Bryan Dobson to retire from RTÉ after 37 years

Broadcaster Bryan Dobson has announced that he will retire from RTÉ at the end of April this year.

Dobson is currently presenter of RTÉ News at One on RTÉ Radio 1 after working as a journalist and broadcaster with RTÉ News for 37 years.

Since joining the national broadcaster in 1987, he has presented all of RTÉ’s flagship news programmes across television and radio, and presented RTÉ’s television coverage of elections and special state events.

He said: “After 37 fantastic years with RTÉ the time has come to move on.

“I will miss working with some wonderfully talented and hardworking colleagues.

“RTÉ journalism depends on teamwork and I have worked with some of the very best.

“I am grateful too to the listeners and viewers who have given me their time and attention over the years. I hope to have repaid that trust with reporting that was relevant, fair and accurate.”

RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst said: “Bryan represents the best in public service journalism.

“For many years, he has brought a calm authority to the most important stories. Every day, he demonstrates a depth of knowledge and an absolute integrity in his work and has never been afraid to ask the toughest questions and hold the powerful to account.

“Personally, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with him.”

Director of RTÉ News & Current Affairs Deirdre McCarthy said: “Bryan Dobson has been an outstanding journalist and one of the most recognisable and trusted news presenters in the country both on radio and television for decades.

“A part of the nation has grown up with Bryan in our homes every evening on the Six One News and on our radios on Morning Ireland and more recently anchoring News at One.

“His sharp intellect, vast experience and in-depth knowledge across national and international news and current affairs have kept Irish audiences well informed and up to date.

“Bryan has demonstrated the capacity time and time again to tell stories of unbelievable tragedy as well as of great joy.

“A great colleague and mentor in the newsroom over many decades, he will be missed by all the team in News & Current Affairs.”

Bryan Dobson joined RTÉ as a reporter with the RTÉ Radio 1 This Week programme.

Later that year he was appointed RTÉ’s Business Correspondent, as well as presenting the television business programme Marketplace.

In 1991 he became presenter of RTÉ One O’Clock News, later moving to present the Nine O’Clock News programme before being appointed anchor of the Six One News in 1996.

He spent 21 years at the flagship programme, before moving to be part of the presenting team on Morning Ireland in 2017, the most listened to radio programme in Ireland.

He hosted Election 2020: Bryan Dobson Interviews – a new series in the run up to the last general election of must watch in-depth interviews with political party leaders, broadcast in prime time on RTÉ One.

He has also worked on a number of RTÉ documentary programmes including The Madness from Within, an account of the Irish Civil War; Witnesses to War, which featured interviews with Irish veterans of the Second World War and guest presented special programmes on the Lusitania and 1916 Rising for RTÉ Nationwide.