Brendan Courtney: Speculation over Tubridy show 'frustrating'

Presenter says he became 'slight collateral damage' after stint on RTÉ radio show 'turned into a live audition in front of the nation'

Fri, 08 Mar, 2024 - 01:00

Liz Dunphy and Noel Baker

Presenter Brendan Courtney has said speculation around whether he would take over from Ryan Tubridy’s radio show full time was “one of the most frustrating experiences of my life".

Mr Courtney felt he became "slight collateral damage" when he stepped in to present the 9am show on RTÉ Radio One after Mr Tubridy’s sudden departure following the payments controversy last year.

Presenting the show was like an extended public audition for a job he had never applied for, he said.

"I’d been covering for a year and a half in that slot and I cover for Ray D'Arcy when Kathryn [Thomas] is not around, and I love the two teams," Mr Courtney said.

"So I’m in there and the shit hits the fan. So my cover turned into a live audition in front of the nation.

People were putting money on me; I was like ’nobody has spoken to me about this job, so stop fucking talking about this job’.

"Nobody talked to me ever, about terms, about availability, so I knew I wasn’t there; then [it seemed] I was in the running, then I wasn’t, but nobody spoke to me so I just kept saying ‘I’m a freelance. Nobody has come and spoken to me, this is not a reality’ and then there was a big ‘hope you get it, hope you get it’ in the public and I was like ‘oh my God, I didn’t go for it!’.

"So the frustration then was not getting it publicly, but I didn't go for it!"

Oliver Callan, who got the job, is "the right person" for it, Mr Courtney said.

"He was there for years, it would have been really shitty if he didn’t get it. If somebody else had got that job I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you right now, I’d be angry. Because he put the hours in, he’s very, very good, the listeners love him, there’s no reason why he couldn’t have it and if I had got the job I would have gazumped him and that would have been shitty. That is just not fair."

Although Mr Courtney insists that "the right choice was made", he said that he spent the last two months "getting the head tilt from people going ‘oh’," as well-wishers made sad faces at him and commiserated on his presumed loss of the job.

"The more you labour that you’re fine, the more they go ‘oh, he’s not fine’. Because of the situation, I was slight collateral damage to it. My experience was not nearly as bad as other people involved in it at all, of course, but very publicly part of it.

"But you know, a year ago I wasn’t at that table, I wasn’t being considered for a proper slot on RTÉ Radio One and now I am; I have a two-year contract with them for cover, which suits me perfectly — you get to go in and be the breath of fresh air and then you get to fuck off and go back to your own life!"

Mr Courtney, who is also a fashion designer and podcast host, recently launched Any News? with David O’Reilly, which aims to examine weird and wonderful local news stories on a county-by-county basis.