Morning Ireland

History

The programme was first broadcast on 4 November 1984. It replaced The Derek Davis Show. It had initially been postponed and endured a difficult time during its early years. The first major story to be covered by the programme was a few weeks after it began when an air crash in Eastbourne killed a number of journalists.

The first presenters of the programme were David Hanly and David Davin-Power. Davin-Power was also the first editor. Cathal Mac Coille succeeded David Hanly as the programme's signature voice,{{cite web | access-date = 28 July 2017}} presenting it from 1986 to 1990 and again from 2001 to his retirement in 2017.{{cite web | access-date = 28 July 2017}} Joe Little and Shane Kenny are other former editors and presenters. John Murray presented for the first time in 1994, returning in 2004. Aine Lawlor began presenting alongside Hanly in 1995.

When Fianna Fáil's former government minister Desmond O'Malley left the party, Morning Ireland broadcast his renowned "I stand by the Republic" speech for an extended period, angering then Taoiseach Charles Haughey.

In 1994, Joe Little was due to co-present an edition of the programme from the RTÉ studio in Castlebar, County Mayo, during the European Parliament election of that year, when it was realised belatedly that it could not be heard in Dublin. Disaster was prevented by mere minutes. When the IRA announced its cease-fire that same year, Joe Little was in the Belfast studio beginning an interview with the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Sir Patrick Mayhew, when the sound broke down live on air on a temporary basis. During one edition, the entire programme did malfunction, and, with interviews suspended and a commercial break impossible, Hanly intervened to prevent a complete disaster for several minutes by commenting to the show's previous guest: "There was one other question I wanted to ask you [...]". Joe Little interviewed Lady Valerie Goulding to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of The Blitz of London by Germany.

In 1999, for Christmas Eve, the programme focused on those killed during The Troubles. Contributors to that programme included world leaders such as Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and Mary McAleese. In 2005, a Mary McAleese interview for the programme caused controversy when she compared the children of Northern Ireland to Nazis. Ian Paisley, Jr. replied, "So much for bridge-building Mary", and described her remarks as "irrational and insulting". The Orange Institution cancelled a meeting it had ordered with McAleese as a result.

During the 2000s recession, an outside broadcast took place in the Waterford Crystal plant as employees barricaded themselves inside in a bid to save their careers. In another episode Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan criticised John Murray for his "dangerous and irresponsible" line of questioning him about Irish banks.

Morning Ireland celebrated its 25th anniversary in November 2009. It was broadcast in front of a studio audience and featured guests including Mary McAleese, Brian Cowen, comedian Des Bishop and author Cathy Kelly. McAleese spoke of her intention to reduce her household budget during difficult recessionary times, including sending e-mails instead of posting cards for Christmas.

In 2010 the programme came to international attention after Taoiseach Brian Cowen gave a controversial nine-minute interview to Cathal Mac Coille from a Fianna Fáil think-in in Galway; the interview led to increased pressure for Cowen to resign in the days that followed due to allegations that he was drunk during the interview.

Garret FitzGerald made his final radio broadcast on the programme in 2011.

In 2010, two presenters, John Murray and Richard Downes, left the programme to expand to further areas of RTÉ, and were replaced by Aoife Kavanagh and Rachael English. The programme is also presented by Claire Byrne, Gavin Jennings and Fran McNulty.

September 24th, 2025 marked the final broadcast for Mary Wilson and Aine Lawlor. Wilson officially retired from RTÉ whereas Lawlor announced she was stepping back from the show, but will continue to present The Week in Politics.

The current presenters are Audrey Carville and Gavin Jennings. John Burke is the series editor of the programme.

Awards

Morning Ireland won 'News Programme of the Year' in the 2002, 2003 and 2008 PPI Radio Awards. Cian McCormack, a reporter for the programme, won News Reporter of the Year in 2009.

Hilary McGouran, Series Editor, and Shane McElhatton, Editor, were named by Village as amongst the 100 most influential people in Ireland in 2009. The studio and web producer of the programme, Lisa Pereira, a native of Trinidad and Tobago and educated in Ireland, France and the United States, was also on the list.

