Duffy signs off from ‘Liveline’ as Cork's Micheál Martin joins tributes

Joe Duffy said it had been a “privilege” to present RTÉ’s famous phone-in show Liveline as he signed off for the final time.

The Ballyfermot broadcaster, 69, is retiring after 37 years at the station and 27 years presenting Liveline.

The show has reflected Irish life over the decades, providing a forum for everyday gripes, reuniting long-lost relatives and exposing injustices.

Duffy, the plain-spoken umpire for the on-air debates, has been personally motivated by some of the topics he covered, including the children who died in the 1916 Rising, the survivors of institutional abuse and the closure of “headshops”, which sold drugs paraphernalia.

Signing off on his final programme yesterday, Duffy told his listeners: “That’s all from me on Liveline.

“Goodbye from studio one and remember – 51551 wash your hands,” referencing a mantra he used during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He concluded: “Love you all, it’s been a privilege.” 

Irish president Michael D Higgins sent in a message to praise Duffy’s “lifelong commitment to justice, equality, and public service” and to Liveline as “a civic space”.

“Your stewardship of that space with your distinctive blend of both compassion, curiosity and courage, has been both passionate and principled, marked by a rare empathy making an enduring contribution to our public discourse.” 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin called in to the show to praise his kindness, and said it would often happen that civil servants would run into him and say “ Liveline’s gone mad, we’ve got to do this that and the other”.

“You were and are the voice of the people, you were authentic, you gave the people a platform, and I think you never left your roots,” he told the broadcaster.

“Your working-class background stood to you, the values that your parents and your family gave to you, I think, were the reason why you had a unique capacity to mediate between the people and authority to tell their stories.” 

When Mr Martin said “I’ve known you going back to my student days, where you taught me a few things when I was a student activist”, Duffy quipped: “You forgot that quick enough now.” Mr Martin continued: “Your personal acts of kindness have always been quite extraordinary, and something that has touched our family quite a lot.” 

Mr Martin said that Duffy had taken photos of him with his daughter Leana, who died aged seven in 2010, at a crab fishing competition in Courtmacsherry, which were now “treasured” by him and his family.

“I think it’s your kindness and your compassion that rings through on the radio.” 

Duffy joined RTÉ as a radio producer in 1989 and came to prominence as a reporter on the Gay Byrne Show.

He presented programmes such as Soundbyte before taking over Liveline from Marian Finucane in 1998, attracting some 400,000 listeners to the phone-in programme.

Among Liveline’s most famous episodes were callers giving their thoughts on the television series Normal People, people sharing stories of corporal punishment in Ireland over the decades, women phoning in about menopause and a row Duffy had with Brian Warfield, from the Wolfe Tones, about the song Celtic Symphony.

Asked about whether he would run for the presidency in the autumn, Duffy said: “I will not lose the run of myself.” 

“I can see the Áras from Claddagh Green, I’d say that’s the closest I’ll ever get to it.”