{"id":193239,"date":"2025-12-15T17:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/193239\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T17:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:13:11","slug":"ciara-kelly-thrilled-as-she-is-confirmed-for-new-newstalk-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/193239\/","title":{"rendered":"Ciara Kelly ‘thrilled’ as she is confirmed for new Newstalk role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ciara Kelly is ‘thrilled’ to have been confirmed for a huge new presenting job in Newstalk in the new year, after months of speculation.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0former GP, who currently presents the morning show on the radio station, will be moving to the afternoon slot to become the new host of The Hard Shoulder, along with co-presenter Shane Coleman.<\/p>\n

The prime time radio slot – from 4pm to 7pm – was left vacant since former host Kieran Cuddihy moved to RT\u00c9 to take over Liveline<\/a> from Joe Duffy in November and Ciara was hotly tipped to make the move.<\/p>\n

\"CiaraCiara Kelly. Pic: Gareth Chaney\/ Collins Photos<\/p>\n

Ciara previously remained tight-lipped when asked by\u00a0EVOKE<\/a>\u00a0about the new gig, teasing: ‘You’ll hear all about it in due course. I’m not sure it’ll be talked about by Christmas. I have a couple of things in the works for the New Year, actually.’<\/p>\n

Now, Newstalk has confirmed the major shake-up in its presenter schedule with a number of changes due to come into place on Tuesday, February 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

Ciara and Shane, who have hosted Newstalk Breakfast from 7am to 9am for the past five years, are clearly delighted to make the move to The Hard Shoulder.<\/p>\n

\"CiaraCiara Kelly and Shane Coleman are set to co-present The Hard Shoulder from February 2026. Pic: Newstalk<\/p>\n

Speaking about the new gig, Ciara said: ‘I’m absolutely thrilled to be the new co-host of the Hard Shoulder alongside my great pal Shane Coleman! <\/p>\n

‘I’ve had a really brilliant time on Newstalk Breakfast but since I started out in broadcasting, I\u2019ve truly loved that time slot and now I literally can\u2019t wait to get stuck in. Let the games begin!’<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Shane said: ‘After nearly a decade of travelling to work with Ireland’s commuters every morning on Newstalk, I am hugely excited at the prospect of now joining them for their journey home on The Hard Shoulder. And I’m thrilled to be doing so alongside my co-host and great friend Ciara Kelly. We can’t wait to get started.’<\/p>\n

\"AntonAnton Savage will be the new presenter of Newstalk Breakfast from February 2026. Pic: Newstalk<\/p>\n

Other changes to the new daytime schedule at Newstalk have been confirmed, with Anton Savage set to take over the morning slot when Ciara and Shane vacate Newstalk Breakfast.<\/p>\n

Anton will be the first solo presenter in the breakfast slot in over two decades, as he said: ‘I’ve a hard act to follow with Ciara and Shane’s success, but I’m hoping we can pick up where they left off, providing a morning show that gets listeners up to speed for the day in a way that’s fast, informed and fun to listen to.’<\/p>\n

\"\"Claire Byrne Pic: Conor McCabe Photography<\/p>\n

Former RT\u00c9 presenter Claire Byrne will start her new role at Newstalk in the first week of February as she is set to take over from Pat Kenny in the mid-morning slot as previously announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pat Kenny will begin his new weekend show on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 12pm on Newstalk in March 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ciara Kelly is ‘thrilled’ to have been confirmed for a huge new presenting job in Newstalk in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-193239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}