Laois star Claire Byrne to quit RTÉ
Mountrath native to step down from national broadcaster later this year
In a shock move, Mountrath woman Claire Byrne is set to leave RTÉ after over a decade with the station.
RTÉ news has reported that the Laois woman is leaving the station later this year with her place on the RTÉ Radio 1 schedule taken by David McCullagh who presents the Six O'Clock news on TV.
Byrne presented The Daily Show from September 2010 to March 2012. In 2013, she became an anchor on RTÉ's flagship current affairs programme Prime Time. From January 2015 until May 2022, she hosted her own self-titled weekly current affairs television programme, Claire Byrne Live. In August 2020, she took over the hosting of the Today with ... programme, presenting it as Today with Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1.
In its statement announcing that David McCullagh would be the new presenter of RTÉ Radio 1's flagship Today programme, RTÉ’s Director of Audio, Patricia Monahan, thanked Ms Byrne.
"The Today show has been home to some of the most iconic voices in Irish broadcasting, from Pat Kenny to Sean O'Rourke and, most recently, Claire Byrne. Claire has made the Today seat her own, and her contribution to public service broadcasting across her years in RTÉ has been outstanding. We wish her the very best, and thank her for her dedication to the audiences in Ireland and around the world over many years," it said.
Ms Byrne is moving to Newstalk to take over from Pat Kenny who has announced that his radio programme will be moving to weekends from 2026. The Pat Kenny Show is broadcast on Newstalk on weekdays from 9am to 12pm.
Daughter of Tom and Breda Byrne, Claire Byrne grew up on the family farm near Mountrath. She was educated at the Brigidine Convent in Mountrath. She later studied Politics, Sociology and Social Science at University College Dublin, but did not complete the course. She subsequently attended the Rathmines College of Further Education where she studied journalism.