Joe Duffy has admitted that his last few years in RTÉ were ‘very tough’ before his retirement.
The Liveline presenter retired from the agony uncle role at Radio 1 last May, after over 37 years with the broadcaster.
Joe’s retirement came after RTÉ had to weather a major storm in the 2023 corporate governance scandal, which brought the national broadcaster to its knees.
Speaking on fellow RTÉ alum Ryan Tubridy’s The Bookshelf podcast, Joe admitted that before his retirement, he wasn’t enjoying his time at RTÉ, and that since retiring, he’s much happier.
‘The last two years, for various reasons, in RTÉ were tough,’ Joe explained. ‘The management — apart from our own line managers, they were around — there didn’t seem to be any management above that,’ to which Ryan agreed.
‘If you were looking for changes, or looking for moral support, your manager would say, “well…” who do I go to? There was a paralysis in the place, and nobody knew what was happening.’
Joe went on to reveal that he was offered a new contract at RTÉ, but ultimately turned it down in favour of retiring.
‘When they came to me towards the end — I’d already extended it by two years — and they said, “Will you do another year?” I was adamant: no.’
Joe revealed last month that he nearly left RTÉ before his retirement, after Liveline was accused of being ‘hostile’ towards the transgender community over comments he made surrounding proposals of removing the word ‘woman’ and ‘mother’ with gender-neutral terms in the Constitution.
In his new book, Talk to Joe, the veteran broadcaster brought up the issues he faced, which included accusations that Liveline had contributed to hostility towards the transgender community.
Joe strongly disputed those claims, assuring that he listened back to the broadcasts to see whether he had done anything wrong.
‘I listened back to the show to see what I did wrong, and I did nothing wrong.’
Nine official complaints were submitted to the broadcaster over the backlash, with politicians and campaign groups adding to the criticism.
Joe said that RTÉ rejected the complaints and none were taken to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
