Bryan Dobson is to retire from RTÉ after 37 years years with the organisation.
The journalist and broadcaster, currently host of RTÉ News at One with Bryan Dobson on RTÉ Radio 1, will leave at the end of April this year.
He has presented all of RTÉ’s flagship news programmes across television and radio during this time and anchored RTÉ’s television coverage of elections, and special state events.
Speaking about his departure for the first time, Bryan Dobson 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 give me their time and attention over the years. I hope to have repaid that trust with reporting that was relevant, fair and accurate.”
Kevin Bakhurst, Director General, RTÉ 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.”
Deirdre McCarthy, Director of RTÉ News & Current Affairs 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 Dobson 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 of 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 in 1987 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.