{"id":88235,"date":"2025-10-18T06:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/88235\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T06:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:59:07","slug":"ray-darcy-says-he-was-blindsided-by-brutal-rte-treatment-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/88235\/","title":{"rendered":"Ray D\u2019Arcy says he was \u2018blindsided\u2019 by \u2018brutal\u2019 RT\u00c9 treatment \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Radio 1 presenter Ray D\u2019Arcy<\/a> has said a senior manager at RT\u00c9<\/a> agreed with him that the broadcaster had been \u201cbrutal\u201d in the way it treated him.<\/p>\n

He was speaking to The Irish Times as he rejected claims by RT\u00c9\u2019s head of audio that he had been given advance notice that he was being dropped by the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy said he was \u201ccompletely blindsided\u201d by RT\u00c9\u2019s decision to not renew his contract, claiming he was asked by the national broadcaster to not tell his team or listeners about the development.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with The Irish Times, RT\u00c9\u2019s director of audio, Patricia Monahan, said D\u2019Arcy was given three months\u2019 notice that his contract would not be renewed after it expired on December 31st.<\/p>\n

Monahan said all presenters were warned that no contract was guaranteed to be renewed when she took up the role last year. However, D\u2019Arcy disputes this, saying there was \u201cno forewarning\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ray D\u2019Arcy and former boss at odds over when he was told he was being dropped by RT\u00c9Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In a statement, the presenter said he met Monahan on September 29th to discuss his contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told it was not going to be renewed. I was completely blindsided. There had been no forewarning.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy said he was \u201cthen requested by RT\u00c9 to remain on air, while not telling either the team or the listeners. This was unsustainable as it placed me in a position where I was expected to be untruthful to the team and the listeners.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy said he had a conversation with a senior manager who was asked if they \u201cthought how I had been treated was brutal\u201d. The manager\u2019s response was \u201cYes\u201d, D\u2019Arcy recalled.<\/p>\n

\"PatriciaPatricia Monahan, Director of Audio, RT\u00c9. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy said he and Monahan agreed he would leave RT\u00c9 straight after his show on Friday, October 10th.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would allow Patricia Monahan to tell the radio team, who had been kept in the dark up until then, what was happening. There was a leak to the press on the morning of Thursday, October 9th, so I made the decision not to go on air that afternoon,\u201d D\u2019Arcy said.<\/p>\n

Asked about D\u2019Arcy\u2019s statement, RT\u00c9 responded on Friday to say \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 \u2013 that nothing was guaranteed post the end of his current contract\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cWhen Ray was initially given the news, RT\u00c9 gave Ray the opportunity to take some time off if required. It was Ray\u2019s decision to come off air on Thursday, October 8th and for RT\u00c9 to communicate to his team and listeners after he left RT\u00c9. RT\u00c9 was happy to support his decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0RT\u00c9\u2019s twisty new soap opera stars Ray D\u2019Arcy and, now, Brendan CourtneyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy\u2019s account of what happened is at odds with Monahan\u2019s version of events. She said management had a number of conversations with D\u2019Arcy about his future at Radio 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had asked that, whatever the decision, we communicated in good time. So we communicated it three months out from the end of his contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monahan said RT\u00c9 was \u201copen to talking about other possibilities with Ray but he didn\u2019t want to pursue that conversation, and that\u2019s fair enough\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Radio 1 presenter Ray D\u2019Arcy has said a senior manager at RT\u00c9 agreed with him that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,32975],"class_list":{"0":"post-88235","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-ray-d-arcy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88235","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=88235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}