Vincent Hanley

Vincent Hanley (Clonmel, County Tipperary April 1954 - Dublin April 18 1987)] was a pioneering Irish radio DJ and television presenter, nicknamed "Fab Vinny". [cite news |title=Broadcast News |url=http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/2001/0721/01072100188.html
first=Máire |last=Kearney |date=2001-07-21 |page=46 |accessdate=2007-10-18 |work=The Irish Times ] He worked mainly for Radio Telefís Éireann, and was the first Irish celebrity to die from AIDS.]

Hanley began presenting pop music shows on RTÉ Radio Cork in 1976. He also did stints in Dublin on RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ television,] including a special on Gilbert O'Sullivan. [] When the first dedicated pop station, RTÉ Radio Two (now branded 2FM), was started in 1979, he was one of its best-known DJs. [] ] In 1981, he moved to London to work for Capital Radio. In 1984, he declined a lucrative offer to remain there and moved to New York City.

Hanley founded Green Apple Productions in 1983 with Conor McAnally, an RTÉ television producer and son of actor Ray McAnally. The company produced "MT-USA" (Music Television USA), a three-hour-long music video show modelled on the new American cable channel, MTV. MT-USA was broadcast on RTÉ from 1984-87 on Thursday evenings, repeated on Sunday afternoons. Each block of videos was followed by a segment filmed in New York City with Hanley introducing the videos, discussing American music and culture, and interviewing a celebrity. RTÉ described him as Europe's first VJ (video jockey). All videos were of American acts, many previously little-known in Ireland.

In 1987, Hanley died aged not quite 33. He had been visibly ill for some time, and was rumoured to have AIDS, which he denied. [] This reflected the stigma then associated with the disease and with homosexuality in Ireland, which was not decriminalised until 1993. ] The illness admitted by Hanley was congenital cerebral toxoplasmosis, described as an "eye disorder"; he was blind in one eye by his death. Toxoplasmosis is very rarely fatal in adults who do not have a weakened immune system. In 2000, Hanley's friend and colleague Bill Hughes, who had himself come out in the 1990s, agreed that Hanley had in fact died of AIDS. The same year, the "Sunday Tribune" newspaper placed Hanley at the top of a list of Irish gay icons.

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