He went on a scholarship to the University of Freiburg, and spent a year as a stagiaire to the United Nations in New York City.
Notably, he interviewed Conor Cruise O'Brien in the immediate aftermath of the Congo Crisis, on the strength of which he recruited by The Irish Times.
His father William Pyle MRIA was an academic in the English Department in Trinity College Dublin.
In 1967, he opened the Belfast office of The Irish Times, and then opened the Paris office in 1971 prior to Ireland's entry into the Common Market, when he moved to Brussels in 1973.
He took over editorship of the paper in 1974 and remained until 1977 when he left to become Information Officer at Trinity College, Dublin.