The ground floor meeting room at RTÉ HQ filled up quickly.
Attendees brought additional chairs from other offices and found space around a long conference table.
The room was at capacity and so too was the Zoom meeting on a big screen that allowed 100 more staff members to join virtually.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) had called the emergency meeting the day before following revelations of undisclosed payments to Ryan Tubridy.
Those who spoke at the meeting used words such as disgraceful, devastated, ashamed and betrayed.
They described tight budgets, broken equipment and staff shortages in the RTÉ departments in which they work.
One woman spoke about low-paid colleagues struggling to pay their rent. Another described not being able to receive sick-pay due to her employment status at RTÉ.
A journalist outlined how, earlier that day, two interviewees had pushed back in the face of tough questioning and made reference to the payments controversy.
Others described how members of the public had raised the issue while they were going about their day's work.
At one point, heads turned and looked through the glass panels of the meeting room to the adjoining corridor where two members of senior management were walking by.
But being within earshot of the bosses did not silence the expressions of frustration, annoyance and disappointment as staff members recalled previous pay cuts and departed colleagues who did not have their contracts renewed.
Emma O Kelly, Chair of the Dublin Broadcasting Branch of the NUJ, said the meeting was the largest held in recent memory at RTÉ and that members are devastated to see the hard-earned goodwill of the public undermined by the controversy.
"We will continue to do our jobs to the best of our ability, and that includes holding RTÉ to the same standards that the public expects of any publicly funded body," Ms O Kelly said.
After the meeting, the union passed a motion demanding answers about who signed off on the payments and who knew about them.
Members called for those responsible to be held to account and asked for the scope of the independent inquiry into the matter to be widened.
"We also want an end to what members see as a culture of secrecy surrounding pay, pensions and perks at the organisation," the NUJ said in a statement.