Format

The programme, which is co-presented by various presenters, consists of a mixture of live interviews and pre-recorded location reports. Extended news bulletins are broadcast at 07.00 and 08.00, followed by a weather forecast and "It Says In The Papers", a review of the Irish morning newspapers. There are news headlines followed by sports news at 07.30 and 08.30 and business news is broadcast at 07.45. AA Roadwatch provided traffic news for decades throughout the programme, however this was stopped in 2021. Since then, RTÉ provides its own traffic updates.

A new website was launched in June 2009. It features additional material and a webcam that allows listeners to view the programme from the studio. The live stream from the webcam is also broadcast on RTÉ's rolling news channel.

Ratings

Morning Ireland is the top rated radio programme in Ireland, with a listenership estimated by the Joint National Listenership Survey to be 491,000. It is considered the most influential news programme on Irish radio. When ratings for the radio shows of prominent RTÉ broadcasters such as Joe Duffy, Pat Kenny and Gerry Ryan were declining in 2005, Morning Ireland remained Ireland's most popular radio programme. It was at one point rivalled by The Full Irish in second place before that show ended.

Rebroadcasts

A half-hour segment of Morning Ireland forms part of the WRN North America stream that is currently re-broadcast on shortwave by Radio Miami International (WRMI).

References

References

1. Michael Good. (4 November 2009). "Morning Ireland: How it all began". [[RTÉ News and Current Affairs]].
2. (2008-10-25). "The matriarchs of Montrose". [[Irish Independent]].
3. [http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/1028/jnlr.html "Morning Ireland tops JNLRs once again"]. ''RTÉ Ten''. 28 October 2011.
4. [http://www.rte.ie/ten/2012/0202/jnlr.html "Morning Ireland tops JNLRs again"]. ''RTÉ Ten''. 2 February 2012.
5. "Morning Ireland: Meet The Team". [[RTÉ News and Current Affairs]].
6. "Morning Ireland". [[RTÉ News and Current Affairs]].
7. (2009-11-05). "Morning Ireland - All should take a bow". [[Irish Examiner]] }}{{dead link.
8. Karl Whelan. (2009-12-17). "Nama will not put banks in position to lend more". [[The Irish Times]].
9. Cormac Murphy. (9 November 2009). "No party for Morning Ireland's 25th". [[Evening Herald]].
10. (2005-01-28). "McAleese row over Nazi comments". [[BBC]].
11. Jim Carroll. (5 November 2009). "25 years of Morning Ireland". [[The Irish Times]].
12. (2009-11-05). "President cuts her personal cloth". [[BBC]].
13. McDonald, Henry. (2010-09-20). "Irish PM Brian Cowen under pressure after 'drunk' radio interview". [[The Guardian]].
14. (19 May 2011). "Dr Garret FitzGerald dies in a Dublin hospital aged 85". Irish Independent.
15. (1 October 2010). "New faces for Morning Ireland team". [[RTÉ]].
16. O'Rourke, Evelyn. (2025-09-24). "Mary Wilson and Áine Lawlor sign off from Morning Ireland".
17. "Entry Archive - 2002 - Winners". PPI Radio Awards.
18. "Entry Archive - 2003 - Winners". PPI Radio Awards.
19. (13 October 2008). "RTÉ Radio 1 is Station of the Year". [[Raidió Teilifís Éireann.
20. "2009 PPI RADIO AWARDS WINNERS". PPI Radio Awards.
21. (2021-07-09). "AA to drop Roadwatch reports from tomorrow".
22. (4 June 2009). "Morning Ireland on the web". Morning Ireland.
23. (12 November 2009). "Over 1 Million Tune into RTÉ Radio". RTÉ Press Centre.
24. (21 August 2009). "Morning Ireland leads RTÉ resurgence". [[Irish Examiner]].
25. McCárthaigh, Seán. (18 February 2006). "New RTÉ Radio 1 boss tasked with halting the slide in big-name listenership". [[Irish Examiner]].
26. "Archived copy".