Home and Away has aired the final episode for Irene Roberts until early next year, as the character heads to rehab, where she’s expected to remain for a number of months.

Lynne McGranger, who has played Irene since 1993, has spent the past few months performing as Liz in new comedy musical ‘The Grandparents Club’, which opened in late May and toured theatres in NSW, ACT and Victoria until earlier this week.

“(I’ll be going for) just a little while, not leaving anything permanently,” Lynne revealed on Seven’s The Morning Show earlier this year.

To facilitate Lynne’s break from the show, producers developed a storyline arc which saw recovering alcoholic Irene fall off the wagon for the first time in 9 years.

Irene’s troubles began when Bronte Langford (Stefanie Caccamo) was uncovered as a con artist, who had already successfully scammed the residents of two other towns out of thousands of dollars before turning her attention to Summer Bay.

Bronte arrived in the bay after meeting Irene at a hospital in the city, where Irene was undergoing a routine health check. Bronte befriended Irene before explaining that she was dying of an autoimmune disease, and had exhausted all treatment options.

While Bronte kept the details light, Irene fell for her story and invited her back to Summer Bay to stay with her, Dana (Ally Harris) and Harper (Jessica Redmayne) at the beach house.

Before long, Irene had introduced Bronte to her closest friends, all of whom fell for her story too. Bronte soon revealed that there was only one potential option to cure her – an experimental and very expensive treatment in Canada.

Bronte insisted that there was no way she could afford it, and Irene decided to make it her mission to raise the funds.

When Xander (Luke Van Os) suggested they set up an online crowdfunding campaign, Bronte’s plan was beginning to fall into place. Sure enough, within days the money began rolling in.

Then, when the diner was revealed as the source of a number of residents falling sick, Bronte’s luck really came in. A customer began taking legal action against the diner, suing them for $50,000.

Her eyes lighting up, Bronte then told Irene that she too had been poisoned by the diner’s contaminated water supply, prompting Irene to suggest that Bronte herself should sue the diner for the hefty sum, safe in the knowledge that the business’s insurance would cover it.

Unfortunately for Irene, the insurance company refused to cover the claim as the business had previously been advised to inspect their plumbing, but had failed to do so. Suddenly, Irene faced the prospect of stumping up the cash herself, and set about remortgaging her house.

Throughout the ordeal, the only person who didn’t believe Bronte’s story was Dana. The experienced nurse noticed how vague Bronte was about her autoimmune disease, and how she always made an excuse to leave whenever anyone asked any questions.

Dana managed to persuade Bree (Juliet Godwin) to risk her career by looking up Bronte’s medical record on the computer system at Northern Districts, and Bree soon confirmed that there was nobody with Bronte’s name registered as a patient at any hospital in the state.

Knowing that Dana was onto her, Bronte enlisted the help of her accomplice Chase (Joshua Mehmet) and the pair kidnapped Dana, locking her in a shipping container in a remote area.

It was John (Shane Withington) and Xander to the rescue as they spotted Bronte driving Irene’s car out of the bay, which piqued their curiosity.

They followed her to the remote location, where they stumbled across Dana, who had managed to escape the container and was on the run from Bronte and Chase. John called the police, and it wasn’t long until Bronte and her accomplice were behind bars.

While everything quickly resolved itself, with everyone being returned the money they’d donated to Bronte’s ‘treatment,’ Irene couldn’t get over the fact that her naivety led to her friends nearly being scammed out of thousands of dollars.

Bronte dug the knife in further by calling Irene a stupid old woman during their final encounter at the police station.

Struggling to cope with her grief and embarrassment, it wasn’t long until Irene considered turning back to alcohol to help numb the pain.

The first time that she considered it, she made an urgent call to a helpline and took a long walk along the beach. She was talked back from the brink and threw away the bottle of whiskey she’d bought, remorseful for even considering it.

However, when a well-meaning John (Shane Withington) called around the following morning, putting his foot in it by telling that Xander was the one suffering at the moment, she asked him to leave and she finally succumbed to the bottle.

Leah (Ada Nicodemou) and Marilyn (Emily Symons) noticed Irene was a bit out of sorts when she eventually showed up for work, making numerous sarcastic comments towards them.

But it was a later outburst at Dana, who she called pathetic for always playing the victim and punishing Xander, that caused real concern.