Anchor Woman

Eileen Dunne speaks to Jennifer Stevens about her Covid Time Capsule, working on the biggest story of her career and her plans for the future. 

TextIt’s been an incredible year to be a news anchor. Always at the front line of breaking news, this year good reporting and coverage has been more important than ever before. One of the most trusted news faces on our screens is Eileen Dunne, who has been working as part of the RTE news team since 1984. Even though the days were hectic, and things were constantly changing, she was glad to be in the newsroom in Donnybrook this year.

“Going to work kept some kind of normality for me, even though there was nothing normal about the work. I was glad to be there through it all because it's been one of the biggest stories of my career. We also felt we were offering a genuine public service. I think in a way because people had nothing else to do, that they really did appreciate that.”

Seeing Eileen on the screen every evening definitely gave people a lot of comfort and she received postcards of thanks and was often stopped in the supermarket when she went on her once-a-week outing. 

“There was a real sense of it being like old times, people were writing to us, they were sending us letters and postcards. I have a bunch of them that I’ve kept. I think that people identified with us possibly because they weren't seeing anybody else. Anytime I went to the supermarket on what was then your then weekly outing, I’d be bombarded by people with questions. A lot of it was because they just weren't talking to anybody else outside their own home. People were dying to know: "Are you doing your own makeup? Are you doing this, are you doing that, how is it working?" In the beginning when I’d go to the supermarket it would be all Dr Tony this and Dr Leo that. I remember Dr Tony coming into the studio to speak to us one night, and I asked him a couple of questions, but I got some letters hammering me for being too tough on the doctor, I laughed, don’t worry, he’s well able!”

After questions about the two doctors, the one thing that most people wanted to know was about Eileen’s hair and makeup. It’s no mean feat to appear on the national broadcaster every evening without the teams that normally help you look well groomed. 

“The hair and make-up teams were gone for the first lockdown but they have been back since. Procedures were put in place then, so when they came back, they were allowed to continue, thanks be to God because I know it's a first-world problem but that was one of the hardest things for me. I don't have great eyesight in one of my eyes, so I have great difficulty trying to do the eyes and all that. Then 10 minutes before air I’d remember that I’d need to touch up my powder or whatever and I’d slap on the powder, swallow half and start coughing during the bulletin.”

During the height of the pandemic, Eileen moved from her usual seven days on, seven days off schedule to a tighter one of two or three days on followed by days off which she said worked much better when things were so busy. 

“We would not have been able to sustain the seven days. It was quite stressful and quite tense in the beginning because there was just that sense of fear. Nobody really knew what was happening. It’s still so busy. Every time you think you're taking your foot off the pedal with this story, it takes another twist.

“Then because so many people were working from home and working outside the building, there were fewer of us around, so we all ended up doing more with fewer resources. Now I'm back on the week on week off. It's still busy but it's less pressurized because we're more used to it. Like everybody else, you adapt to anything.”

The shorter work cycle must have been a great way to avoid the lockdown monotony that many of us felt but Eileen says that it wouldn’t have been a problem for her. “I absolutely have no problem finding myself a week at home. I would never have nothing to do or nowhere to go.”

Keeping busy wasn’t an issue for the newscaster and she has kept up a busy cultural schedule even during the tight lockdowns. She has been putting together a sort of a Covid Time Capsule of her own over the last year and a half and tickets to shows and concerts she attended virtually have all been stored away with the viewer postcards and articles she kept. 

Those concerts often kept Eileen company as her son Cormac moved to Barcelona with his girlfriend in January and her husband, actor Macdara Ó Fátharta is often in the West filming Ros na Rún. 

“Because they were both away, I was actually on my own for quite a bit of the last lockdown. The Little Museum of Dublin, and the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, were brilliant and were really the front runners in running virtual events. Then everyone started doing it and you could see concerts with people like Jonas Kaufmann and Renée Fleming filmed in stunning locations. Tickets were about $20 where you'd usually pay hundreds to see these people live.”

With all eyes firmly on staycations this summer Eileen is still deciding what to do. She went on a solo trip to Killarney last year and had a fantastic time walking the national parks and might go again this year. She’d also like to take her mother, who she has been bubbling with all along, on a short break and is eyeing up the Co Down coastline for that. Travelling solo is something Eileen does each year, though it’s usually to Brittany, not Kerry. 

“It’s something I started doing a few years ago.  My husband works a lot in the west and when Cormac was younger, he used to go to the Gaelteacht. We had all been to Britanny together but neither of them were as taken with it as I was so I thought ‘ok, I’m going to go on my own’, and that was it. Nobody knows me there so I can really hideaway for the week.”

When international travel opens Eileen hopes to get to Barcelona to see Cormac. Though it was hard to say goodbye she was very happy to see him leave and be able to do something new. 

“Cormac did his finals online and graduated online and all of that and that was fantastic. That got him through the first lockdown and kept him focused but he hadn't applied for any of the accounting firms or anything like that because he had always intended to travel. When things were open again after Christmas they just decided to do it and they got out before it tightened too much. I'm glad in a way because they're gainfully employed and they're having a nice time in Spain. He's lucky it has escaped the third wave that hit Italy and France. They're having a nicer time over there than they would have been here in January, February, and March.”

Eileen feels sorry for the younger generation who have sacrificed so much and have had their lives put on hold. 

“I mean even all the fuss over the scenes in town, they've been cooped up for over a year and people are saying it's easy for us now that are in our 60s and vaccinated and have a garden to sit in, but they're not vaccinated and they don't have gardens and you have to let them out somewhere. They've done their bit. In fairness, they've done their bit for us because they were never as threatened as older people were. They were sacrificing a lot to keep their families and safe and I feel now it's their time.”

As we finish our conversation, I ask Eileen if she has an eye to the future after such a busy year and if she has any plans for after she leaves RTE. 

“No, not really. I'll have to go in a couple of years whether I like it or not. Since I turned 60, I can go. I wouldn't have a full pension but I can officially go. That's a nice place to be in your head. If the notion takes me, I can leave. Something will tip me and I'll make a decision. I might have thought about going a couple of years ago but I would say now, I'm glad I didn't because I'm glad that I was working through this.”