Paul Cunningham
NationalityIrish
Alma materUniversity College Dublin
OccupationJournalist
Notable credit(s)Europe Correspondent (2011 onwards), then Political Correspondent, RTÉ News and Current Affairs

Paul Cunningham is an Irish journalist and author. He is currently Political Correspondent for RTÉ News.[1] He has regularly reported on conflicts, natural disasters and other matters outside the EU. Most recently he reported from Iran, Ukraine and Iraq.[2][3] He has won multiple awards for his work. Cunningham has also written two books, including Ireland's Burning.

Career

Early career

Cunningham started to write articles for local newspapers in Dublin, before freelancing with The Irish Times and The Irish Press. Quickly he began to pick up freelance shifts on RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ 2FM as a sub-editor and news-reader. After 2 years, he was appointed to the RTÉ Newsroom as a reporter.[4]

Lindsay Tribunal

From 1999 to 2001, Paul Cunningham reported on the infection of Irish people with haemophilia, with HIV, and with Hepatitis C from contaminated blood products. In recognition, he won "National Radio Journalist of the Year" in the ESB National Media Awards in 2000.[5] He followed this up with a documentary exposing the practices of US-based drug firms that exported infected blood products to Ireland. The programme, Bad Blood, won an Irish Film and Television Award.[6] He co-wrote a book, with Rosemary Daly, on the impact of contaminated blood products called A Case of Bad Blood for Poolbeg Press.[7]

Foreign coverage

Cunningham has reported extensively from abroad. His first assignment was on the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He followed up with reports on numerous conflicts including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Lebanon, Kosovo, Algeria, Pakistan/Afghanistan, Guatemala, Nepal, Darfur and Chad. He has also reported on flooding in Mozambique and New Orleans; racism in South Africa; and Chile post-dictatorship.

Presenter

Cunningham has been a stand-in radio news presenter over many years for programmes such as Morning Ireland, News At One and This Week.[8] He is a regular presenter / editor of European Parliament Report.[9] In 2007, he presented an edition of RTÉ's current affairs interview programme One to One, in which he interviewed award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh.[10] In 2008, after Cunningham interviewed civil servant Padraig O hUiginn for the same series, Sunday Independent columnist Brendan O'Connor compared Cunningham to the hero in US television series Columbo: "seemingly awkward, nerdy and self-effacing and merely innocently asking odd questions, while all the time letting his subject reveal himself".[11]

Environment correspondent

As RTÉ's Environment Correspondent, between 2001 and 2010, Cunningham regularly reported on climate change.[12] In October 2006, he reported and blogged on the melting of glaciers in Greenland for RTÉ.[13] In 2008 Cunningham travelled to Chad to film a series of reports on the country for RTÉ.[14] Cunningham covered the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference for RTÉ.[15][16] He also reported from the UNFCCC meetings in Bali (2007) and Montreal (2005).[17]

Cunningham is the author of the book Ireland's Burning,[18] which was published in 2008.[12] It features interviews with Irish people concerned about the environment, including weatherman Gerald Fleming, journalist Kevin Myers and Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government John Gormley.[12]

Documentary work

Cunningham has worked as a reporter and producer on several TV documentaries, apart from Bad Blood, including:

Kidnapped: Sharon Commins' hostage ordeal in Darfur - 2010 [19]

Green Gold: Search for Ireland's Green Economy - 2010 [20]

Far Away - So Close: Conflict in Guatemala - 2008 [21]

Poptarts and Chemotherapy: Robbie Dillon's story - 1998[22]

A Noble Failure: The Bosnian War and Irish efforts to help - 1994

Europe correspondent

Cunningham has been RTÉ's Europe Correspondent, where most of the work focused on the Eurozone debt crisis. Other stories included Arrest and detention of former Bosnian Serb Commander Ratko Mladic,[23] the 20th anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo,[24] Greek elections,[25] Portuguese elections,[26] Ireland at the helm of the OSCE / Visit to Georgia - Abkhazia,[27] horse meat contamination problems in Poland[28] and a train crash at Santiago de Compostela.[29]

However, he also reports on matters beyond the EU. He covered the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and resulting Fukushima I nuclear accidents in Japan for RTÉ.[30] He had just arrived in Brussels when the disaster occurred and, not having packed enough clothes, he raided the apartment of colleague Tony Connelly, before setting off, first to Paris, then on to Tokyo.[31]

In 2014 he broadcast a series of reports from Iran, as the provisional nuclear deal with the West came into operation.[32]

Political correspondent

He is currently Political Correspondent for RTÉ News and Current Affairs.[1]

Hat

In January 2010 Cunningham became known for his choice of hat which, according to the journalist himself via Twitter, is from "Pakistan's tribal areas".[33] He wore the hat during a live television news report for RTÉ outside Government Buildings during the January 2010 weather emergency in Europe.[33] The hat has been described variously as a "woolly pancake", an "Aran Smurf’s hat" and "stylish, in a French pastry kind of way".[33] A Facebook group dedicated to the hat had more than one thousand fans within hours of the hat's television debut.[33] Observers noted that Cunningham's hat did indeed resemble a pakul, a traditional men's hat worn in the Chitral and Gilgit regions of Pakistan. Some of these fans met up outside Government Buildings wearing their own hats in a similar manner.[33] RTÉ.ie even referenced the hat in their own weather updates.[34] The hat was auctioned for GOAL on radio programme Mooney on 21 January 2010 to raise funds for the 2010 Haiti earthquake appeal: the hat was purchased after some "frenzied bidding" for €570 by a member of "We love Paul Cunningham's winter hat" Facebook society.[35][36] Cunningham had responded after Derek Mooney said he would auction his own jumper on air.[37]

