Bryan Dobson announces his surprise retirement from RTÉ this Spring

RTÉ Broadcaster Bryan Dobson has announced that he has decided to retire from RTÉ at the end of April this year- marking the end of his 37 year long career with the national broadcaster.

Many will be familiar with Dobson's presence on our small screens from his work as presenter on RTÉ News at One. However over the years, Dobson 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.

One notable state event that Dobson fronted was the RTÉ coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's historic visit to Ireland in May 2011.

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".

Continuing the RTÉ Radio 1 presenter said : "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 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 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.

Dobson attended Newpark Comprehensive School, Blackrock, Dublin, which was one of the first schools to introduce the Transition Year programme. As part of his transition year experience, he presented a half-hour radio programme. When Dobson finished school, he attended a media course in the Rathmines College of Commerce as part of the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Deirdre McCarthy, Director of RTÉ News & Current Affairs has said on the occasion of Dobson's retirement that: "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."