EAMON DUNPHY HAS announced that he will be taking a break from his podcast The Stand for what he says is the “foreseeable future”.

In a statement from Dunphy and his wife Jane Gogan, both explained that they have commitments to other projects which require their attention.

The former RTÉ soccer pundit, who is set to turn 80 this year, left the national broadcaster in 2018 to focus on The Stand, which had launched in 2016. 

He has been presenting the show for over eight years, producing it alongside his wife Jane Gogan, who is a former head of drama at RTE Television. Regularly at the top of the podcast charts, The Stand also attracted high-level commercial sponsorship, including from Tesco.

The podcast proved a financial success, with the firm behind The Stand (Pepperwort) recording post tax profits of €108,963 in 2023.

The Pepperwort accounts also showed that at the end of December 2023, the company was sitting on accumulated profits of €258,205.

Dunphy and Gogan co-own the company on a 50/50 basis. The accounts showed that aggregate pay to the directors was €72,719 in the previous year.

As well as generating revenue from advertisers, the public could subscribe to The Stand for a fee of €5 per month.

The podcast had initially featured a mix of politics and sport, but in recent times began to focus on the former.

“The Stand is taking a break for the foreseeable future,” Dunphy and Gogan said in a joint statement.

“Before we go, we would like to thank all those who have helped The Stand to deliver quality news and current affairs content over the past eight years.”

“Whether for sport or politics, international and domestic, we endeavored to get the best and mostly did. We’d like to thank all those who contributed across the years.”

Dunphy and Gogan also thanked fellow podcast staff members, who they said had been “great professionals and allies throughout lockdown and the recent years”.

“It’s been difficult to make the decision to stop now as we’ve hugely enjoyed working together but now is the time”.

The last new edition of The Stand was posted on December 19.