the Irish Volunteers at the age of fifteen, and had an active role in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1920; however, he was released after ten days on hunger strike. He was interned at the Curragh in 1921, but escaped. Andrews took the Republican side during the Irish Civil War. He was interned by the government of the Irish Free State until 1924. He then continued with his studies and graduated with a Commerce degree.

He got a job with the Irish Tourist Association, and later one with the Electricity Supply Board. When a Fianna Fáil government was returned in 1932, Andrews was put in charge of turf development. He advocated the setting-up of a properly managed commercial enterprise. Bord na Móna was set up in 1946, with Andrews as managing director.

In 1958, he was appointed chairman of the Irish transport company Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ). Aping the widescale railway closures in Britain (the Beeching Axe), he presided over closure of significant sections of the Irish rail network; these by 1962 included

• the Bray to Harcourt Street railway line, now partially reopened as part of the LUAS Green Line.
• the substantial railway network west of Cork city (Bandon, Bantry and Macroom and the associated branchlines to Clonakility, Skibbereen and Kinsale).
• the Hill of Howth Tramway (inherited from the Great Northern Railway), and the West Clare Railway.
• the Cahersiveen, Kenmare and Kanturk lines.

In 1966, Todd Andrews was appointed Chairman of the RTÉ Authority. Asked the difference between his new job as Chairman of RTÉ and his old job as head of the national transport system, he is reputed to have declared: "RTÉ carries more passengers" (though this was a fairly common joke among Dubliners at that time).[3] He resigned in 1970, when his son David Andrews was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach.

He was the recipient of several honorary doctorates and degrees from various universities. He published his autobiography in two volumes in 1979 and 1982, under the titles of Dublin Made Me and Man of No Property.

Andrews died in Dublin at the age of 84.

Two of his sons, Niall Andrews and David Andrews, became TDs; David Andrews became Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Todd Andrews' grandson Ryan Tubridy is a radio presenter and television chatshow host on RTÉ, while grandsons Barry Andrews and Chris Andrews were also TDs. Another grandson is David Andrews junior, better known as comedian David McSavage. In May 2009, Ryan Tubridy was appointed by RTÉ to succeed Pat Kenny as host of the television station's long-running chat show The Late Late Show, whose first host (and producer) had been Gay Byrne until Kenny took over in 1999. Byrne, in his 1989 memoir The Time of My Life and subsequently in an RTÉ documentary in 2005, related how Andrews, when chairman of the RTÉ Authority, phoned the Director-General of RTÉ Tim McCourt and ordered him to fire "that fucker Byrne"; McCourt refused to dismiss Byrne.[4][5]