It was an emotional Friday morning as Donncha O’Callaghan hung up his microphone.
He signed off from the Breakfast Show on RTÉ 2FM for the final time.
And there wasn’t a dry eye in the studio!
Donncha joined the station in 2021 and admitted that he “loved every minute” of it.
“Thank you so much. I make mistakes but I got constant support from people. Last night I was coming through town and someone gave me a hug and said ‘we’re going to miss you man!’,” he said as he finished up on Friday morning.
“Honestly, it was never taken for granted on me. I wouldn’t have been able to do it if it wasn’t for your unbelievable support.
“Thank you so much. I loved every minute of it,” he said.
As the gang bid farewell to listeners, Donncha quickly concluded: “Go raibh míle maith agat, slán!”
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Carl Mullan made sure that Donncha knew he would be missed as he brought party poppers into the studio.
He shared a video of himself popping the streamers at the Corkman with the caption: “It’s the beautiful boy Donncha O’Callaghan’s final show on RTÉ 2FM.”
2FM shared a picture of Donncha, Carl and new presenter Aifric O’Connell with the caption: “Wishing you all the best Donners, our beautiful boy.”
Donncha announced his decision to leave the station in June.
He wrote: “I’m sure we’d all agree, it’s never easy to step away from something you really enjoy doing. Friday the 5th July will be my last ‘2FM Breakfast’ Show. I’m so incredibly grateful and proud of the last five years in 2FM, I’ve absolutely loved it.
“Thank you to Dan and Paul for an amazing opportunity & taking a complete flyer on me. Loads of people say they will give you a chance, very few actually do it and I can’t thank ye enough. To all the producers, BCOs and presenters that I’ve been lucky enough to be around, thank you for being so incredibly helpful and kind to me.”
He went on to say: “All unsung heroes like Cieran in Promotions, Lily you superstar, the social media team and all of the crew in Switching (up & down on Cork 2) The Cork studio for always being so accommodating.
“Bar Paul on numbers, I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. The heartbeat of course is the fantastic listeners, I will always appreciate the love and support – you have been the absolute best!
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“Some people do deserve special mentions. Producer Grace, ‘thank you’ will never cover it. When everyone else tells you what you want to hear, you jump in and speak the truth, you are an amazing teammate. Willem, of course you are exceptional at your job we all know that, but you learn a lot about people at 5am in the morning, you are an exceptional human.”
He went on to thank his co-hosts, saying: “Aifric, I know we didn’t get a lot of airmiles together but I enjoyed every minute.
“Carl and Doireann, ye know exactly what ye mean to me and only one word does it justice – TIME.”
He continued: “We all have a reason for bouncing out of bed and taking on the day. I’ve been blessed yet again to do something I’ve loved for the last five years. Of course it requires sacrifice and commitment, in my case that load has been carried by Jenny. Thank you for always backing me. We go again.”
He explained: “It is now time to focus on winning Ireland’s Fittest Family, to continue working on all my exciting rugby projects and something else that is a complete ‘Disaster’…”
He concluded: “In the words of Farmer Hoggett ‘That’ll do pig, that’ll do…’.”
