Fionnuala Sweeney ( , ; born 1965) is an Irish anchorwoman and reporter. Based at CNN's headquarters in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and at CNN London, Fionnuala was also the solo host of the

Eurovision Song Contest 1993 The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 15 May 1993 at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ), and pr ...

from Millstreet,

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

Early life and education

Fionnuala was born in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

in 1965, where she lived until she was 12, before moving to

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. She graduated with an Honours bachelor's degree in English and History and a Higher Diploma in Education from

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

Career

Radio

Fionnuala's career in broadcasting began as newscaster on Chris Cary's Energy Power 103 FM in 1987, a "Superpirate" in Dublin where she was a co-presenter on "Wake Up With Energy" along with Pat Courtenay and Bob Gallico. In 1988 she left Energy to work as a newscaster at RTÉ 2FM before becoming a television reporter with RTÉ news. In early 2018, she returned to the RTÉ airwaves to co-present the political commentary show Late Debate ww.rte.ie/radio1/latedebate on RTÉ Radio 1 at 10pm.RTÉ Radio 1 adds Sarah McInerney and Fionnuala Sweeney to new daily roster
The Irish Times, Wed, Jan 24, 2018

Television journalism

While a television journalist at RTÉ, Fionnuala was the sole host of the 38th

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

in 1993. She then moved to

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, where she was an anchor at CNN Headquarters in

, before relocating with CNN to London where she anchored World News Europe (and briefly ''World One''), regularly traveling on assignment as a reporter to the Middle East and Europe. She also hosted Design 360, a program looking at the creative process, the social context, the business perspective and the influence of design throughout and beyond Europe. In 2002, she was named the anchor of ''Your World Today''. and, in addition, anchored ''International Correspondents'', a weekly behind the scenes look at the stories making global news, before returning to Atlanta to host ''CNN Newsroom'' and serving as the primary substitute on ''The International Desk''.

Awards

In 2006, Sweeney anchored and reported from

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

during the Israel-Hezbollah war, for which CNN received an Edward R. Murrow Award. In 2012, she was part of the news team that won an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

in the Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story – Long Form category at the 33rd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards for the 2011 broadcast ''CNN Breaking News: Revolution in Egypt – President Mubarak Steps Down''. The coverage also won the network a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

. The same year she was part of the team nominated for another Emmy in the same category for the 2011 broadcast ''CNN Breaking News: Libya Revolution – Rebels Enter Tripoli and Gadhafi Compound''.

References

External links

CNN Bio page
*
CNN's World One
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Fionnuala 1965 births 20th-century Irish women writers 21st-century Irish women writers Living people Irish women television presenters Alumni of University College Dublin Alumni of the Royal Irish Academy of Music Irish reporters and correspondents People educated at Alexandra College CNN people Television personalities from Dublin (city) 20th-century Irish journalists 21st-century Irish journalists Writers from Belfast Writers from Dublin (city)