It was the end of an era when Eileen Dunne said goodbye for the final time on the Nine O’Clock News.
After 42 years with RTÉ she said goodbye in 2022 but she’s been keeping busy since then.
She appeared on Dancing with the Stars and she’s no stranger to the Platinum VIP Style Awards red carpet, where we catch up with her this year…
How are you keeping?
I’m very well, thank you, yeah.
You must be having a nice relaxing time for you.
Well-ish. I’m busy enough, but I keep saying to people, it’s my busy. I’m doing some media training, I’m on a couple of boards and stuff like that and I’m chair of the Kennedy Summer School.
Do you miss doing the news?
I have to say, the first time I really missed it was in the last few weeks when the Pope died and the Conclave happened, because the previous two times, I was in Rome. So, yeah I missed that a bit.
But was it nice to sit back and watch it?
It was nice, I was actually over in Boston and Toronto and Newstalk were there, so I ended up doing a bit on Newstalk.
You can’t keep away from it! Ciara Doherty, who just left Virgin Media, said it doesn’t matter if you’re away from it, you’re a news addict. Do you think that’s true?
Oh totally, I mean the reason Ciaran Cuddihy said to me, well can you take a question on the conclave? And I said yeah because you don’t stop following and looking at the intricacies and all that kind of thing. So yeah.
You are truly an icon. You must have so many people telling you that they grew up watching you on the news.
Yeah, sure! The interesting thing I say to people now, by the time I left, people were saying to me not only was my mother a fan, but my granny was a fan. Then I went on Dancing with the Stars, and that brought a whole new audience of people coming up with their children. ‘Can we have selfies? They’re watching you on Dancing with the Stars’. So that was really interesting too.
Any plans for the summer? Are you getting any travel in?
Well, I go back to France. I missed it last year. I go to a little spot in Brittany so I’m planning to go there for a couple of weeks and just chill. Yeah, but then I have the Kennedy Summer School at the end of August, so I don’t want to be away for too long.
Do you keep up your French?
Yeah, I studied it, I taught it. I was president of the European Journalists Association for a few years, so I keep it up.
Check out all our winners at this year’s Platinum VIP Style Awards here. Take a look at the red carpet style here.
