Mr Hanly was best known as a co-presenter of RTE’s Morning Ireland programme alongside David Davin-Power
13:15, 21 Nov 2025
Cathal Mac Coille, Aine Lawlor and David Hanly(Image: Collins)
Former RTE broadcaster and author David Hanly has died at the age of 82.
Mr Hanly was best known as a co-presenter of RTE’s Morning Ireland programme alongside David Davin-Power. He was part of the Morning Ireland team on its inaugural broadcast on 4 November 1984, and held a role on the show for two decades.
The national broadcaster confirmed his death this morning just before 1pm. Born in Fairgreen, Limerick in 1944, Mr Hanly carved out an illustrious career in public relations and journalism.
His writing career began in the 1960s when he scripts for the RTE radio serial drama The Kennedys of Castleross and for The Riordans on RTE television. During the 1980s, he hosted Hanly’s People, interviewing notable writers and poets.
He also penned a column for the Sunday Tribune and, in his later years, presented an RTE radio programme celebrating poets and poetry. Mr Hanly famously secured the first interview with Seamus Heaney following the poet’s Nobel Prize for Literature win in 1995.
Mr Hanly won a Jacob’s Award in 1985. He was married twice, and is survived by two sons and a daughter.
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