Eimear Ní Chonaola (; born 1977) is an Irish journalist and television presenter from

Spiddal Spiddal ( ga, An Spidéal , meaning 'the hospital') is a village on the shore of Galway Bay in County Galway, Ireland. It is west of Galway city, on the R336 road. It is on the eastern side of the county's Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) an ...

, County Galway. Since 2006, Ní Chonaola has been the news anchor on

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

's main evening news broadcast ''

Nuacht TG4 ''Nuacht TG4'' (; Irish for ''TG4 News'') is a daily half-hour Irish TV news programme. It is broadcast on weekday evenings at 7pm, live from the studios of TG4 in Baile na hAbhann, County Galway. A shortened edition of the programme is broadc ...

'' and ''

Nuacht RTÉ Nuacht RTÉ le TG4 (Irish for ''RTÉ and TG4 News'') is the main news service for Irish speakers on RTÉ television. The service is broadcast from the news studios at Baile na hAbhann in the Connemara Gaeltacht, County Galway, Ireland.a Nuach ...

''.

Life

Early life

Ní Chonaola was born in an Síán in the Gaeltacht town of

. A native Irish speaker, she graduated from

NUI Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1997 and a Higher Diploma in Applied Communication in 1998.

Journalistic career

Ní Chonaola was part of the Nuacht TG4 team from the beginning, joining the newsroom as a journalist in October 2000. In 2001, she began presenting for the first time, beginning with the shorter weekend bulletins. She took over as main anchor from Siún Nic Gearailt on 25 September 2006. Ní Chonaola chaired the first ever election debate in Irish on 16 February 2011, when she hosted one of the official debates of the

2011 Irish general election The 2011 Irish general election took place on Friday 25 February to elect 166 Teachtaí Dála across 43 constituencies to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas. The Dáil was dissolved and the general electi ...

. The high-profile debate not only brought greater exposure, but her performance as chairperson of the three-way discussion between

Enda Kenny Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition from ...

Eamon Gilmore Eamonn or Éamon or Eamon may refer to: * Eamonn (given name), an Irish male given name * Eamon (singer) (born 1983), American R&B singer-songwriter and harmonicist * ''Eamon'' (video game), a 1980 computer role-playing game for the Apple II *"Éam ...

and

Micheál Martin Micheál Martin (; born 1 August 1960) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who is serving as Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence since December 2022. He served as Taoiseach from 2020 to 2022 and has been Leader of ...

was widely credited in the national press. The debate was a big ratings win for TG4, with around 600,000 people watching live. Eimear Ní Chonaola took home three Oireachtas Awards as a result.

Irish language support

Ní Chonaola appeared on '' The Late Late Show'' on 4 March 2011, along with

Coman Goggins Coman Goggins is a former Gaelic footballer who played for the Dublin county football team, Dublin county team, winning an All Star, from the Ballinteer St. Johns GAA, Ballinteer St Johns club. He went to school in Coláiste Eoin, Stillorgan. ...

and Róisín Ní Chúaláin to promote Seachtain na Gaeilge. As part of Seachtain na Gaeilge 2012, she launched a business initiative along with Gaillimh le Gaeilge.

Personal life

Ní Chonaola has a son, Cuan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ni Chonaola, Eimear 1977 births Living people Alumni of the University of Galway People from County Galway TG4 newsreaders and journalists 20th-century Irish people 21st-century Irish people