Paul O'Flynn (born 12 January 1985) is an Irish journalist employed by

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

, Ireland's national radio and television station, where he currently works as a news and sport presenter for

RTÉ News RTÉ News and Current Affairs (), also known simply as RTÉ News (''Nuacht RTÉ''), is the national news service provided by Irish public broadcaster (RTÉ). Its services include local, national, European and international news, investigative ...

Career

O'Flynn often uses creative means to tell his stories to viewers, such as slurping noodles for a broadcast during the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

. He was filmed diving into the sea at

Sandycove Sandycove () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is southeast of Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, and northwest of Dalkey. It is a popular seaside resort and is well known for its bathing place, the Forty Foot, which in the past was reserved for m ...

Forty Foot The Forty Foot () is a promontory on the southern tip of Dublin Bay at Sandycove, County Dublin, Ireland, from which people have been swimming in the Irish Sea all year round for some 250 years. * * Name The name "Forty Foot" is somewhat ob ...

on 20 May 2020 in a news report about government

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

restrictions on public swimming being eased, with the footage being broadcast at 1 pm that afternoon then being pulled when

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council () is the local authority of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that succeeded the former Dublin County Council on its abolition on 1 January 1994 a ...

told RTÉ it was "promoting a prohibited act". O'Flynn has been involved in swimming since he was four years of age, won the 2018 Liffey Swim and is also a

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

enthusiast. He has membership of the Half Moon Swimming Club.

Personal life

O'Flynn graduated from

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

with a BA in journalism and an MA in

International Relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

. He is married to Mary Regan, who also works for RTÉ News. They have two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OFlynn, Paul Irish male swimmers Irish male water polo players RTÉ newsreaders and journalists Living people 1985 births Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Dublin City University 21st-century Irish sportsmen