The death has been announced of best selling author, journalist and broadcaster Deirdre Purcell. She was 77.
Early in her career, Deirdre Purcell was an actress at the Abbey Theatre, featuring in a number of productions, and later worked as an award winning print journalist and as a broadcaster with RTÉ.
She wrote for newspapers including the Sunday Tribune, where she won a journalist of the year award in 1986, and was the first female anchor of the Nine O'Clock news on RTÉ Television.
Purcell also wrote many critically and commercially acclaimed novels including Falling for a Dancer, which was adapted for television in 1998, as well as A Place of Stones, That Childhood Country, Grace In Winter and Days We Remember.
She also published a number of non fiction works, including The Time of My Life with Gay Byrne.
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Watch: Death announced of author and journalist Deirdre Purcell, via RTÉ News
She also presented It Says in the Papers for Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1, as well as All About the Music on RTÉ Lyric FM between 2009 and 2010.
Deirdre Purcell is survived by her husband, Kevin Healy and her two sons Adrian and Simon Weckler.
'We are all deeply grieving the sudden loss of Deirdre,' her family said in a statement. 'To the day before her death Deirdre was as full of plans, schemes and dreams as she always was. Deirdre made friends wherever she went and will be remembered by so many as a vibrant, clever and caring companion. The talent, vivacity and sharp mind that made her an award-winning journalist, a globally successful fiction writer and - in her youth - a talented Abbey Theatre actress, never left her. She was a force of nature and we will miss her desperately'.
