Bryan Dobson: ‘Enda Kenny said do nothing for six months… That sounds like pretty good advice’

After a 37-year career in front of the cameras, former news anchor Bryan Dobson has retired from RTÉ. Here, he talks about his near move to London, the loss of his friend Charlie Bird and why he thinks Kevin Bakhurst is the light at the end of the tunnel for the national broadcaster

RTÉ presenter Bryan Dobson speaks on his retirement

Kirsty Blake Knox

“I have warned the girls I will be turning up a lot when I am retired,” broadcaster Bryan Dobson says, referring to his two daughters, Sophie and Hannah. “They will be trying to pretend they are not in. ‘Don’t answer the door, dad is here — again!’”

After 37 years in RTÉ’s various newsrooms, Dobson has retired. He jumped the gun slightly, he tells me when we meet at RTÉ. It is another 18 months before he would have reached the broadcaster’s compulsory retirement age.