RTÉ will not reinstate Gloria programme

RTÉ will not reconsider its decision to axe Tim Thurston’s popular Sunday morning radio programme, Gloria, despite a petition calling for its reinstatement gaining support from thousands of loyal fans.

Aodán Ó Dubhghaill, Head of RTÉ Lyric fm, told The Irish Catholic that he was hopeful listeners would “hear Tim again in the future” but that presenters and programmes on radio “change and evolve over time, in the same way that musicians and singers do”.

Mr Ó Dubhghaill said he was not in a position to comment on an individual’s circumstances or working relationship with the station but insisted that the decision did not signal a “diminution” of choral music on Lyric fm.

“The vast body of choral music written over the past centuries was written as sacred music and there will not be a diminution of this music on Lyric, either on Sunday mornings or elsewhere in the schedule,” he said.

At the time this newspaper went to print, a petition on change.org calling on RTÉ to reinstate Mr Thurston’s programme had more than 3,000 signatures.