Eoghan McDermott (born 15 April 1983) is an Irish television and radio presenter. He has presented '' The RTÉ 2fm Breakfast Show'' on radio and hosted ''

The Voice of Ireland ''The Voice of Ireland'' is the Irish edition of the international TV franchise '' The Voice'', a reality singing competition created by media tycoon John de Mol Jr. The first series began airing from 8 January 2012 on RTÉ One. The coaches or ...

'' and Ireland's

Junior Eurovision Song Contest The Junior Eurovision Song Contest, often known simply as Junior Eurovision, is an international children's Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 2003. Each part ...

selection shows on television. He began his career presenting ''POP4'', a music programme on

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

. He also hosted

Xfm Radio X is a British national commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. The station launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station named Q102, before being renamed Xfm in 1992. The station b ...

Drivetime on radio in the United Kingdom and has narrated ''

Love Island Australia ''Love Island Australia'' is an Australian dating reality show based on the international '' Love Island'' franchise. Following the premise of other versions of the ''Love Island'' format, the show features a group of single contestants, known as ...

'' on television.

Early life

McDermott was born in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

but grew up in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. His father is Kevin McDermott, an author. He is a middle child, the only boy either side of two sisters. His younger sister, Roe McDermott, has written for ''

Hot Press ''Hot Press'' is a monthly music and politics magazine based in Dublin, Ireland, founded in June 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. History ''Hot Press'' was founded in June 1977 by Niall Stokes, who cont ...

'' magazine. When younger, and before he had a career in the media, McDermott intended to become a Garda (police officer) or a schoolteacher.

Career

Television

McDermott is a fluent speaker of the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

and originally started his media career on TG4's ''POP4'', a music request and top 40 show. This was followed by a role in TG4's youth drama '' Seacht'', in which he played the lead role of Pete. From here he progressed to ''POP4'', a weekly chart music show with live bands. Other presenting credits followed, including ''Frenemies'' – a youth debate game show for

RTÉ2 RTÉ2 (formerly branded as RTÉ 2 from 1978–88, Network 2 from 1988–97, N2 from 1997–2004 and RTÉ Two from 2004–14) is an Irish free-to-air television channel operated by public service broadcaster RTÉ. It was launched on 2 Novemb ...

and ''Immeal Geall'', a bilingual magazine show for

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. BBC Northern Ireland is one of the four BB ...

. He co-presented a series of ''

The Movie Show ''The Movie Show'' was an Australian film review program which was broadcast on SBS TV. Its history is divided into three parts, until it finally wound up in 2008. History The programme commenced on 30 October 1986 with David Stratton and Mar ...

'' on

, which started in November 2012. In 2008, McDermott entered

MTV UK MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & I ...

's ''Pick Me MTV'' competition, but lost out to

Laura Whitmore Laura Whitmore (born 4 May 1985) is an Irish media personality, model and actress based in London. She was a video jockey for MTV in 2008, and has since presented television shows, such as ''This Morning'' (2014), ''Survival of the Fittest'' ...

. In September 2013, McDermott had his UK television debut, fronting UK reality show '' Celebrity Super Spa'' for Channel 5. Other credits include a 2013 highlight show ''Totes Amazeballs'' and ''Next Year's News'', a satirical comedy-panel show anticipating big news stories for the year ahead. Both series broadcast on

. He has co-presented ''

'' with

Kathryn Thomas Kathryn Thomas (born 20 January 1979) is an Irish television presenter. Thomas won her first contract with RTÉ to co-present the children's television programme ''Rapid'' with Jason Sherlock in the 1990s. From there she went on to present ' ...

since its inception. For season 3 of ''The Voice'', McDermott fronted a live spin-off show on

. He filmed a new series entitled ''Drunk'' for RTÉ2 in summer 2014, examining the effects of alcohol on the body and mind. In 2015, he began hosting Junior Eurovision Eire, Ireland's national selection programme for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which he hosted from 2015 to 2019, Ireland did not participate in 2020 and Louise Cantillon replaced him as host in 2021. He also filmed a pilot episode for a UK game show in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, which was made by the team behind ''

Gogglebox ''Gogglebox'' is a British reality television series created by Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander and Tim Harcourt, and broadcast on Channel 4. The series documents families and groups of friends around the United Kingdom who are filmed for the ...

''. In June 2020, he hosted the

telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other cause. Most telethons feature heavy solicitatio ...

event '' RTÉ Does Comic Relief'', held to raise funds during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. McDermott has also narrated the reality dating series ''

''. On 20 September 2020, ITV Australia announced Stephen Mullan would replace him on Love Island Australia as "the narrator".

Acting

McDermott played the lead role of "DJ Pete" in all four series of the joint TG4/

production, ''Seacht'', a teen drama. Of his time on ''Seacht'', McDermott later said: "That's the beauty of starting on a channel that doesn’t have a huge audience: you can make a lot of mistakes that go under the radar".

