Broadcaster Bryan Dobson has announced that he has decided to retire from RTÉ at the end of April.
Dobson has become one of RTÉ's best known broadcasters on television and radio over the last 37 years after initially joining in 1987 as a reporter on the This Week programme.
He has presented all of RTÉ's flagship news programmes across television and radio during this time and anchored its television coverage of elections and special State events.
Dobson, who is 63, said he has had “37 fantastic years with RTÉ” and it is time to move on.
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“I will miss working with some wonderfully talented and hardworking colleagues,” he said.
“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 Dobson represents “the best in public service journalism” and for many years brought a “calm authority to the most important stories”.
He added: “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, RTÉ's news and current affairs director, described Dobson as 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,” she said.
“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.”
In the years after joining the company, Dobson was appointed RTÉ's business correspondent and presented the TV programme Marketplace. In 1991, he became presenter of RTÉ One O’Clock news. He later moved to present the Nine O’Clock news programme before being appointed anchor of the Six One News in 1996.
He spent 21 years working on the flagship programme before moving to be part of the presenting team on Morning Ireland in 2017.
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.
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