{"id":332005,"date":"2026-03-06T12:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/332005\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:22:08","slug":"ive-lost-my-job-and-my-mother-whats-going-to-happen-next-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/332005\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve lost my job and my mother. What\u2019s going to happen next?\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ray D\u2019Arcy<\/a> says he is still hurt about how things ended for him at RT\u00c9<\/a> last October. \u201cIt was a shock. I was disappointed. None of that has changed.\u201d And yet, he is also excited to launch two podcast series<\/a>, Ray D\u2019Arcy Daily, from Monday, and Being Human, an interview series, a few weeks later. He\u2019s gone from \u20ac250,000 a year to, right now, earnings unknown, but he thinks the change was a good thing.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in his large, bright kitchen where an elderly dog sleeps in a basket nearby. Interviewing D\u2019Arcy is like listening to him on the radio. He wears his heart on his sleeve. When he is passionate about something (like audio-technology or music or interviewees or his family) he sounds passionate. When he says he is hurt, he sounds hurt. He never really fit the guarded, carefully curated mode of the traditional RT\u00c9 presenter. He\u2019s blunter, perhaps a bit more emotionally open. It\u2019s his thing. It\u2019s possibly why he had to find his radio identity and his audience at Today FM<\/a>, after eight years on RT\u00c9\u2019s The Den, before being enticed back to RT\u00c9 in 2014.<\/p>\n

Last year was rough for D\u2019Arcy. His mother, Mary, died in July. \u201cI\u2019ll start crying now, but my mother was just this amazing human,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were nine of us. She was a particularly bright woman. She was a compassionate woman. My dad [a soldier] was a bit of a prick, a heavy drinker, other stuff as well, and she managed to raise us all. And we\u2019re mostly normal, whatever normal is … She was this amazing community person, but not in that sort of hands-up way … In the eulogy, I went through everything she had done in her life, while raising us with a cleaning job at the big house down the road. Back in the days when it was an affliction to have brains, they would have said about us, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re one of the Darcys, brains hanging out of your ears.\u2019 And the older people would say, \u2018You got them from your mother\u2019\u201d He sighs. \u201cYou go, \u2018things come in threes\u2019 and these were major things. I\u2019ve lost my job and my mother. What\u2019s going to happen next?\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy wasn\u2019t particularly happy in RT\u00c9, he says now. \u201cJenny [his wife, producer and frequent on-air collaborator] knew, because she\u2019s the person who knows me best. She was constantly saying to me, \u2018Get out.\u2019 But I would never have left of my own accord, because I\u2019m risk averse. I thought that if I left RT\u00c9 that the sky would fall in, but it didn\u2019t. It was sort of an enforced liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n

What didn\u2019t he like about being in RT\u00c9? \u201cI thought they knew what they were getting [when they hired him]. I was myself on Today FM. We had developed this lovely relationship with our listeners, so they felt they could say anything to us … And I was very vocal. I hung up on one of the Healy-Raes because he was suggesting that people down the country should be allowed to drink and drive … It became quite obvious very quickly that a lot of people in RT\u00c9 had never listened … It became very obvious very quickly that there were people just listening, waiting for me to say something [controversial].\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he sometimes found what he calls \u201cthe both-sidedness thing\u201d difficult. There were complaints from listeners. \u201cSome were justified,\u201d he says. Some complaints about a discussion of abortion on his show were upheld by the Broadcasting Authority in 2016. \u201cWe would have had people on telling their stories about abortion … I\u2019m not saying this as a badge of honour, but we got the most complaints in the smallest amount of time in RT\u00c9.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he ultimately found the atmosphere stifling. \u201cI was constantly checking myself to see what I was saying. [Management in RT\u00c9] are fearful … They don\u2019t want to be caught out. They don\u2019t want anything to happen on their watch … You\u2019re working in a place where you\u2019re judged on your results and yet you\u2019re not given the agency to do what you want to do. My team were constantly having to refer upwards. \u2018Can we do this?\u2019 And it became slightly oppressive. Jenny kept saying that to me, \u2018You\u2019re not the person who you used to be\u2019. And I said, \u2018Well, I have to work within the constraints of the organisation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 says it would \u201cabsolutely refute\u201d the claim that management was \u201cfearful\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite his unhappiness D\u2019Arcy says he was stunned to find himself being told by RT\u00c9\u2019s head of audio, Patricia Monahan<\/a>, that his show would not be continued in the new year. It was not the negotiation he expected, he says. \u201cImagine you\u2019re in a hot-air balloon, and the floor falls out of it. I could feel myself going ashen faced. I had some things in my head that I was going to say, because I thought there was going to be a bit of argy-bargy about money. There was talk two years previously that they were aiming to make everybody staff. So I was prepared for that [conversation]. And I was prepared for somebody talking about the [listenership] figures and I had this thing that, when we started, we were on half of what Liveline had and when we finished, we were on two thirds. That was all in my head. But I didn\u2019t say any of it because I was just so shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RayRay D\u2019Arcy: ‘I thought that if I left RT\u00c9 that the sky would fall in, but it didn\u2019t.’ Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

