Tributes are paid to Newcastle man and popular DJ

Tributes are paid to Newcastle man and popular DJ

23 March 2022

THE family and friends of much-loved U105 radio presenter and DJ Paul McKenna attended his funeral yesterday.

The popular 46-year-old Newcastle man died last Wednesday at the Northern Ireland Hospice nearly two years after he was first diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus.

Friends from the world of broadcasting, including U105 presenters Frank Mitchell, Johnny Hero, and Carolyn Stewart and Q Radio’s Ibe Sesay, gave on-air emotional tributes to the father of three as the news of his untimely death rocked the entertainment world.

He received the cancer diagnosis in June, 2020 when a scan and tests revealed he also had it in his lung.

While the cancer was successfully removed, it was followed by a year of chemotherapy treatment. 

However, Paul was told last year the cancer had returned. While devastated with the news, Paul’s wife, Emma, said he was determined to beat the disease but only she knew that his condition was terminal.

She spoke of his final moments and how his thoughts where of her and his daughters — Eimear, Rachel and Evie-Grace.

“He asked me not to let the three girls forget him and he told me how much he loved me. He made me promise I would go to New York next year for my 40th birthday as that’s where he had planned to take me,” Emma told the Sunday Life.

Emma described how Paul continued to try and fulfil his busy professional schedule, even going to DJ at an event four weeks ago with a syringe driver around his neck.

“Paul would never let anyone down,’’ said Emma. “He was still trying to help people.”

She said her husband only got to spend five nights in their new family home before needing hospice care.

Paul, a former student of St Malachy’s High School, Castlewellan, started his radio career in Newcastle by helping out a friend with his mobile disco doing weddings. He got his chance to DJ on his own for the first time due to a double booking. 

He then began to DJ regularly at the Central Park nightclub in his early 20s, later securing a residency in The Groovy Train at the M Club in Belfast in 1997.

Paul’s break into radio came in 2006 when he became a presenter with 5FM in Newry, part of the Q Radio Network, later becoming a breakfast presenter and eventually operations manager.

He left in 2009 and worked freelance for three years with Downtown Radio before joining U105 presenting the Sunday afternoon show in 2014.

In 2018, he took on the overnight programme from midnight until 6am, Monday to Thursday.

Paul also was a multi-award winning wedding DJ and played regularly as the recommended DJ for the Hastings Hotel Group.

O’Hares in Newcastle paid its condolences on social media to Paul’s family and friends:: ‘DJ PK was a resident here for many years and was heavily involved in the success of Central Park and Coast nightclub entertaining generations of party goers here.’

After a service at Our Lady Of The Assumption Church in Newcastle, Paul’s remains left for cremation in Dardistown Crematorium in Dublin.