‘He promised he would never leave us’: Brendan Grace’s daughter shares his final moments

"He had the kindest, kindest heart."

Brendan Grace had a gentle passing, his daughter has said. The beloved comedian died yesterday after a short illness. He was 68. Melanie Gillespie said that her dad's final moments were spent with his loved ones.

"It was the comfort my mam gave him that made his passing so gentle," she said on RTÉ Radio One's Live Line. "He promised that he would never leave us and we believe that to be true."

Brendan the family man was a different person to Brendan the entertainer, she continued. "He had the kindest, kindest heart. He had heart enough both for his family and a nation and we're just so proud of that. We were happy to share him. "Offstage, although he absolutely made us laugh often, he was a different person and I loved that we got that person. "Everyone else got the entertainer, we got a more vulnerable version of that." President Michael D Higgins led tributes to Brendan.

"As a comedian Brendan's spontaneous wit and his sense of timing, his obvious delighting in interaction with his audiences, meant that Brendan's sense of humour was drawing from, and itself a profound contribution to, the deep wellspring of Irish wit," read an official statement from Áras an Uachtarain. "His best-loved characters will endure, precisely because they are both recognisable and representative of the experiences lived and recalled by Irish people of all ages."

Brendan is survived by his wife Eileen, children and grandchildren.