Maura Derrane has confirmed that she won’t be replacing Ryan Tubridy for good on his RTÉ Radio 1 show.
The 53-year-old made her radio debut on the Nine O’Clock Show last week, while RTÉ bosses try to decide who will be taking over the show full-time.
Since Ryan departed the station in the wake of the RTÉ payment controversy, Oliver Callan and Brendan Courtney have primarily filled his morning role.
Despite having an outstanding debut programme that made her the 2/1 bookies favourite to permanently replace Ryan, Maura said she won’t be sticking around the radio on a regular basis.
She told the RTÉ Guide: “I could have flown under the radar somewhere else much more easily. It would have been a simpler process to just slip in there and maybe not a lot of people would have their eyes on you in the way that there are eyes on me now.
“It is a big, huge role, but I’m not in there to take over the role. I’m just in there to get my wings. I’m in there for two weeks and that’s it and I’m so lucky to be given such a prestigious show to train myself up on.”
Maura stated that she has had her “eye” on radio “for a while” and that she wanted to try her hand at being in front of the microphone.
She added: “Then the opportunity just arose, as all great opportunities do, when you least expect them, which I love. Sometimes that’s meant to be, and I really believe it was meant to be, at this time, for me to do these two weeks. I didn’t procrastinate. I didn’t think about it. I just did it.”
Maura is set to resume her presenting duties on television on RTÉ’s Today alongside Dáithà Ó Sé on September 25.
