Taoiseach pays tribute as Anne Doyle signs off

FAMOUSLY MEDIA-SHY, Anne Doyle may have wished for a more low-key exit but RTÉ refused to let her go quietly into the night as the curtain came down on her 33 years as a news reader on Christmas Day.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and veteran broadcaster Gay Byrne were among those who paid a surprise on-air tribute to the veteran newsreader immediately after she finished her final bulletin on Sunday.

Doyle signed off with the words “For me, it’s been a pleasure. Good fortune. Goodbye,” just before 9pm on Christmas Day but the news bulletin did not end there.

It was immediately followed by a selection of clips from her more than three decades of reading the news. The clips and images were introduced by fellow RTÉ newsreader Eileen Dunne and interspersed with tributes.

“What I like about you is your wonderful speaking voice and that alluring quality that has endeared you to millions of Irish people,” the Taoiseach said, before thanking her “on behalf of us all”.

Byrne commented on her “beautiful diction and clear enunciation” and said she had “a wonderfully smart grasp” of the news she was reading.

As her final broadcast got under way, Doyle became the most popular trending topic on Twitter in Ireland, as users of the social media phenomenon lined up to sing her praises.

Paying tribute to the veteran newsreader in a statement released after the broadcast, the director general of RTÉ, Noel Curran, described her as one of the “most familiar faces and voices on RTÉ’s services” for more than a generation and said she was “in the front rank of the public’s affections”.

He said she had always read with detachment and authority but combined that with “evident warmth which the public has instinctively recognised”.

Managing director of RTÉ news and current affairs Cillian de Paor said her departure was “genuinely the end of an era in our newsroom”.

In the statement, Doyle recounted some of the highlights of her career with close colleagues.

“I’ve had a wonderful time here in RTÉ and I will miss it hugely, but it feels like the right time to move on. I will be 60 in January and there are many exciting projects ahead,” she said.

“I wish all my good friends and colleagues in the newsroom, with whom I have so enjoyed working for over 30 years, every happiness as I take my leave for the final time this evening.”