Deirdre Ní Choistín promoted to take over as Irish-language broadcaster TG4’s director general
Irish-language broadcaster TG4 has appointed Deirdre Ní Choistín as its director general, succeeding Alan Esslemont, who will step down next month.
Deirdre Ní Choistín
Ní Choistín will be the fourth DG of the Irish broadcaster since it was founded in 1996 and the first woman to be appointed to the role.
The exec has more than 25 years’ experience at TG4, having begun working with the station in 1999, shortly after the channel rebranded from TnaG.
A producer and director for 14 years, Ní Choistín established MOLSCÉAL, a popular online news and entertainment platform for TG4’s core Irish-speaking audience in 2017.
She was TG4’s communications manager from 2019 to 2022 before being made TG4’s first head of news and current affairs to develop a strategy and vision for its output. She is also editor of current affairs series Iniúchadh TG4 and of children’s news service Nuacht Cúla4.
Esslemont, who has been DG of TG4 since 2016, was thanked for his and the TG4 team’s achievements over the last eight years by the board of TG4.
The broadcaster added that Ní Choistín has been appointed with the statutory consent of the Irish government following a competitive public recruitment process.
Anna Ní Ghallachair, chair of the TG4 board, said: “Deirdre has very considerable experience in many roles within the organisation as well as the vision and qualifications which will ensure the kind of leadership and strategic planning that will bring TG4 to the next level of excellence and recognition, for the benefit of Irish-language communities in Ireland and internationally.
“As director general, Alan showed outstanding leadership and creative vision which brought Irish-language broadcasting and cinema to the world stage and which created a cultural role model for minority language media at home and abroad.”
Ní Choistín said: “At a crucial time in Irish-language broadcasting, I am looking forward to working with the team to prepare TG4 for the future by cultivating creativity, better serving our audiences across all platforms and further development of the independent production sector, in the Gaeltacht [Irish Gaelic-speaking areas] in particular.”
