The Gerry Ryan Show begged him "on bended knees" and "over whiskey" to stay with 2fm but at the same time Ryan was impressed that Tubridy was willing to compete with him directly. Tubridy has credited Ryan with being "one of the few gentlemen in [RTÉ]", saying he had been "very kind to me when I started out in RTÉ making tea and coffee and right all the way up to the very day I got "The Late Late Show" job". In 2004, Ryan was the subject of controversy when he cancelled an interview with the Taoiseach of the time, Bertie Ahern. Ahern had
Ryan Tubridy with station insiders disapproving and "Hot Press" publishing a double page editorial with the headline "station in turmoil". Within one year its ratings had soared and Tubridy was given a major award. When "The Full Irish" ended it was the second most popular radio programme in Ireland, after "Morning Ireland". Clarke later described moving Tubridy to the morning as the best decision of his 25-year career in radio. In 2006, Tubridy began presenting "The Tubridy Show", on weekday mornings on RTÉ Radio 1. Around this time, he wrote a column for the "Sunday World" in which he expressed amongst other