Fionnuala Sweeney

Fionnuala Sweeney /fɪˈnuːlə/ (born 1965) is an Irish anchorwoman and reporter for CNN International. An anchor and correspondent based at the network's headquarters in Atlanta, Sweeney is currently anchoring CNN Newsroom as well as serving as the primary substitute at the International Desk. She is known around Europe as the host of Eurovision Song Contest 1993 from Millstreet, County Cork.

Early life and education

Sweeney was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1965, where she lived with her family until she was 12, when they moved to Dublin.^[1] Sweeney studied at St. Dominic's High School, before moving to Dublin, where she was a pupil at Alexandra College.^[2] She graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and History and a Higher Diploma in Education at the University College Dublin.^[3] Sweeney was also a music student at the School of Music, in Belfast, and later at Royal Irish Academy of Music, in Dublin, and studied Speech and Drama in Belfast, finishing her studies at the Betty Ann Norton School of Speech and Drama, in Dublin.^[4]

Career

Radio

Sweeney's career in broadcasting began as newscaster on Chris Cary's Energy Power 103 FM in 1986, a "Superpirate" in Dublin where she was a co-presenter on "Wake Up With Energy" along with Pat Courtenay and Bob Gallico.^[5] Sweeney's on air name at Energy was "Lisa Moore".^[6] In 1988 she left Energy to work as a newcaster at RTÉ 2FM.^[7]

Television journalism

While working as a television journalist at RTÉ, Sweeney became famous in Europe as the host of the 38th 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, which was seen by 350 million people.^[8][9] A few months later, she moved to CNN, where she worked as a producer and anchor at CNN International Headquarters in Atlanta, before becoming a full-time anchor and relocating to London (where she anchored World One).^[7] She later revealed that the Eurovision role hadn't helped her to get the position, as CNN viewed the awards as "entertainment and not journalism."^[10]

In 2002, she was named the anchor of Your World Today.^[11] She also anchored World One, World News Europe and International Correspondents, before returning to Atlanta to host CNN Newsroom as well as serving as the primary substitute on The International Desk.^[7][12][13]

Over the course of her career, she has reported extensively from the Middle East, including Abu Dhabi, Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.^{[14][15][16][17]} In Europe, she provided coverage of the Good Friday Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland, as well as the subsequent elections.^[18][19] She provided special coverage from Eastern Europe commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.^[20] She has also covered the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal, the resignation of Tony Blair and the 2005 London bombings.^[21][22][23] She has also interviewed a range of political figures including Tony Blair, Shimon Peres, Saeb Erakat and James Wolfensohn.^{[24][25][26][27]}

Awards

In 2006, Sweeney anchored and reported from Haifa during the Israel-Hezbollah war, for which CNN received an Edward R. Murrow Award.^[28][29] In 2012, she was part of the news team that won an Emmy 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.^[30] The coverage also won the network a Peabody Award.^[31][32] The same year she 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.^[33]

See also

• List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters

References

External links

• CNN Bio page
• Fionnuala Sweeney at imdb
• CNN's World One

Preceded by Harald Treutiger & Lydia Cappolicchio	Eurovision Song Contest presenter 1993	Succeeded by Gerry Ryan & Cynthia Ní Mhurchú