Peter Murtagh

Peter Murtagh is an award-winning, Irish-born journalist and author. He spent almost 40 years in newspapers (working for The Irish Times and the Sunday Tribune in Ireland, and the Sunday Times and The Guardian in the UK) before retiring formally in 2019. He held several management positions across all titles, including chief editor, foreign editor, news editor, opinion editor and managing editor. As a reporter, he specialized in long form investigative pieces.“Take your chances and go and do it,” was a key lesson journalist Peter Murtagh took from his motorbike trip from the southern tip of South America to the northern top of Alaska.I didn’t want to stop working; I loved the buzz of my working life — the daily excitement of chasing stories, engaging with people, finding things out and then writing it all up. But all good things must, if not end completely, then at least change somewhat. Old farts must make way for bright young eager beavers who want to make their own mark. So, OK, I had to retire from formal, full-time employment because, in the bigger scheme of things, it was the right thing to do.I knew that I wanted to mark this enormous change in my life by doing a few big things. One of those was long nurtured plans to ride my bike, a BMW R1200 GS Adventure, from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska, to a place named, appropriately enough, Deadhorse. Which he described in his recent book, From Tip to Top, published by Gill (2024)He has received the Award for Outstanding Journalism in Ireland (1983), Reporter of the Year in the UK Press Awards (1986), and the News Brands Ireland award for Investigative Journalism (2016).He is the co-author (with Joe Joyce) of two books, The Boss – Charles J Haughey in Government (Poolbeg, 1983), and Blind Justice (Poolbeg 1984); The Rape of Greece – the king, the colonels and the resistance (Simon & Schuster, 1994), and, (with Natasha Murtagh), Buen Camino! – a father daughter journey from Croagh Patrick to Santiago de Compostela (Gill, 2011)Aran Island Discs is an Irish themed podcast hosted by Rossa McDermottEach episode features a guest who is invited to imagine themselves on the Aran Islands—a symbolic place evoking rugged beauty and Irish cultural heritage—and explore the soundtrack of their life. Guests choose songs that have shaped their personal journeys, sparking conversations about key moments, memories, and influences in their life.edited by Peter Rice, and distributed via platforms Acast, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. .Sponsorship [email protected]“Feels like sitting in on a real conversation”#AranIslandDiscs #IrishPodcast #PodcastIreland #IrishStories #MusicAndMemory #LongFormPodcast#IrishCulture#PodcastLife  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.