BBC NI's controller stepping down

Anna Carragher is retiring as the BBC NI Controller

The Controller of BBC Northern Ireland, Anna Carragher, has announced she will retire after 36 years with the BBC.

She has been in charge of the BBC's Northern Ireland operation for the last six years and joined the corporation in 1970.

Ms Carragher will leave in October, but the recruitment process for her successor as controller will start immediately.

"I've worked with great people and we've made great programmes," she said.

"I shall miss the staff of BBC Northern Ireland immensely - and want to thank them all for all the achievements of the last decade."

Paying tribute Pat Loughrey, the BBC's Director of Nations and Regions, said: "Throughout her career Anna has been an outstanding editorial leader and one of the BBC's most distinguished journalists."

Professor Fabian Monds, the BBC's National Governor for Northern Ireland, said: "Anna has led BBC Northern Ireland through a period of significant change and modernisation with energy, flair and imagination."

Ms Carragher joined the BBC as a studio manager in London in 1970 after graduating from Queen's University, Belfast.

She became a producer on Radio Four's Today programme in 1975, worked as the BBC's Radio News producer in New York in 1977, then moved to television in 1982 to join the launch team of Breakfast Time.

She worked on Newsnight and produced Question Time.

She became Head of Programmes, BBC Northern Ireland, in 1995 and BBC NI's first woman controller in September 2000.