In a statement RT\u00c9 says: \u201cRT\u00c9 takes issue with the characterisation of events as outlined by Ray D\u2019Arcy and had previously clarified these details with a number of media outlets (including The Irish Times). <\/p>\n

\u201cRay was aware for some time, in the context of both his upcoming contract negotiation but also in context of changes coming to RT\u00c9 Radio 1 that nothing was guaranteed post the end of his current contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ray D\u2019Arcy\u2019s parting outburst not typical of broadcaster who shunned the limelightOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 maintains that this was communicated to D\u2019Arcy on several occasions. \u201cInitially at the time of agreeing his contract in 2023, Ray was told that the incoming director of Audio would likely want to make changes. From her initial meetings with Ray (the first of which was in November 2024), director of Audio, Patricia Monahan made it clear that everything was on the table in the context of changes to RT\u00c9 Radio 1 and there were no guarantees beyond the end of the existing contract. Subsequent to that there were a number of similar communications with Ray. Those communications were acknowledged. Ray asked that, whatever the decision, it be communicated in good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy says the possibility of his contract not being renewed was not clearly communicated to him. \u201cI came back after a long break because my mother had died,\u201d he says. \u201cThe figures had been out and they\u2019d gone down. I said to the producer in charge \u2018What was the feedback?\u2019 And they said, \u2018They\u2019re happy. Keep doing what you\u2019re doing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The RT\u00c9 statement says that on September 29th, 2025, three months out from the contract end date, December 31st, \u201cRT\u00c9 communicated it would not renew the current contract but wished to explore other opportunities\u201d. <\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy says he asked for, and got, another meeting with Monahan. \u201cI actually wrote down what I was going to say, because I didn\u2019t want the emotion of the situation to carry me away … And the opening line was, \u2018I encourage my children to call out bad behaviour, so I feel I have to say this …\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He pauses. \u201cI\u2019m not going tell you what the rest was … They gave me an option to go on Gold [a digital station playing hits from the 1950s to the 2000s], and with respect to everybody who works on Gold, to me it felt like an insult. And in good conscience, I couldn\u2019t have taken the amount of money they were offering me to go on Gold just to play music.\u201d He says \u201cit was so much, for Gold\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"RayRay D’Arcy in his younger days on Blackboard Jungle on RT\u00c9 television. <\/p>\n

He was very upset, he says. \u201cI said to myself, \u2018this is going to be a very challenging time for you as a person, as a husband, as a father\u2019 … I just went in [to his home studio] and recited my version of events. I was looking to see how long it was the other day. It\u2019s 17 minutes long … I\u2019ve never listened to it. But it was very therapeutic at the time … It was handled very poorly and shouldn\u2019t have been handled that way. And there were so many things that should have happened that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does he mean by that? \u201cI never got a phone call or an email or text from [RT\u00c9 director general] Kevin Bakhurst<\/a>. No conversation whatsoever. To this day. It\u2019s bizarre. It\u2019s a small country and organisation. I had worked there on-and-off for nearly 40 years. If I died tomorrow, would he issue a statement? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a dark thought. He laughs. \u201cI think about death every day, Patrick. It\u2019s not particularly dark in my world.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did he feel when the news of controversial payments to Ryan Tubridy<\/a> emerged in 2023? \u201cI said at the time I was angry. I still am angry, when I think about it … I knew a trust had been broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does he feel generally about the focus on star salaries? An external observer could work out his Today FM salary from looking at company accounts, he says, \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t there in black and white once every two years. I don\u2019t have an agent. At all times I have gone in and said, \u2018What do you think is fair?\u2019 I was coming from the commercial world where I was getting paid a certain amount. RT\u00c9 wanted me. They paid a similar amount [as Today FM].\u201d That amounted to payment of \u20ac400,000 in 2015 and \u20ac450,000 in 2016. D\u2019Arcy also hosted a Saturday night chatshow, The Ray D\u2019Arcy show, from 2015 to 2019. \u201cI was doing more work for less money,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Kevin Bakhurst: \u2018For many years the level of presenter pay at RT\u00c9 got a little bit out of control\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Does he think the level of RT\u00c9 star pay was problematic? \u201cI probably think that they didn\u2019t readjust. You have to remember that Pat Kenny was nearly on a million. That\u2019s 20 years ago. That\u2019s mad money.\u201d <\/p>\n

