Anne Doyle lends her support to charity CD

Former news reader Anne Doyle yesterday outlined the “dark times” in her life as she lent her support to a new CD launched in aid of Aware.

The former RTÉ newscaster retired on Christmas Day last year after a long career during which time she became a household name.

Yesterday Ms Doyle, a supporter of Aware for the past two decades, told The John Murray Show on RTÉ that she was “not unfamiliar with the black dog sniffing around the place”.

One year on from her retirement, she said she was loving her time off, but recalled periods during her life when she said she had felt low.

“In latter years I am happy to say I have been in great form,” she said. “But over the years I find that with some people their spirits just go low.

“I think with some people it’s perhaps a chemical thing. The important thing is not to keep it too much to yourself.

“If you are lucky and I’ve been extremely lucky, a black mood will pass.”

She said depression can make people feel “locked-in” or frozen, and the help of others often helped in dealing with those feelings. She stressed the need for people suffering with depression to speak with others about how they feel, and that Aware filled that gap at times when people felt they did not want to “burden” others with their problems.

She said leaving RTÉ was “odd” as her old friends and colleagues were always just a switch of a remote control away.

She said she has been working as an ambassador for her native Wexford and did not rule out a return to television projects in future.

She joined radio host John Murray in Dundrum yesterday to launch A Murray Christmas, a new CD of music and spoken pieces featuring contributions from Sinéad O’Connor, John Spillane, the Coronas, and others.

Proceeds from the sale go towards Aware, with representatives of the charity citing Christmas as a potentially difficult time for some who have depression and related mental health issues.