Miriam O'Callaghan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miriam O'Callaghan (born on 1961) is a television current affairs broadcaster on Radio Telefís Éireann in Ireland.

Miriam O'Callaghan was born in Foxrock, south Dublin, the second child in a family of five. She was educated by the Sisters of Charity in Milltown, south Dublin, and studied law at University College Dublin before spending a year at Blackhall Place and working for a short time at a Dublin legal firm. She met her first husband, broadcaster and journalist Tom McGurk, while she was working as a solicitor in 1980. The couple married three years later when she was 22 years old. O'Callaghan moved to London with her new husband and secured a job as a researcher for ITV's "This is Your Life." She later moved to BBC's flagship news programme Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman.

O'Callaghan returned to Ireland in 1993 to present Marketplace for RTÉ. She juggled working with the BBC and RTÉ at the same time, but she ended up working for the Irish broadcaster exclusively and moved into the "Prime Time" slot in 1996. O'Callaghan and McGurk separated in the same year after 13 years of marriage O'Callaghan had four daughters, but separated in 1996 . She met her present husband, Steve Carson, while working for Newsnight. In 2000 the couple set up their own television company, "Mint Productions". The company has produced documentaries on the racehorse Shergar, Pádraig Pearse and most recently Charles Haughey.

In the summer of 2005 O'Callaghan presented a six-week chat show on RTÉ One. "Saturday Night With Miriam" proved to be a success, in spite of RTÉ's failure to produce quality summer programmes in recent years. The show returned for a second series on July 8, 2006. O'Callaghan still co-presents "Prime Time".