CLAIRE BYRNE INSISTS that she’s an introvert.

She says it in passing, without irony, as we sit down for a chat, days after she began her new weekday slot on the station.

It’s not how most people would describe the broadcaster, who has spent decades fronting major radio and television programmes across RTÉ and TV3 (now Virgin Media), questioning politicians and anchoring national conversations.

But it is, she claims, a key part in how she understands herself and her job.

“I definitely think I’m an introvert,” Byrne says.

“I think that’s quite common in this profession. I meet a lot of people who aren’t overly comfortable with the spotlight, but for some strange, inexplicable reason, which we’d need a psychologist to explain, you’ve put yourself out there, but actually who you are is an introvert.”

She laughs at the contradiction.

Broadcasting, for Byrne, has never been about performing. It is about listening, about curiosity, about asking the obvious questions when there is no time to prepare.

Those instincts have followed her from early radio work on East Coast FM to prime-time television and now back again, decisively, to radio.

Having only recently stepped into presenting Newstalk’s 9am to 12pm programme, the slot previously hosted by Pat Kenny, Byrne says the decision to leave RTÉ after 15 years already feels like the right one.

“I would highly recommend it,” she says, referring to making the major career change.

“I’m only on air a week here, but each day I feel more confirmed that I made the right decision.”

The radio host admits this as we sit in a meeting room on the fifth floor of Marconi House, the headquarters of Bauer Media.

Byrne, relaxed, has finished her own programme hours earlier.

It is early afternoon, well after the adrenaline of live radio has subsided, and she seems comfortable reflecting on a decision that sent ripples through the media world only weeks ago.

The level of public interest in her move surprised her. “Lots of people change jobs every day,” Byrne says.

“A lot of people have told me that it sparked them into thinking about their own careers and where they’re going and what they’re doing and whether they’d like a change.

“So it’s nice to hear that, that maybe something you’ve said has sparked an idea for somebody, or encouraged them to take a look at what they’re doing and whether they’re happy. That’s been lovely.”

Turning 50 was part of the picture. So too was an old rule she once set herself, considering she had been with RTÉ since 2010.

“In my early career I always said three to five years is enough, and then you think about moving on,” she says.

It was really good over this period to remind myself of that, because that was a little rule, an unwritten rule that I had.

She does not shy away from her age being a factor in her decision to move from one radio station to another. When you are happy in a job, Byrne says, there is a temptation to stay put, to avoid rocking the boat.

The first morning back in the studio brought nerves, as she expected it would.

“I was nervous on the first day, and even today, you know, I crashed stings, and I did all sorts of strange things, but that’s just normal and getting used to it.”

What helped was familiarity. The sound operator on her first show, Cormac McDonough, is someone she last worked with in 2010.

“When I saw him, I knew I’d be okay,” Bryne says. “It felt comfortable from day one.”

Three hours of live radio, five days a week, had been one of her biggest concerns before the move (Byrne’s morning radio show with RTÉ had been two hours long).

That worry, Bryne says now, was unfounded.

“I was so worried about all of the challenges that I imagined would face me when I came to Newstalk, like doing the three hours,” she says.

It was all unfounded, like I am enjoying it so much. I don’t feel like there’s additional pressure on me.

“It’s just, it’s such a joy. And three hours doesn’t phase me at all now.”

The breadth of the show is part of the appeal.

Byrne defines current affairs broadly. “It’s everything that’s going on in your life,” she says.

“From bin charges and politics to cooking, to how you help your children deal with social media.”

She feels the programme already has a slightly looser tone than her previous work. Topic selection, she says, is key.

She points to a recent appearance by fellow radio presenter Ian Dempsey, who hosts Today FM’s morning slot, on the show, chatting about Irish songs.

Dempsey and Byrne now work in the same building together, as Today FM and Newstalk are both owned by Bauer Media.

“That was just such fun,” she says.

“I can already feel I’m presenting something new for me, and I’m enjoying it. I hope people are enjoying listening to it.”

Listener feedback has been immediate, particularly online.

