{"id":155448,"date":"2025-10-31T14:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155448\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T14:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:43:08","slug":"claire-byrne-signs-off-from-radio-1-after-15-wonderful-years-with-rte-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155448\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire Byrne signs off from Radio 1 after \u201815 wonderful years\u2019 with RT\u00c9 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9<\/a> radio and television presenter Claire Byrne<\/a> has signed off on her final show with the national broadcaster. <\/p>\n

Speaking on Friday at the end of her morning weekday current affairs and features programme on Radio 1, Byrne announced it was \u201ctime to hand over the baton\u201d after \u201cthe most 15 wonderful years\u201d with RT\u00c9. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had so many great opportunities,\u201d she said on Friday. \u201cI\u2019ve met the most inspiring people in this studio and in so many others over the years. We\u2019ve all worked really hard, but let me tell you, we\u2019ve had great fun too and I have made lifelong friends here in RT\u00c9.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her departure follows the announcement in August that Byrne was planning to rejoin Newstalk<\/a> and host the weekday morning slot<\/a> being vacated by Pat Kenny who is moving to a weekend show. <\/p>\n

Byrne said at the time that the move back to Newstalk, where she worked before joining RT\u00c9 in 2010, marked \u201ca significant milestone\u201d in her career and that she was thrilled to be working with the organisation \u201cas they continue to thrive and cement their position in the Irish media landscape\u201d.<\/p>\n

Byrne took over Sean O\u2019Rourke\u2019s slot when he retired in May 2020 and leaves the programme with an audience of 354,000. <\/p>\n

Her salary in 2023 was put at \u20ac280,000, making her the second-highest earner at the station behind Joe Duffy, who was said to be on \u20ac351,000.<\/p>\n

With Duffy\u2019s departure last June, she seemed set to become the station\u2019s best-paid presenter. However, she would have been expected to take a significant pay cut.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Who were RT\u00c9\u2019s highest earners in 2024? Top-10 list a mix of executives and presentersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Under rules introduced by the director general Kevin Bakhurst in the wake of the Ryan Tubridy controversy two years ago<\/a>, no one at the station is permitted to earn more than his annual salary of \u20ac250,000.<\/p>\n

No details have been revealed of the financial inducements made to lure Byrne away from the national broadcaster. <\/p>\n

Signing off on Friday\u2019s show, Byrne also paid tribute to her team of producers and researchers, saying she \u201ccould not sit in this chair and do what I do without them\u201d and thanked her listeners \u201cwhether I have driven you around the twist or I have entertained you\u201d. <\/p>\n

She also welcomed David McCullagh, who she said will do \u201can exceptional job\u201d in taking over the morning slot. <\/p>\n

\u201cDavid is one of Ireland\u2019s finest journalists, and he\u2019s a fierce, nice fellow to boot. I know he\u2019s going to take great care of you all in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullagh is a broadcaster, journalist and historian who has published six books, authored and presented historical documentaries. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 has said he will continue to present general, European and presidential election coverage for RT\u00c9 News alongside taking over Byrne\u2019s radio slot. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 radio and television presenter Claire Byrne has signed off on her final show with the national broadcaster.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[23898,18,117,19,17,5287,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-155448","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-newstalk-radio","14":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115469314355546299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155448","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=155448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}