End of an era as Bryan Dobson retires from RTÉ after nearly 40 years

Well-known broadcaster and journalist Bryan Dobson will officially retire from RTÉ this Friday following a career of nearly 40 years.

Currently presenter of the News at One, on RTÉ Radio 1, Bryan has been a journalist and broadcaster with RTÉ News for 37 years.

The 64-year-old has presented all of RTÉ's flagship news programmes across television and radio during his career and he  anchored RTÉ's television coverage of elections, and special State events. 

Announcing his decision earlier this year, 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 give me their time and attention over the years. I hope to have repaid that trust with reporting that was relevant, fair and accurate." 

Bryan Dobson, who will present his final programme this Friday lunchtime, joined RTÉ in 1987 as a reporter with the RTÉ Radio 1's 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 as 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.  

During that time, he covered the first free elections in South Africa, witnessed history on the night the Good Friday Agreement was announced and was live on-air when the twin towers collapsed in New York in 2001.

During his career at the national broadcaster, 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.