A “pioneering” editor who ran a weekly newspaper for around three decades has died aged 92.

Annie Roycroft, left, edited the County Down Spectator, based in Bangor, Northern Ireland, until she retired in 1983.

She later moved to Dublin, where she continued to receive copies of the Spectator following her retirement, and County Cork, where she died on Friday.

An obituary in the Irish News described her as “redoubtable” and a “pioneering female editor”.

While at the Spectator, Annie gave author Colin Bateman his first job, as a cub reporter aged 17, which he described as “a great training”.

Former Spectator journalist Ann-Marie Foster posted on Twitter: “Annie was Ireland’s first ever female newspaper editor and quite a character. She was a stubborn supporter of journalism and didn’t shy from saying what she thought had to be said in the paper’s ‘Opinion’ column.

“Annie was also a great supporter of her reporters and loved to reference all those who had risen from the cub ranks and then moved on to other things.”

Snnie, who outlived her husband Joe Stephens, died ae St Luke’s Home in Beaumont, Cork, on Friday.

She was buried after a funeral in nearby Blackrock last week.