“I wasn’t sure if it was goodbye, but as soon as I saw Terry I knew it was the last time I was going to see him, and the shake hands was the last shake hands I’d ever have with him.”
Father Brian D’Arcy describes his final moments with Irish broadcaster Terry Wogan who died at the weekend following a short battle with cancer. The Fermanagh priest, who was a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2′s Wake Up To Wogan for 20 years, visited his friend of four decades for the last time one week ago today. 
Fr. D’Arcy has been paying tribute to the television and radio star who was loved so many whether it was on BBC Radio 2 or hosting Children In Need like he did every year since 1980. To share such personal grief so publicly has not been easy, but the priest’s words have brought comfort to others.
When Mr. Wogan didn’t take part in Children In Need back in November, a show he pledged he would never retire from, Fr. D’Arcy said he became concerned about the 77 year old. 
He phoned him and got this response: “Everything’s going to be all right, old boy, and you’d better say a few prayers if you have any influence up there, if there’s anyone up there.’” 
Fr. D’Arcy’s voice cracked as he told BBC Radio 2’s Chris Evans about their last moments together: “It was a beautiful day, a day I’ll never forget, a sad day, because it was the end of a beautiful friendship.”
The popular priest has shared some his favourite photographs of his time with Mr. Wogan in Fermanagh with The Impartial Reporter. 
These photographs and indeed the many tributes that Fr. D’Arcy has been giving this week say a lot about the bond and friendship that they had for one another.
It is little wonder that Mr. Wogan agreed to write the foreword for Fr. D’Arcy’s book ‘A Different Journey’ in which he eloquently summed up the man who has been praising him so publicly all week.
And with Fr. D’Arcy’s permission, we publish an extract of the piece by Mr. Wogan that he now cherishes even more.
“If ever there was an advertisement for the good life, it’s Brian D’Arcy. Not ‘good’ in the modern, hedonistic, materialistic sense; good in the way it used to be: decent, kind, gentle, wise, all the epithets for goodness you can think of - all could be applied to this man - and none would do him justice. 
“For he epitomises everything a man of God should be, but fierce honesty, straight talking and a reluctance to toe the line have undoubtedly hampered his progress up the hierarchical ladder.
“Brian D’Arcy’s not doing it for fame nor fortune, reward nor applause. He’s doing it for good. Thank God for him.”
But it is the introduction of Mr. Wogan’s piece in the book that is perhaps most poignant now as one week on Fr. D’Arcy reflects on his final goodbye and final handshake with his dear friend. 
“Fr. Brian D’Arcy has been there for all the important events of life in the Wogan family: my mother and father’s funerals, the weddings of my three children, and he’ll probably see me off the premises as well...”