RTE: Saints, Scholars and Scandals

by Shane Ross

The 2023 revelations regarding secret payments to star presenter Ryan Tubridy weren't the first time Ireland's national broadcaster has found itself caught up in scandal.

Shane Ross, author of #1 bestsellers The Bankers and Mary Lou McDonald, winds back the clock to examine RTÉ's history of broadcasting excellence alongside the accusations of corruption, waste and ineptitude it has faced along the way.

Since it arrived on the airwaves in 1961, RTÉ has been buffeted in different directions, eventually slipping into a steady decline which accelerated over the past decade into a catastrophe. Shane Ross rakes over its colourful past while also considering what the future might hold for this once beloved institution.

Genres: Nonfiction

501 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 7, 2026

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of RTE from its founding in the 1960s right up to the most recent scandals. RTE is Ireland's national television station with a dual mandate to provide public service broadcasting and commercial television. It is governed by a board appointed by the government and run by an executive committee and a Director General. It has a full time staff with civil service like tenure (some of its news correspondents have been doing the same job for what feels like 107 years!) and a stable of very well paid TV and radio stars, working as independent contractors. All these factors combine to create a very messy, very Irish history of political cronyism, hypocrisy, and double standards culminating in the most recent scandal, which demonstrated a complete failure of corporate governance.

From the initial domination of the station by politicians like Todd Andrews, to the rise and rule of the great broadcaster Gay Byrne, to the Ryan Tubridy scandal of recent years it's a depressing tale, all in all. And nowhere is it more depressing than in Ross's account of the most recent scandal, the misreporting of Ryan Tubridy's pay. Ross outlines how relatively blameless people, without suave PR consultants, were caught out in gotcha moments and thrown under the bus, while those most responsible ran for cover, lay low and emerged unscathed. Tubridy himself comes very badly out of the book and the account of his appearance before the Oireachtas is toe curling.

If this sorry tale holds any value, it's as a guide to how not to run a large Irish semi-State body and how not to handle yourself in a political and media storm in Ireland.

[Darragh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly gripping