Broadcaster Ray D’Arcy was told by RTÉ management in September that his contract would not be renewed, RTÉ’s director of audio Patricia Monahan says.
She denies D’Arcy was caught off guard with a decision not to renew his contract last week.
Monahan sat down with The Irish Times for a wide-ranging interview the week after the national broadcaster announced one of the biggest shake-ups in the Radio 1 schedule.
This newcomer to RTÉ – just a year in her current role – has been charged with managing the change, unsettling at least one long-established name in Irish broadcasting.
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There has been much discussion around – and public interest in – how and when D’Arcy learned he wasn’t to be part of Monahan’s plan for Radio 1.
She says management had a number of conversations with D’Arcy about his future at Radio 1, ultimately telling him his contract would not be renewed after it expired on December 31st next.
“He had asked that, whatever the decision, we communicated in good time. So, we communicated it three months out from the end of his contract,” Monahan says.
“Even at the point where Ray’s last contract was signed [in 2023], he would have been told that there was a new director of audio coming – at that point, I hadn’t arrived yet – and that changes were likely to be made.”
Monahan said, when she moved from Newstalk to RTÉ last October, she was “clear with everybody” that “everything was on the table” and no one’s contract was guaranteed to be extended.
When news of D’Arcy’s departure broke on Thursday, October 9th, the presenter said he was “hugely disappointed” with how the situation was handled by management.
[ RTÉ’s twisty new soap opera stars Ray D’Arcy and, now, Brendan CourtneyOpens in new window ]
Monahan says RTÉ was “open to talking about other possibilities with Ray but he didn’t want to pursue that conversation, and that’s fair enough”.
She does not expand on what those possibilities were, but denies D’Arcy was offered a podcast.
Monahan says it was D’Arcy’s decision not to host a farewell programme. She had “no fear” about the presenter criticising RTÉ on air and would have been “very happy to facilitate him” saying goodbye to listeners.
Asked about the impact on D’Arcy’s production team – most of whom will be redeployed to other shows – she says: “Change is unsettling for everybody. I completely understand that.”
In response, D’Arcy told The Irish Times: “I went for a meeting with Patricia Monahan on September 29th to discuss my contract. I was told it was not going to be renewed. I was completely blindsided. There had been no forewarning.
“I was then requested by RTÉ to remain on air, while not telling either the team or the listeners. This was unsustainable as it placed me in a position where I was expected to be untruthful to the team and the listeners.”
In a statement on Friday, D’Arcy continued: “Patricia Monahan and I agreed that I would leave RTÉ on Friday, October 10th, straight after the show. This would allow Patricia Monahan to tell the radio team, who had been kept in the dark up until then, what was happening. There was a leak to the press on the morning of Thursday, October 9th, so I made the decision not to go on air that afternoon.”
The broadcaster announced a new weekday schedule for Radio 1 less than 24 hours after D’Arcy’s departure. The move seemed rushed as some of the finer details, including a launch date, are yet to be worked out.
David McCullagh is replacing Claire Byrne, who is jumping ship to Newstalk, on the Today show from November 3rd, in a new time slot of 9am to 11am. Aside from this, no start date has been confirmed for the rest of the schedule, but Monahan expects it to be up and running at some stage next month.
The biggest change is the fact that Kieran Cuddihy is taking over Liveline following the retirement of Joe Duffy last June. Monahan and Cuddihy worked together for several years at Newstalk, but she says their previous relationship was “not at all” a factor in him securing the job.
Cuddihy was one of more than 500 people who applied to work at RTÉ after a call-out for expressions of interest. Monahan says that, following “a very robust process”, a team of people at Radio 1 made the “unanimous decision” to appoint him. She describes Cuddihy’s presenting style as “accessible”, saying “people can relate to him”.
The 46-year-old broadcasting executive moved to RTÉ last year after more than two decades at Newstalk where she climbed the ladder, working her way up from researcher in 2002 to being appointed managing editor of the station in 2017. In the 15 years in between, she held roles including producer, deputy editor and programme editor.
A Cavan native, she studied English and History at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 2001, before completing a master’s degree in journalism at Dublin City University the following year.
Her former Newstalk colleague Ivan Yates last week says Monahan “will have been a bit of a culture shock to some people in RTÉ”.
Does she agree?
“I don’t think it’s been as big a culture shock as people might have thought.”
Yates also described Monahan as “the opposite of a snowflake”.
Asked about his remarks, Monahan laughs and says Yates is “always a good man for a soundbite”.
“Ivan and I worked together, obviously, for a long number of years. We had a very straight, honest, open relationship – which is the way I like to do it, and obviously the way Ivan likes to do it too,” she says.
Monahan says the assertion she is putting a “Newstalk stamp” on RTÉ is “just not true”; a large part of her mandate is taking Radio 1 in a new direction but she is “definitely not ... trying to turn it into something that exists elsewhere”.
Overall, she says her first 12 months in the job have been both “brilliant” and “challenging”.
While Cuddihy is making the move from Marconi House to Montrose, Byrne is going in the opposite direction.
Following Duffy’s retirement, Byrne was set to become RTÉ’s best-paid presenter. In 2023 she had a salary of €280,000, but would have been expected to take a significant pay cut if her contract was renewed.
Monahan says she “would have loved [Byrne] to stay with RTÉ – there’s no two ways about that”.
Under rules introduced by director general Kevin Bakhurst in the wake of the Ryan Tubridy controversy two years ago, no one at RTÉ can earn more than his annual salary of €250,000.
New Government pay structures might see Bakhurst’s salary increased to up to €300,000, meaning some presenters may also get a salary boost.
“That would be a decision for the DG, whenever, if, that was to happen,” Monahan says.
She is “not particularly” worried that the salary cap could result in more presenters leaving RTÉ or prevent the national broadcaster from attracting top talent.
“Obviously, for some people it will be a problem, but it hasn’t been prohibitive in terms of us pulling together the schedule,” she says.
A number of questions about the new schedule remain.
Katie Hannon and Colm Ó Mongáin will host Drivetime weekdays on Radio 1 from 4pm to 6pm, taking over from Sarah McInerney and Cormac Ó hEadhra.
McInerney, who also co-hosts Prime Time on RTÉ 1, has been widely tipped as a new host of Morning Ireland, the station’s flagship radio programme.
“There will be two female presenters on Morning Ireland. We’ve never been shy about saying that, albeit we haven’t named them yet,” Monahan says.
Details of new roles for McInerney and Ó hEadhra will be announced in the coming weeks.
Monahan shut down rumours that Second Captains, the popular podcast team and production company, will be involved in a new daily sports show, saying it will be produced internally. Game On, which currently airs on 2FM at 6pm, will end to make way for the new Radio 1 show.
Arena, the arts and culture show, will retain its 7pm slot. Its long-time presenter Sean Rocks died in July following a brief illness. Telling staff that Rocks had died was “the hardest thing I’ve had to do in the year here”, Monahan says.
Management is in the process of finding his successor but won’t rush it, she says, noting that the late presenter’s are “really big shoes to fill”.
