Darragh McManus: Pat Kenny made a success of a risky Newstalk defection – can Claire Byrne follow suit?

RTÉ seems to be able to withstand personnel changes better than its rivals, but the station is still losing a talented presenter

Pat Kenny will move to weekends at Newstalk while Claire Byrne will be taking over his mid-morning slot on Newstalk

May we be allowed to mix aphorisms on this momentous occasion? On the one hand, the Irish radio landscape has “changed, changed utterly” with the bombshell announcement that Claire Byrne is leaving RTÉ after 15 years for a new life as Pat Kenny’s successor on Newstalk, while he moves to weekends. We had just got used to Joe Duffy not presenting Liveline any more, then this happens.

But on the other hand, the more things change, the more they

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