The 2023 revelations regarding secret payments to star presenter Ryan Tubridy weren’t the first time Ireland’s national broadcaster has found itself caught up in scandal.

Shane Ross, author of #1 bestsellers The Bankers and Mary Lou McDonald, winds back the clock to examine RTÉ’s history of broadcasting excellence alongside the accusations of corruption, waste and ineptitude it has faced along the way.

Since it arrived on the airwaves in 1961, RTÉ has been buffeted in different directions, eventually slipping into a steady decline which accelerated over the past decade into a catastrophe. With clarity and wit, Ross rakes over its colourful past while also considering what the future might hold for this once beloved institution.