Doyle recalls RTÉ suspension that led to news blackout
FORMER news anchor Anne Doyle has recalled the time she was suspended from RTÉ – triggering a four-week virtual news blackout at the national broadcaster.
Ms Doyle, 72, became a household name after anchoring RTÉ News for more than three decades until her retirement from the State broadcaster in 2011. She has recently reflected on her time with RTÉ during a podcast conversation with her former colleague Mary Kennedy and former president Mary McAleese.
Her suspension in February 1992 came when she and other RTÉ reporters had been asked by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) not to hinder a strike by outside camera crews, over their terms and conditions. She found herself facing a camera being operated by a senior manager and asked him if he was breaking the Siptu strike action.
When he agreed that he was, she said she could not read the news and walked out – before being marched into a meeting with the late Rory O’Connor, managing editor of RTÉ News.
She said: ‘You were supposed to go in and do the bulletin and a management crew, or a “wannabe” management crew in some cases, would run the desk – so you didn’t [during a strike].
‘I was suspended twice and the third time, technically I’m not sure if I was or not, because I was summoned in by the then-director of news. He was a man who didn’t care for me, nor I for him.
She continued: ‘I was standing there and it was quarter to one and I was thinking: “You better get this over with.” I said to him: “I assume you want to suspend me before one o’clock.” He said: “Hmmm.” I said: “Right!”’
Former NUJ Irish secretary Eoin Ronayne told the Irish Daily Mail he remembered the day well, as he was working in the newsroom. He said that by the next day, all the NUJ journalists, plus the Siptu clerical and technical workers, went out on a strike which lasted for four weeks.
Big names such as Pat Kenny and Gay Byrne joined the strike, which led to a bitter divide between workers and some senior management. Ms Doyle sought to play down the incident when talking to the Mail yesterday. ‘It just happened to be me who was next in line,’ she said. ‘It was standard practice for everybody to go out on strike.’