“People are saying to me, ‘we can hear that you have a smile on your face’ – or ‘we really enjoyed that item’.”

Others suggest topics. Music comes up repeatedly.

“There’s a big demand for music on Newstalk, which I never thought would happen,” she says, floating the idea of live sessions in the future.

She has read the reviews, including one from the Irish Times which described her as so relaxed in the new gig that it was as if she had “wandered in with a bag of cans”. She laughs.

“That was great fun for us,” she says. “It’s nice that people feel they’re seeing another side of me, because that was the ambition.”

Despite the praise, Byrne is careful not to put too much stock into the early reviews.

“They’ll be nice this week and then there’s a chance that they won’t be the week after,” Byrne adds.

“What matters is making a really good programme for your audience.”

Stepping into a slot previously occupied by Pat Kenny is not lost on her. Byrne is clearly close with Pat, another household name in radio who previously made the move from RTÉ to Newstalk.

Kenny signed off from his weekday show at the end of January, and will be hosting a weekend slot on Newstalk from 7 March.

Byrne speaks warmly of him, describing him as a master of light and shade when it comes to covering the news.

“I’m delighted to be mentioned in any sentence with Pat Kenny,” she says, laughing, “as long as it’s a nice sentence.”

Her departure from RTÉ was emotional, something listeners heard in her final programme. That reaction did not surprise her.

“I had a great career there and great friends there,” she says.

It would be weird if I wasn’t emotional. I’d be a machine if I wasn’t.

Asked whether a return to television is off the table, Byrne is clear that it is not.

“I wouldn’t rule it out down the line,” she says. “For now, I need to keep my head in the radio game. Three hours of radio, five days a week, is a lot.”

Dancing with the Stars, however, remains unlikely.

“I’ve two left feet,” she says. Her children, she adds, would be delighted if she did it.

“They don’t really care about radio shows that are on while they’re in school. Their priorities are dinner, lifts to activities, and when I’m going to be on telly making a fool of myself.”

Her days now start early. She is up at 5am, in the building by 6.30am, on air at 9am, and off after midday.

Evenings are spent prepping the next day, along with various family activities. “I operate best under that kind of pressure,” she says.

For all the seriousness of her career, Byrne has some past gigs that still surprise people.

One that resurfaced recently was her brief appearance on the early-2000s television game show Touch the Truck, which she mentioned in passing during a recent appearance on Newstalk’s Lunchtime Live.

The premise was simple. “Imagine a huge, obnoxious 4×4 [pickup truck] in a shopping centre,” Byrne explains.

A group of contestants stood around it with one hand on the vehicle. The last person still touching it won.

“It was a sleep challenge, so people had to stay awake for days on end. And that creates all sorts of problems, because you go delirious, you know, obviously if you don’t have sleep.”

Byrne had been working in news at the time and was asked to take part in the show, fronted by Dale Winton, which involved a stationary Toyota Land Cruiser parked in a shopping centre in Essex.

There is little trace of it online now, and she doubts it will ever make a comeback.

“If it does, I won’t be involved,” she says.

“I probably should have been nowhere near it, but it was great craic.”

She’s certainly moved on to bigger and better things since then. Despite her profile, Byrne says people rarely approach her in public.

“People just tend to leave me alone,” Byrne states.

Fame in Ireland is a bit of a misnomer. We’re a small country. You’ll soon get a kick in the bum if you think you’re bigger than other people anyway.

Radio, she believes, still allows space for that humanity though.

“Radio is still a very intimate medium, I think it still has retained that,” Bryne says.

“Even though now everybody’s on camera pretty much in a radio studio, I think there’s still an intimacy with radio that you don’t really get with with anything else.”

Asked to choose between radio and television work, Bryne hesitates.

“If I was put to the pin of my collar, it’s always going to be radio, because that’s where I started, so that’s probably where I’m most comfortable.”

For a self-described introvert, Claire Byrne sounds settled, and happy with the risk she took.

A week into a new role, she is clear on one thing. Leaping off the cliff, as she puts it, was worth it.