{"id":155395,"date":"2025-10-31T14:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155395\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T14:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:07:10","slug":"whether-i-have-driven-you-around-the-twist-or-entertained-you-thank-you-claire-byrne-signs-off-from-rte-after-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155395\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Whether I have driven you around the twist or entertained you, thank you\u2019: Claire Byrne signs off from RT\u00c9 after 15 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Byrne is set to replace Pat Kenny in his morning slot at Newstalk from early 2026\n<\/p>\n

Byrne today signed off on her mid-morning show Today With Claire Byrne on RT\u00c9 Radio 1 which she has presented since August 2020 and attracted a daily 354,000 listeners.<\/p>\n

In an emotional farewell, the 50-year-old reflected on her time at the helm of Irish radio.<\/p>\n

“Because it is my last show in RT\u00c9, and it is time to hand over the baton, and I wanted to say to you that I’ve had the most wonderful 15 years here,\u201d she began.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had so many great opportunities. I’ve met the most inspiring people in this studio and in so many others over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is moving to commercial radio station and airways rival Newstalk to take over the weekday 9am to noon slot soon to be vacated by Pat Kenny.<\/p>\n

The move to Newstalk\u2019s Marconi House early next year will be a reunion of sorts for Byrne, who worked for four years at the now Bauer-owned radio station between 2006 and 2010 as a morning breakfast presenter. <\/p>\n

\"Claire<\/p>\n

Claire Byrne. Photo: Andres Poveda<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 Seconds, Friday October 31 <\/p>\n

She teed up her RT\u00c9 colleague and \u201cfierce nice fella\u201d David McCullagh as her replacement going forward. <\/p>\n

McCullagh joined RTE in 1993 as a reporter for RT\u00c9 News and worked as an RT\u00c9 News political correspondent for 12 years.<\/p>\n

“I have made lifelong friends here in RT\u00c9, but David McCullagh is taking over, and I know he’s going to do an exceptional job.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to you who’ve listened to me over the years, whether I have driven you around the twist or I have entertained you, thank you very much for your company, and do take care. Have a lovely weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the show, there was the revelation by People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett (58) that he has been given the all-clear to return to the D\u00e1il following months-long treatment for throat cancer.<\/p>\n

The Dun Laoghaire TD said he had had a scan \u201cin the last week or so\u201d that had shown the cancer had been \u201celiminated\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as good a result for the treatment I got as you can get,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Byrne\u2019s departure comes at a time of major change at the broadcaster, with other household names such as Joe Duffy and Ray D\u2019Arcy also no longer on the RT\u00c9 airwaves.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9\u2019s annual report was published this week. It showed the highest-paid presenters last year were Duffy at \u20ac351,000 and Byrne at \u20ac280,000. <\/p>\n

Others in the top 10 highest-paid \u00adpresenters include Miriam O\u2019Callaghan, Brendan O\u2019Connor and D\u2019Arcy.<\/p>\n

Speaking about salaries later that day, RT\u00c9 director general Kevin Bakhurst told \u00adDrivetime: \u201cWhat I said was no one at RT\u00c9 will earn more than the director general. One thing I can say is that by January 1 next year, that will be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Byrne is set to replace Pat Kenny in his morning slot at Newstalk from early 2026 Byrne today…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[23898,18,117,19,17,125,24321,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-155395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-claire-byrne","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-keith-kelly","14":"tag-newstalk","15":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115469172365778685","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}