Reading bad news every day leaves its mark on RTÉ's Eileen Dunne

We welcome her into our homes nearly every evening, yet we know very little about her. John Meagher meets broadcaster Eileen Dunne and asks her all about that night in RTÉ when the news very nearly didn’t get to air...    

For years, she has been the face of the Nine O’Clock News every week day night, but when it comes to weekends, Eileen Dunne does everything she can to avoid the news. The grind of reading bad news stories day in, day out leaves its mark.

“I get into the car at the weekends,” she says, “and I don’t turn on the radio. If I do, it’s either a music station or a CD. My husband would get into the car and he’d say, ‘What’s that you’re listening to?’ and I’d say, ‘I don’t want to know, I don’t want to know’ [about the news]. I’ll catch up with the papers on Monday morning.”