Joe Duffy on retired life, opinions on Liveline and what’s next for him

Talk to Joe: Joe Duffy on how retirement is treating him, what he really thinks of Kieran Cuddihy hosting Liveline and why a return to radio is not on the cards

For 27 years, at 1:45 every weekday, the nation tuned in their droves to talk to Joe Duffy on Liveline. No story was too big or small for the legendary broadcaster, who said he used the radio show to amplify those without a voice or power. After a total of 37 years spent working at RTÉ Radio 1, the country was shocked when Joe made the call to hang up his mic last summer.

But, as the Dubliner says himself, “life goes on and Lifeline will be there for many, many years to come”.

Nearly ten months on, Joe has adapted to retirement well, and here he tells RSVP about what he has been up to since signing off the airwaves, the hobbies and interests that keep his creative spark alive, why he has no interest in returning to radio and the positive changes he has seen in Ireland over the last few decades.

Plus, he makes his feelings about the new Liveline theme tune very clear, shares the stories that have made the biggest impact on his life and reveals the public interactions which have brought him “right back down to earth”.

Joe, how is retirement treating you? What have you been up to?

Good. I’ve been travelling around the country a good bit. In my first ten years at RTÉ I was working for The Gay Byrne Show, doing a report every day from different parts of the country, but the world as well, I remember going to Australia and China. I was around the country for ten years and then I did Liveline for 27 years, where I was shackled to a desk. Liveline is a phone-in show, so you don’t really leave the studio, and I missed that. I’ve been to Donegal, Kerry, Westmeath, Cork, Wexford, and it’s just great. There are so many more positive changes around the country. I especially love the new schools and the new primary care and healthcare centres. I really love the new theatres and public spaces too. The country has changed so dramatically since I started Liveline, and positively as well. It took my fresh pair of eyes to realise that.

You hosted Liveline for 27 years and heard so many fascinating stories. Does that curiosity in human interest and the world around you ever leave you?

No, and I seriously hope it doesn’t. I always say tomorrow is a new day, you’ll learn something new, you’ll hear new music, you might pick up a new book or magazine and you’ll learn something from it. When I was in fifth class, my beloved teacher Mr. Long said I was the most curious boy he knew. I was delighted! With the world we live in now with the Internet, Google, ChatGPT and all the different devices, people ask me if X, Instagram or TikTok will take away from radio. It won’t. Not in the slightest. It’s adding to it. We’re a communicative species, we love talking. If we didn’t have to sleep we’d talk to each other 24 hours a day. I think the world is getting more exciting.

Is daily radio still part of your life?

Oh yes, I don’t listen, I monitor [laughs]. I’ve Alexa all over the house and I can flick from station to station within two seconds. I’ve a fair idea, because I know so many people in radio, of who is producing whichever programme that day, because of the content. I always used to tell the Liveline team to remember that we were on at 1:45, which is an odd time. At that stage people have heard Morning Ireland, Newstalk, their local station or whatever and at 1:45 they want something different – different voices, stories and angles. That’s always what we tried to do with Liveline – no politicians, no experts so to speak, no one pushing one particular voice. Just people who otherwise wouldn’t have a voice and wouldn’t have the power.

Have you been listening to Kieran Cuddihy? How do you think he and the show in general are doing since you left?

Yeah, absolutely. Kieran is settling in really nicely. It is obviously no bother to him. I was upset that they changed the theme tune, Over the Moors by Stockton’s Wing. That goes back to the days of when the late Marian Finucane hosted it. Liveline is over 40 years old and given that it’s on at an odd time at 1:45, when no other radio programme starts at that time, you need a really identifiable theme tune so when you hear it in the distance you know Liveline has come on. The band got a few bob from the royalties. Any time I’d meet singer Mike Hanrahan, he’d say to me, “Thanks very much, the royalties from Liveline got us to Lanzarote this year, we’re thinking of Benidorm next year”. I liked the idea of that. But anyway, life moves on. I’m told that they have composed a new theme tune, performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, which will be lovely. Liveline will be there for many, many years, because we just love talking.

Do people in public still approach you to “Talk to Joe”?

Yes. About three different people have come up to me and said, “How are you Joe, I was on your programme once, do you remember me?” And I said to them, “You know I can’t see you? Tell me what you phoned in about and I’ll see if I can remember” [laughs]. But you’re very quickly brought down to earth too. I was in Killarney recently and someone stopped and did a double take. He tapped me on the shoulder, and said, “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but did you used to be Joe Duffy?” Well, that brings you right back down to earth doesn’t it? As if I was a character in Fair City. Another person said to me, “My wife is saying you’re the real Joe Duffy”. I could hear my late mother Mabel, if I said to anybody I was the real Joe Duffy she’d get the wooden spoon out! Anyway he said to me, “Ah go on, you are, you are,” and I said, “Okay, I am”. He turned around to his wife and he said, “Yeah Mary it is him, the guy who owns all the car garages”. You can’t lose the run of yourself in this business.

