Mark Simpson is a journalist who served as

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's Ireland Correspondent from 2008 to 2013.

Career

Simpson began his journalistic career at a series of Northern Irish newspapers – the ''

News Letter The ''News Letter'' is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in September 1737. The ...

'', ''

The Irish News ''The Irish News'' is a Compact (newspaper), compact daily newspaper based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's largest-selling morning newspaper and is available throughout Ireland. It is broadly Irish nationalist in its viewp ...

'', and the ''

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media, which also publishes the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and various other newspapers and magazines in Ireland. Its e ...

'' – after graduating in 1988 from

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

with a degree in History and Politics. He joined the BBC in 1998 as a political correspondent. He was nominated as Television News Broadcaster of the Year at the BT UK Regional Press and Broadcast Awards 2000. In 2005 he moved to

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, England to the position of North of England Correspondent, where he reported for the national BBC News, including Shannon Matthews' disappearance and later discovery. In 2008, he then returned to

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 ...

where he attained the position of Ireland Correspondent, taking over from Denis Murray.

Personal life

He was born in 1968, and is from

Helen's Bay Helen's Bay is a village on the northern coast of County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the townland of Ballygrot (), between Holywood, County Down, Holywood, Crawfordsburn and Bangor, County Down, Bangor. It is served by a Helen's Bay rai ...

, Bangor,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

. He now lives with his family in

Holywood Holy Wood or Holywood may refer to: Places * Holywood, County Down, a town and townland in Northern Ireland ** Holywood, County Down (civil parish), a civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland ** Holywood railway station (Northern Ireland) ...

, County Down. He has three daughters.

References

External links

* BBC newsreaders and journalists Living people Male journalists from Northern Ireland Year of birth missing (living people) Belfast Telegraph people Belfast News Letter people The Irish News people 20th-century journalists from Northern Ireland 21st-century journalists from Northern Ireland {{UK-journalist-stub