Murphy signs off from RTÉ News after 43 years

After 43 years behind the microphone one of the most identifiable voices in Irish news has signed off from RTÉ.

Michael Murphy left the newsroom yesterday after the station decided not to renew his contract.

When the decision was announced there was criticism of the apparently ageist policy to terminate his news reading contract because he was turning 65.

Michael said yesterday that he did not know why the decision was taken but the initial upset had abated.

“There was an initial shock that you feel, that you’ve reached a certain milestone. But you look around you and I am still only the same age as Hillary Clinton, I am actually only three days older than her.

“I honestly don’t know the answer to that [whether the decision was taken purely because of his age] certainly you see people leaving at 65 years of age and I am looking around the newsroom now and I am seeing people I do not know.”

But, as he prepared for his last bulletin on Radio One yesterday, he said that shock had been overtaken by a sense of gratitude for those he had worked with and the teams he was a part of at Montrose.

A native of Castlebar, Michael is a prominent psychoanalyst and practices out of Sandyford with his partner Terry O’Sullivan, who he met while producing a programme for RTÉ in the 1980s.

Murphy will continue his popular psychoanalyst’s slot on the Today Show and his dream analysis advice on 2FM’s night-time show.