Former RTÉ Foreign Editor and London Correspondent Andrew, or Andy, Sheppard has died.
He was 88.
Born in Berlin in 1938, and into a Jewish family, Mr Sheppard managed to survive the war in the German capital before moving to Britain in the late 1940s.
He joined RTÉ in 1972, as the broadcaster's London Correspondent, following a five-year stint as political correspondent on the Manchester Evening News.
Mr Sheppard relocated to Ireland in 1977, where he specialised in Anglo-Irish affairs for RTÉ.
He was later appointed Special Correspondent.
He also provided diplomatic coverage such as at the funeral of the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980.
Andrew Sheppard reports from a barstool as MEPs hold meeting in Dublin in 1989
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Mr Sheppard was appointed Deputy Foreign Editor and then Foreign Editor before retiring in 2001 after nearly 30 years at the station.
He was a lifetime member of the National Union of Journalists.
Mr Sheppard was also one of the founding members of the Irish section of the Association of European Journalists.
He was a two-term president of the international AEJ.
A graduate of Manchester University in anthropology and sociology, he had an interest in film and was a reviewer in London.
An avid reader and lover of jazz, he was also a supporter of Arsenal Football Club.
Mr Sheppard died earlier today after a long illness and is survived by his wife, Órla, his son, Danny, his niece, Karen and nephews, Ian and Alastair.
He has donated his body to medical research.
