RTÉ South East correspondent Damien Tiernan to quit the national broadcaster
RTÉ’s South East correspondent Damien Tiernan has confirmed he is leaving the national broadcaster.
Mr Tiernan has reported on almost all of the major news stories in Kilkenny and across the region for more than 20 years.
The journalist will hang up his RTÉ microphone at the end of next week after he accepted one of the packages as part of the exit scheme which was announced by the broadcaster in 2017.
Mr Tiernan said he thought “long and hard” about his decision to leave the RTÉ and that he is currently looking “at a number of options”.
He was appointed as the south-east correspondent for RTÉ in December 1996.
Mr Tiernan, who is originally from Wicklow, was the second-youngest correspondent ever appointed at the broadcaster at the age of just 26.
He paid tribute to the people who helped him with stories through the years, and the people who have trusted him with their stories, “particularly in recent years, sex abuse victims”.
Mr Tiernan announced his departure from RTÉ on social media , saying: “To whom it concerns, I am leaving RTÉ. I have been with the organisation for 23 years. Thank you to everyone with whom I have worked, especially my colleagues in the south east. I will be finishing the end of next week. Thank you and good luck, Damien.”
Mr Tiernan’s RTÉ colleagues paid tribute to him as news of his departure broke. Broadcaster Jonathan Healy described him as “one of the finest colleagues I ever had the pleasure of working alongside”.
His departure marks another high-profile loss to the news team at RTÉ, following on from the departure of former political correspondent Martina Fitzgerald just two weeks ago.
