Broadcasters Mary Wilson and Áine Lawlor will sign off on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1 for the final time this morning.
Today marks Ms Wilson’s official retirement from RTÉ and it is also Ms Lawlor’s final Morning Ireland in the presenter’s chair.
Ms Lawlor is stepping back from the show, and will continue to present The Week in Politics and will feature across RTÉ’s coverage of the forthcoming presidential election.
For Ms Wilson, today marks the culmination of an award-winning broadcasting career.
A reporter, correspondent, editor and presenter, Ms Wilson has spent her career in RTÉ either in front of camera for RTÉ News, or behind the microphone on RTÉ Radio 1.
Mary Wilson worked as a reporter, correspondent, editor and presenter throughout her time in RTÉ
From Drangan in Co Tipperary, Ms Wilson joined the RTÉ newsroom in Dublin in 1990.
In 1996, she became the station’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, before being made Editor of Legal Affairs in 2000.
Over the years, Ms Wilson bagged a slew of awards for her news reports and documentaries.
She was the Millennium Journalist of the Year and won a number of Justice Media Awards for her work too.
In 2023 Ms Wilson was inducted into the IMRO Radio Awards Hall of Fame.
In 2006, she moved from the newsroom to take over the helm of the new Drivetime programme on RTÉ Radio 1. She went on to present the daily show for 14 years.
In 2020, Ms Wilson returned to Morning Ireland where she had worked as a reporter when she first arrived in the RTÉ.
Now, after 36 years with RTÉ, Ms Wilson is retiring.
Mary Wilson says she is now looking forward to ‘becoming a radio listener as opposed to presenter’
“I know I am fortunate to be able to retire and I am looking forward to becoming a radio listener as opposed to presenter,” she said.
Her future plans involve her “taking my foot off the gas a bit and indulging my many hobbies.”
A keen hillwalker, Ms Wilson is looking forward to “more hillwalking, bagging another Monro (a Scottish term for climbing mountains of over 3,000 ft), more cooking, more trips to Kerry and above all more time with family and friends,”.
Reflecting on her career, Ms Wilson described it as a “privilege” to present news programmes on RTÉ, and to “connect with listeners”.
She said that it was a privilege to work with “demanding, intelligent and dedicated colleagues” who helped and challenged her every day to do better. They “challenged me to aim higher and to always put the listener first,” she said.
Today’s ‘Morning Ireland’ also sees the final programme with Áine Lawlor in the the presenter’s chair too.
Ms Lawlor joined RTÉ in September 1984 as a trainee journalist, becoming a reporter/presenter in January 1988.
She joined the presenting team on Morning Ireland in 1995 and presented for the flagship show for over 17 years.
Áine Lawlor joined News at One in 2013, after presenting Morning Ireland for 17 years
In August 2013, she joined RTÉ’s flagship lunchtime radio news programme News at One as alternating presenter and was also appointed as presenter of The Week in Politics on RTÉ One television.
In October 2020, Ms Lawlor returned to Morning Ireland in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Deirdre McCarthy, RTÉ’s Director of News & Current Affairs, said: “Mary and Áine are not just household names, they are household voices, deeply familiar not only from their recent years on Ireland’s most-listened-to radio show, but hugely popular across their long and distinguished careers as reporters and presenters.”
“At heart they have been and always will be journalists, and it is to their incisive, knowledgeable and challenging journalism that we owe them both a great debt, and thanks,” Ms McCarthy added.