Choreography

McDermott completed his dance training at the

Broadway Dance Center Broadway Dance Center is a dance school located at 322 West 45th Street west of Times Square in New York City. It was founded in 1984 as one of the first "drop-in" dance training schools in the world, offering classes in jazz, tap, ballet, conte ...

and has worked as a dancer and choreographer, supporting acts such as

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, businesswoman, and actress. One of the List of music artists by net worth, wealthiest musicians in the world, List of awards and nominations received by Rihanna, her vario ...

Pussycat Dolls The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a neo-burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the troupe mainst ...

and

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. A Pop music, pop and hip-hop-influenced contemporary R&B, R&B musician who works in a variety of genres, he has been called the "Honorific nic ...

Radio

McDermott started his radio career on a bi-lingual chart music show on Dublin radio station

SPIN 1038 SPIN 1038 (or simply SPIN; pronounced "spin one-oh-three-eight") is a local radio station in Dublin, Ireland. It is owned by Bauer Media Audio Ireland and broadcasts on 103.8 FM under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Auth ...

in 2009. He also co-presented the successful "Sunday Service" before being poached by

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysal ...

in the UK. In 2011 he moved abroad to the UK, where he began duties as host of Drive Time with radio station

XFM Radio X is a British national commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. The station launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station named Q102, before being renamed Xfm in 1992. The station b ...

. In his first year, McDermott's show was syndicated to XFM Manchester. Shortly after, he was nominated for "Best Newcomer" in the national commercial radio awards, sponsored by

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...

. In April 2012, ''The Guardian'' newspaper, whilst discussing the new appointment of

Greg James Gregory James Alan Milward (born 17 December 1985) is an English broadcaster and author. He has been a presenter on BBC Radio 1 since 2007, hosting shows including his old drive-time show and the station's flagship breakfast show. Since 201 ...

on BBC Radio1 Drivetime, claimed McDermott's show was the best DriveTime radio show of its genre in the UK. His final show with the station aired on 21 December 2012. He said: "I left XFM because I had done it for two years. It is a great place to work with great people but I had had to turn down several pilots because of work. So I decided I wanted to focus on TV work and to do that I had to leave Xfm. And then I got '' Celebrity Super Spa''." 03:30 It coincided with a management change and the departure of

Mary Anne Hobbs Mary Anne Hobbs (born 16 May 1964) is an English DJ and music journalist from Lancashire, England. She currently hosts on BBC Radio 6 Music. She is also a performer and curator of live events. In 2024 she created a ground-breaking collaboration ...

to 6 Music and Breakfast presenter Danny Wallace – although in a Twitter post shortly after his departure McDermott noted his final listenership figures were a record high. Although online speculation suggested a move to

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

, this never materialised. In June 2014, it was announced that McDermott would present a show on

RTÉ 2fm RTÉ 2fm, or 2FM as it is more commonly referred to, is an Irish radio station operated by RTÉ. The station specialises in current popular music and chart hits and is the second national radio station in Ireland. History The station commenc ...

radio on the 710am slot on Saturday and Sunday starting on 6 July. Three months later, it was announced that he would stand in for Louise McSharry on the station's weekday evening slot for the next few months while she receives treatment for cancer. In September 2015, McDermott took over from the Driveby show from Colm Hayes under a two-year contract. In June 2019, McDermott began presenting the new breakfast show on RTÉ 2fm alongside Doireann Garrihy. On 8 March 2021, RTÉ officially confirmed that McDermott had left his 2FM role after 3 weeks of "unplanned leave" and that he would not be returning due to the expiry of his contract.

Mental health advocacy

McDermott gives talks throughout Ireland at various events about mental illness. He made a video on the topic of

self-harm Self-harm refers to intentional behaviors that cause harm to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues, usually without suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-abuse, self-injury, and s ...

for Pieta House in 2014, in which he referred to his own experience and later explained: "When you see first-hand what they are up to I thought it was a bit disingenuous to be preaching their merits without being honest about my own stuff... I'm not looking for praise, beyond feeling that it was worthwhile. You don't want to do that and have it go under the radar either. Not that you're looking for attention... If you feel you're going to put yourself out there... and you know you might upset people you're close to it's nice to feel it was worthwhile.".

Personal life

On 2 March 2022, McDermott shared a letter on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

issued by

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

s representing a client who it said had "made false allegations against him", which "arose out of a relationship which they had some years previously." The letter went on to acknowledge that the client "was above the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to Human sexual activity, sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is un ...

at all times that she and Mr McDermott met or engaged in a physical relationship, contrary to her original claim." McDermott said he hoped sharing the letter could "close this chapter." McDermott subsequently deactivated his Twitter account.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDermott, Eoghan 1983 births Living people Irish male dancers Irish radio presenters Irish male television actors Modern dancers TG4 presenters Actors from County Limerick Male actors from County Dublin Broadcasters from County Dublin