You heard thousands of stories on Liveline over the years, are there any that really stuck with you?

I remember we got a phone call one Tuesday at about ten minutes to three o’clock. We got a phone call from a taxi going to Dublin Airport. A woman from the UK, her name was Surjit, was crying in the back seat. She told the taxi driver every bank holiday for the past 24 years she came to Dublin walking around the city all day looking for her sister Vicky who left home 43 years ago, and the only hint her family got was that she came to Ireland. She would come over and walk around, adamant in the hope that if she turned a corner she’d see her sister walking towards her and recognise her. I asked Surjit if she and her sister had pet names for each other. She said her sister called her Babs and she called her Bubs. The taxi driver told her to ring Liveline. The programme was being broadcast on an Expressway bus to Mullingar, and when the two pet names were mentioned, someone heard it and knew it was a woman named Vicky, who would often laugh about the fact she and her sister called each other Babs and Bubs. They were reunited within 24 hours after 43 years apart. It was just incredible. A lot of people have told me the difference radio made to them in lockdown. I remember one woman telling us during Covid she used to walk into the village once a week to post a letter to herself and the postman would call up to her to deliver it just so she could talk to him through the window. Things like that stick with you over the years.

Would you ever go back to radio? Even an hour-long show on the weekend?

No. I’m not done with radio, because I love listening to it, but I won’t return to it. Gay Byrne had a great phrase from Jack Lemon and he would say: “When you’re in our business and the elevator goes to the top floor, you’re obliged to send that elevator back down again and let someone else get on it”. There are some great broadcasters all around the country. Thanks to the Internet, I’ve been able to listen to loads of local radio, and the morning offering especially is fantastic. Then we’ve Claire Byrne on Newstalk, David McCullagh on Radio 1, Dave Moore on Today FM, who is very funny, and Oliver Callan is great in his new slot. Make way for someone else, I say. I did it for 37 years. I’ve been working since I was 13, starting out at The Metropole Hotel on O’Connell Street. It was time to give myself a break. I’m still interested in other things so hopefully that holds out and I still have my health, thank God.

What are your other interests? Is there anything else you want to achieve, personally or professionally?

I’ve started writing a crime novel and it will be a crime if it’s ever published [laughs]. It’s been a long time coming but it’s based on different stories I heard on Liveline during the crash and about someone getting revenge. Some days I have a good go at it, other days I’m up against a brick wall. But I like writing. I like painting too. I actually started painting 25 years ago as a stress distraction from Liveline. There’s a chap in Clontarf called Brian McCarthy who’s a fabulous painter, he’s a genius. He actually painted a portrait of me once and it got into the final ten of the National Portrait Competition so I have the pleasure of being able to say my portrait was hanging up in the National Gallery in Dublin and the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. Anyone can paint. I really enjoy it, I enjoy any creativity.

You recently teamed up with Specsavers to encourage the nation to take better care of their hearing. Why did you take part?

All I’ve been doing for the last 37 years, thankfully as a privilege, is listening to people. To my shame I’ve only had two hearing checks in that 37-year period, which is shocking. I’ve had more NCTs than I’ve had hearing checks. When the NCT letter comes in, people go around like headless chickens – cleaning the dog hairs off the seats, checking all their lights are working properly, going through pre-NCT checks. Do we pay as much attention to our hearing? The answer is no, unfortunately. I had a hearing test done in Specsavers this year and it’s the simplest thing in the world. It takes about 40 minutes, it’s free, completely painless and scientific. You don’t have to fill out any forms or read any documents. Even if there’s nothing wrong with your hearing it’s absolutely beneficial to get a baseline of it. They’ll be able to tell you what your hearing was like two years ago, what it is like now and you can track the changes. Wearing a hearing device should be seen the same as wearing a pair of glasses. There is no harm in getting it checked out. We all address our eyesight with glasses, so why can’t we have the same attitude with our hearing?

Would you be conscious of your health in general?

Yes. I get my bloods done every six months. But 33 years went without a hearing check. I actually brought it up to a few bosses when I was at RTÉ. RTÉ, like many other companies, and rightly so, facilitate the flu jab. It’s regarded as a caring action. I said they should do the same with hearing, as a caring perk in your work. If you go for a hearing check, you will never find out nothing. You will at least get a fantastic scientific reading of how your hearing works and which ear is stronger than the other. Hearing is so important.

You are and will always be one of the country’s most famous broadcasters, do you have many other broadcasters reaching out to you for advice?

Absolutely. People often write to me and say they want to be a journalist. I ask them if they want to write, what’s stopping them? Write a letter to a paper about a topic that interests you. If you’re interested in broadcasting, go to your local radio station, say you can help out on weekends if there’s anything they need done. It’s a small world, this business, so don’t sit and think. Just do it.

If you or your loved one are struggling with your hearing, book a free hearing check at Specsavers. For more information, visit www.specsavers.ie/hearing .

This interview appeared in the April 2026 issue of RSVP Magazine.

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