Claire Byrne


Claire Byrne is an Irish journalist and television presenter who currently fronts Claire Byrne Live each Monday evening on RTÉ One.
Byrne presented The Daily Show from September 2010 to March 2012. In 2013, she became an anchor on RTÉ's flagship current affairs programme Prime Time. In January 2015, she began hosting her own self-titled weekly current affairs programme, Claire Byrne Live.

Early life

Byrne is the daughter of Tom and Breda Byrne. She grew up on the family farm and was educated locally at the Brigidine Convent. She later studied Politics, Sociology and Social Science at University College Dublin, however, she didn't complete the course. She subsequently attended the Rathmines College of Further Education where she studied journalism.

Career

Byrne began her broadcasting career with East Coast Radio and worked with BBC Radio in the Channel Islands, before becoming news editor with Channel 103 in Jersey. She returned to Ireland shortly afterwards to take up her first television job as a reporter on the fledgling TV3.
Byrne left after just one year to work as London news anchor with Channel 5 and later with ITV News, but was lured back to TV3 to present the station's breakfast show Ireland AM. In 2004, she replaced Gráinne Seoige as the main female presenter of the TV3 News at 5.30.
Byrne joined the independent Irish radio station Newstalk in 2006, amid a high-profile legal case with her former employer TV3, which went to court to stop the news anchor broadcasting on Newstalk's breakfast slot. She presented the show with Ger Gilroy, with Ivan Yates taking over as co-presenter in 2009.
In 2010, Byrne presented her last breakfast show with Newstalk before moving to RTÉ where she co-presented, until March 2012, The Daily Show with Daithí Ó Sé.
In a major shake up of news broadcasts on RTÉ in early 2013, Byrne joined the current affairs programme Prime Time as an anchor joining Miriam O'Callaghan and Pat Kenny.
In November 2014, it was announced that she would have her own current affairs show Claire Byrne Live, which would go live on RTÉ One in January 2015.

Personal life

Byrne was previously married to radio executive Richard Johnson. The marriage ended in 2006. In 2013, she became engaged to business consultant Gerry Scollan. In 2016, Byrne married Scollan at a ceremony in Dublin attended by close friends and family. She has three children, a boy Patrick born in 2013, a girl Jane born in 2014 and a girl Emma born in 2017.
In January 2015, she said in an interview that due to financial commitments she could not afford to be a stay at home mum for her children.
On 23 March 2020, Byrne announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19. She returned to filming Claire Byrne Live in the RTÉ 1 studio on 6 April 2020.
She lives in Bray, County Wicklow.