Aengus Mac Grianna was a stalwart of the RTE newsroom for over 30 years.
Since leaving earlier this year, he has embarked on a new challenge by going back to university.
Aengus describes studying at Trinity as "exciting and terrifying all at the same time. I'm loving the challenge of learning."
He says leaving RTE wasn't a difficult decision, but it was sad leaving because he liked the people he worked with so much. However, having done over 30 years in the newsroom, he was ready for a new challenge, even if he wasn't sure at first exactly what that might be.
However, he did know that "whatever I was going to do next, I wanted to do it beyond the age of 65."
Aengus talks about the privilege of being welcomed into people's homes every day as part of the job: "We forget sometimes that being on television, you're going right into the heart of people's homes, and that's such an important thing."
There are things he misses, and things he doesn't, about his time at RTE.
"I certainly don't miss getting up at half past four in the morning or working til midnight, but I miss that adrenaline rush and the excitement of live broadcasting."
Aengus and his husband Terry got married in 2014, a year before the marriage equality referendum. He says he didn't find it difficult to cover the referendum for RTE because you simply have to do your job.
"I was very conscious of those requirements of me, regardless of my personal ideas on the subject."
"But what was difficult was that it was probably the first time in my career that, if something nasty was being said about gay people, that affected me. Not the fact that somebody might say it, but that I didn't have a voice to defend myself personally."
He also talks about that infamous RTE News blooper, and how it ended up on Jimmy Kimmel's show: "I thought it was all over, and then suddenly it just grew again."
"But I could see the funny side of it and when stuff happens, all you can do is laugh."
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