Marian Finucane

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Marian Finucane (born 1950) is an Irish broadcaster with Radio Telefís Éireann.

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. In 1976 she became a programme presenter working mainly on programmes concerned with contemporary social issues, especially those concerning women, in particular the hugely influential "Women Today".

Finucane won the Prix d'Italia for a documentary on abortion and was also the recipient of a Jacob’s Award. Her "Liveline" programme on radio, a combined interview and phone-in chat show on weekday afternoons, attracted a large listenership from the outset and won for Finucane the Radio Journalist of the Year Award in 1988.

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

Along the way, there was a failed marriage, and then two children with her partner, John Clarke. Their daughter, Sinead, developed leukaemia, and died, aged eight, in 1990. Marian Finucane worked almost entirely through Sinead’s illness.

On Gay Byrne’s retirement in 1999, she took over his early morning radio slot to present "The Marian Finucane Show". The popular broadcaster Joe Duffy took over her Liveline programme. On 24 June 2005 she presented her final "Marian Finucane Show". One of her guests that morning was President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. McAleese described Finucane as "the country's top female broadcaster", saying she was possessed with "the wonderful gift of empathetic broadcasting". 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 September 2005 she was replaced in her radio timeslot by the young broadcaster, Ryan Tubridy.