Eileen Dunne to retire from RTÉ next year

News presenter Eileen Dunne is retiring from RTÉ next year.

The long time anchor of the Nine O'Clock news, who has strong family links to Westmeath, told RSVP magazine that after 40 years with the state broadcaster she is ready to retire next year when she turns 65.

"I think I am ready. I have been there for over 40 years and I feel like I have done my time. I almost left when I was 60, because I could,” she said.

"I wouldn’t have had the full package but I could have left.”

"I am glad I didn’t though because I’m glad I worked through the pandemic. The pandemic taught me that I would be okay if I wasn’t working because I can structure my day,” she said.

Ms Dunne says that while she will miss her Newsroom colleagues, she is looking forward to her retirement.

"I will miss the routine too but the way I am working at the moment is leading me into retirement. I do a week on and then one or two days the next week. I can have four or five days off at a time. When a big story breaks, no doubt I will wish I was in the middle of it, I am even like that when I am off.

“...People ask me what I am going to do and I say 'nothing', well nothing for a while anyway.

"Particularly post pandemic, there’s a lot of travelling to be done, a lot of life to live and people to see,” she said.

During her long journalistic career with RTÉ, Ms Dunne has featured on the broadcaster's coverage of some of biggest events in modern Irish history, including the state commemoration of the centenary of the 1916 rising, as well as the state funerals of Garret Fitzgerald and Albert Reynolds.

Ms Dunne's mother Lilly is from Delvin and her daughter has been a regular visitor to Westmeath over the years. Her father was the legendary GAA broadcaster and journalist Mick Dunne.