Marian Finucane

Marian Finucane.
Born	1950 (age 60–61) Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Education	Scoil Chaitríona; College of Technology, Bolton Street, Dublin
Alma mater	National University of Ireland, Galway[1]
Occupation	Broadcaster
Employer	Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)
Salary	€570,000 a year (2008)[2] €513,270 (2009)[3]

Marian Finucane (born 1950)^[4] is an Irish broadcaster with Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). She has worked with the national broadcaster since in 1976, starting as a continuity announcer. She was the first presenter of Liveline. She currently presents The Marian Finucane Show at weekend lunchtimes on RTÉ Radio 1.

Career

Marian Finucane was born in Dublin and educated at Scoil Chaitríona, and the College of Technology, Bolton Street, Dublin. She practised as an architect until 1974 when she joined RTÉ as a continuity announcer, having been recruited by Eoghan Harris.^[5] In 1976 she became a programme presenter working mainly on programmes concerned with contemporary social issues, especially those concerning women, in particular Women Today.^[1]

Finucane in 1979 was the recipient of a Jacobs' Award for Women Today. Her Liveline programme on radio, a combined interview and phone-in chat show on weekday afternoons. She won Radio Journalist of the Year Award in 1988.^[6]

Her television work included information programming on RTÉ such as "Consumer Choice" and the Garda investigation programme Crime Line.

Along the way, there was a failed marriage,^[1] and then two children with her partner, John Clarke. Their daughter, Sinead, developed leukaemia, and died, aged eight, in 1990.

On Gay Byrne's retirement in 1999, she took over his early morning radio slot to present The Marian Finucane Show. Another broadcaster, Joe Duffy, took over her Liveline programme. On 24 June 2005 she presented her final Marian Finucane Show in that time-slot. Later that afternoon she received an honorary degree from NUI Galway. Apart from her media work this degree was in recognition of her work raising funds along with Clarke, towards the building of an AIDS hospice and orphanage in Cape Town, South Africa. In June 2005 she was replaced in her radio timeslot by Ryan Tubridy, and took over morning slots on Saturday and Sunday.^[1]

Earnings

Marian Finucane earned €180,507 in 2003 and €239,265 in 2004 at RTÉ ^[2] and €570,000 in 2008.^[7] Director-General of RTÉ said there was “no question that by today’s standards” the salaries paid to its top presenters last year “were excessive”. I have to repeat that they were set at a different time in a different competitive reality where some of this talent might be up for poaching by other organisations and in RTÉ’s view at the time, they delivered value for money". Fine Gael said the 2008 figure would rub “salt in the wounds of the many people who have lost their jobs or taken significant pay cuts in an effort to achieve wage restraint”. Labour's Liz McManus criticised RTÉ for not releasing the data sooner and said that: "This information should be easily available and there should be no question of concealing it or making it in any way inaccessible".^[8]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Murphy, Colin (2006). "Marian Finucane profiled". http://www.village.ie/People/Profiles/Marian_Finucane_profiled/. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Present Tense » 1 Pat Kenny = 3 Derek Mooneys
3. ^ "Pat Kenny highest paid RTÉ presenter in 2009". RTÉ. 11 November 2011. http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1111/rtepresenters.html. Retrieved 11 November 2011. 
4. ^ "Photograph: Marian Finucane". RTÉ Libraries and Archives. https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/4136/079.html. Retrieved 11 January 2011. 
5. ^ Independent.ie
6. ^ Marion Finucane
7. ^ "Kenny tops the RTÉ richlist". Irish Independent. 10 October 2009. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/stations-golden-10-share-a-836445m-bonanza-1909991.html. Retrieved 5 July 2010. 
8. ^ "RTÉ pay 'excessive' by today's standards". The Irish Times. 10 October 2009. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1010/breaking7.html. Retrieved 5 July 2010. 

External links

• The Marian Finucane Show at RTÉ.ie
• http://www.friendsinireland.ie/friendsinireland/Main/Home.htm Friends In Ireland Homepage

Persondata
Name	Finucane, Marian
Alternative names
Short description	Radio presenter
Date of birth	1950
Place of birth	Dublin, Ireland
Date of death
Place of death