Did any traditional broadcasters contact him after he left? \u201cNo. And did I contact any? No.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why a daily podcast? \u201cAnything I\u2019ve done, I\u2019ve done it daily,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re really excited about what\u2019s coming next. There are daily news podcasts, but there isn\u2019t anything that isn\u2019t strictly news.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been getting up every morning at six to go for a run before researching the podcast business, talking to contributors, preparing segments and recording demos. The daily podcast starts on March 9th. It will be 40 to 45 minutes long and will be \u201cfreshly baked\u201d, recorded each weekday morning and put out at 10.30am. Collaborators will include Jenny as well as long time foil Mairead Ronan and comedian Bernard O\u2019Shea (Jenny and Mairead Ronan had their own podcast, Jenny and Mairead Now, for a spell). He says he wants to highlight small businesses. He wants to build a sense of community.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The shrinking of RT\u00c9: \u2018It feels like an increasingly neutered organisation\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The philosophical interview podcast, Being Human, will launch a few weeks later. The first interviewees are Katriona O\u2019Sullivan, Panti Bliss, Mary McAleese, Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney, Prof Brendan Kelly and Irish Times writer R\u00f3is\u00edn Ingle. Other projects will develop organically from the podcasting process, he says. Down the line they might look at establishing something like Gary Lineker\u2019s Goalhanger in which they provide a platform for other podcasters.<\/p>\n

He has a yen to be busy. Even as a young man, he mixed studying with DJing every night. He remembers telling his thesis tutor at the National Institute for Higher Education (now Dublin City University) about his schedule and, he says, the tutor said : \u201cJesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RayRay D\u2019Arcy in his podcast studio: \u2018The thought of the new is very exciting.\u2019 Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

What was he studying? \u201cI was doing a masters in personnel management … I\u2019d done psychology and I thought, \u2018Isn\u2019t this great that organisations have this department which is responsible for the welfare of their staff?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What was his thesis on? He laughs. \u201cIt was on change in organisations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before I leave, he tries out a quiz feature on me, one he\u2019s planning for the podcast. He talks passionately about music. In his home podcast studio, amid microphones and \u201cvodcast\u201d cameras and musical instruments, he tells me about how he recently recorded himself (on drums) and his son Tom (on bass) playing The White Stripes\u2019 Seven Nation Army. \u201cIt was the most joyous thing. I jumped up and down.\u201d<\/p>\n

He seems happy, if a little anxious, about where things have landed. \u201cThe thought of the new is very exciting,\u201d he says. Once he believed that, after significant stints at the Den and Today FM, he was living out the third and final chapter of his career at RT\u00c9. Now he\u2019s in an unanticipated \u201cchapter four\u201d. \u201cThe BBC did a documentary on John Peel when he celebrated his 60th birthday,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a scene in it where he\u2019s living out in the country and he\u2019s converted the stables into a studio. He\u2019s walking across the courtyard of a morning with a steaming cup of coffee in his dressing gown to do his show. And I thought, \u2018Jesus, I want to build that.\u2019\u201d He laughs. \u201cBe careful what you wish for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ray D\u2019Arcy Daily is available on Spotify and Apple from next Monday, March 9th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ray D\u2019Arcy says he is still hurt about how things ended for him at RT\u00c9 last October. \u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,47232,48151,32975,6085,6084,47179,976],"class_list":{"0":"post-332005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-kevin-bakhurst","12":"tag-patricia-monahan","13":"tag-ray-d-arcy","14":"tag-rte","15":"tag-ryan-tubridy","16":"tag-today-fm","17":"tag-weekendreview"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332005","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=332005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}