References

  1. 1 2 Cunningham, Paul (18 May 2019). "Greens gain as two polls released ahead of elections". RTÉ News. Retrieved 19 May 2019. By Paul Cunningham, Political Correspondent
  2. ↑ "RTÉ". Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  3. ↑ "Hotel Ukraine 'is now an emergency ward' - RTÉ's Paul Cunningham". RTÉ News. 20 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "Paul Cunningham". Eolas Magazine. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "Winners of media awards". The Irish Times. 11 November 2000. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
  6. ↑ "IFTA Awards - Nominees and Winners 2003". IFTN. 22 January 2003. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
  7. ↑ "A Case of Bad Blood". Alibris. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
  8. ↑ "Paul Cunningham - Conference Chairman". Public Relations Institute of Ireland. 15 April 2011. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  9. ↑ "European Parliament Report". RTÉ News. 15 December 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  10. ↑ "One to One – Seymour Hersh". RTÉ. 5 November 2007. Archived from the original on 11 May 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
  11. ↑ Brendan O'Connor (6 July 2008). "Rare insight into a public sector laid bare by naked civil servant". Sunday Independent. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  12. 1 2 3 Maeve Dineen (28 June 2008). "Off to environmental hell in a handcart". Irish Independent. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
  13. ↑ "Greenland: Ground Zero of Global Warming". RTÉ. October 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  14. ↑ "Chad: Africa's forgotten crisis". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  15. ↑ "Climate data emails overshadowing Copenhagen". RTÉ. 6 December 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  16. ↑ "Push for agreement at Copenhagen climate talks". RTÉ. 17 December 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  17. ↑ "Climate Change". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 8 December 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  18. ↑ "Climate Change". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
  19. ↑ "Prime Time Special - Kidnapped". RTÉ News. 21 December 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  20. ↑ "Green Gold? In search of Ireland's Green Economy". New Decade. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  21. ↑ "Far Away Up Close - About the show". RTÉ One. Archived from the original on 2 May 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  22. ↑ "Robbie Dillon: A Short Biography". Archived from the original on 3 August 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  23. ↑ "Ratko Mladic called to account at The Hague". RTÉ News. 16 May 2012. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  24. ↑ "Paul Cunningham reports on the 20th anniversary of the 1992 seige [sic] of Sarajevo". RTÉ News. 4 April 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  25. ↑ "Paul Cunningham on the latest from Greece's parliamentary election". RTÉ News. 7 May 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  26. ↑ "Portugal to get change of government". RTÉ News. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  27. ↑ "Eamon Gilmore at the helm of the OSCE". RTÉ News. 15 June 2012. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  28. ↑ "RTÉ Prime Time report: a Polish perspective on the horse meat scandal". Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  29. ↑ Paul Cunningham [@RTENewsPaulC] (26 July 2013). "Mayor of #Santiago de Compostela prepare for minutes silence from victims of train crash" (Tweet). Retrieved 29 January 2014 – via Twitter.
  30. ↑ "Growing numbers leaving Tokyo". RTÉ. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  31. ↑ "Fukushima disaster - 10 years on from Japan's 'wave from hell'". 11 March 2021.
  32. ↑ "Digital Revolution challenges Islamic Revolution in Iran". RTÉ News. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 Fiona McCann (12 January 2009). "Wardrobes for radio". The Irish Times. Retrieved 13 January 2010. Take Paul Cunningham's hat (pictured). Last week he appeared on an RTÉ news report wearing what has been described as a "woolly pancake", an "Aran Smurf's hat" and "stylish, in a French pastry kind of way" during an online discussion. A Facebook page appeared, dedicated to the accessory in question. [...] Cunningham responded to the hat mania on Twitter with the news that his coveted head cover came from "Pakistan's tribal areas".
  34. ↑ "LIVE - Weather & transport updates". RTÉ. 8 January 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 11.22am If you must venture out today, be sure to wrap up warm just as RTÉ's Paul Cunningham and Mary Calpin did last night.
  35. ↑ "Paul Cunningham's hat auctioned for Goal". RTÉ. 22 January 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  36. ↑ Sinéad Gleeson (29 January 2010). "Ways of giving". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 January 2010. RTÉ faces have contributed personal items to an eBay auction and there was frenzied bidding for the now legendary "big freeze" hat worn by RTÉ environment correspondent Paul Cunningham (above) – going on to raise €570, and Ryan Tubridy's Late Late Toy Show jumper earned a whopping €1,050.
  37. ↑ Claire Murphy (22 January 2010). "Silly hat is raising cash for Haiti". Evening Herald. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
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