Gráinne Seoige (; born 5 November 1973) is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

journalist, news anchor and documentary and entertainment television presenter. A noted Irish language supporter, Seoige is the only television personality to have worked with all four

terrestrial television stations—

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 ...

, TV3,

RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís ...

and

RTÉ2 RTÉ2 is an Television in the Republic of Ireland, Irish free-to-air television channel operated by public service broadcaster RTÉ. It was launched in 1978 as the Republic of Ireland's second television channel. History In the 1970s, the Iri ...

—and to have read the inaugural news bulletins on three separate channels—TG4, TV3, and Sky News Ireland.

Early life

The eldest of four children, Seoige was born in

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 ...

to Philomena and Mairtín Seoige. Gráinne's youngest sibling, her sister Síle, is also a television presenter. Gráinne was raised in Galway and attended Mercy Convent, Spiddal , before studying at

University College 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 ...

(UCG) and graduating 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 English, Sociology and Political Science. Seoige then went on to complete a Higher Diploma in Applied Communications for Television and Radio through Irish, also at UCG.

Broadcasting career

TG4/TV3

Seoige began her broadcasting career on Halloween, 31 October 1996, with the launch of Teilifís na Gaeilge (now

) anchoring the 10pm news bulletin with Gillian Ní Cheallaigh. She stayed at TG4 until 1998, when she was asked to be launch anchor with independent broadcaster TV3 and presented TV3's '' 5:30pm News'' (also known as '' First Edition'') and '' 6:30pm News'' with Alan Cantwell. Seoige also hosted ''News Tonight'', as well as producing, writing and presenting news updates throughout the day. She also presented occasionally, Ireland's only breakfast programme, TV3's breakfast show ''Ireland AM''. Seoige was on air when the 9/11 terror attack happened and anchored over 7 hours of live news coverage alone that day.

Sky News

Seoige was head hunted to move to

Sky News Ireland Sky News Ireland was a programming block on Sky News broadcast in Ireland. It was a separate feed from the UK and international versions of Sky News. Sky News Ireland was broadcast from its studios in Dublin. The service was also available in th ...

and presented its news bulletins from 10 May 2004. She presented bulletins at Sky News headquarters anchoring on every programme between 12 midnight and 12 noon.

RTÉ

Seoige joined Ireland's main national broadcaster, RTÉ, in 2006. From 2006 to 2009, she co-presented an afternoon chat show, ''Seoige'' (also known as ''Seoige and O'Shea''), with her sister Síle, while from 2011 to 2016 she co-presented the series ''Crimecall''. Other high-profile roles for her at RTÉ included hosting the People of the Year Awards (2008), co-presenting the ''Up for the Match'' sport specials (2008), and presenting '' The All Ireland Talent Show'' (2009-2011) and the sports quiz show, ''Put 'Em Under Pressure''. Seoige also fronted documentary series for RTÉ, including ''Gráinne Seoige's Modern Life'' (2011) and ''Great Irish Journeys'', which explored Ireland during the Great Famine. A fluent Irish speaker, Seoige often appears on ''Tell Me a Story'', a programme on the subsidiary children's channel RTÉjr, in which she tells stories in

. In 2022, Seoige appeared on the fifth series of the Irish version of ''Dancing With the Stars''. She was partnered with John Nolan. The couple ended up finishing in 8th place.

ITV

During 2010, Seoige appeared regularly on British channel ITV, as a presenter on breakfast programme GMTV and as features editor on ITV Breakfast's morning programme '' Daybreak''.Daybreaking news!
GMTV, 20 July 2010 She covered both national and international news.

BBC One

In 2011, she appeared on the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

series ''That's Britain'' covering issues including train overcrowding and energy prices.

Personal life

Seoige has a son, Conall, who was born when she was 20. In 2002, Seoige married former TV3 colleague and long-term partner Stephen Cullinane; they divorced in 2010. Seoige was honoured by NUI Galway in 2007 with an Alumni Award for her services to the Irish language. Seoige announced her engagement to South African businessman and former rugby coach Leon Jordaan in 2014. In 2016, Seoige relocated to

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, and launched a bespoke diamond dealing business. Seoige and Jordaan married in December 2019.

References

;Interviews
Appearance
on ''

Tubridy Tonight ''Tubridy Tonight'' is a talk show hosted by Ryan Tubridy that aired on RTÉ One for five seasons between 2004 and 2009. The programme featured guest interviews (usually three per show), audience participation and live music from both a guest mu ...

'' following move to RTÉ
"Seoige talks Talent and Late Late Shows"
– RTÉ Entertainment

– RTÉ Fashion

External links

Official UK website

Gráinne Seoige
on Twitter *
Yahoo! Group Fan club
*

''Seoige and O'Shea'', RTÉ {{DEFAULTSORT:Seoige, Grainne 1973 births Living people Alumni of the University of Galway Ireland AM hosts Irish expatriates in England Irish expatriates in South Africa Irish television journalists ITV Breakfast presenters and reporters People from County Galway RTÉ television presenters TG4 newsreaders and journalists The Panel (Irish TV series) presenters Virgin Media News newsreaders and journalists 20th-century Irish people 21st-century Irish people