prospective
students
Graduate
Profiles - Communications and Journalism
Every day, you are likely to encounter the
work of former graduates of DCU School of
Communications. In front of camera or behind it,
on-mike or off, on the front page or at the
editing desk, our graduates help our society
tell its stories. Many of them are the editors,
producers and directors who select those
stories. Others are the reporters,
screen-writers, publicists
and designers who shape them. Below are just a
sample of the varied, fascinating career paths
that our graduates have followed.
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A lucky break in her INTRA work placement
secured
Helen O'Rahilly, B.A. in
Communication Studies, a researcher job on RTE's main current affairs programme Today
Tonight and, on graduation, RTE hired her.
In 1988, after 2 years, she left RTE and
joined BBC in Birmingham. During this time,
she trained as a film director both at the
BBC and at independent TV companies such as
Diverse and Clark in London. Helen joined
the features department of the BBC in London
in 1992 to work on Watchdog. From 1993 she
worked her way up to be a producer, series
producer, deputy editor and finally editor
of the series in 1997. By 1999
she was running 78 live shows a year for BBC
One and in June 1999,
after 11 years in Britain, Helen returned to
RTE as director of TV. A year later, in
March 2000, the BBC headhunted her for a
creative directorship, running the factual
content for its new digital TV channels. In
October 2001 she was promoted to channels
executive for BBC TV senior management. Custer's Last Stand Up, the
BBC/RTE children's drama co-production she
commissioned while director of TV at RTE, won
a BAFTA award in 2002 - the first academy
award for an RTE-associated programme. |
Noel Curran,
B.A. in Communication Studies,
was appointed managing director of
television at RTÉ in September 2003, with
responsibility for all programming areas of
television. Noel joined RTÉ in 1992 and
during his time in RTÉ, he has worked as a
reporter, producer and editor and most
recently as the editor of current affairs in
the news division. While editor of current
affairs, Noel and his team won many awards,
including two IFTA awards for ‘Cardinal
Secrets’ and ‘Food for Thought’.
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Caroline Morahan, BA in
Communication Studies, is currently
presenting the RTE 1 fashion programme, Off
the Rails. She previously presented a quiz
show for Network 2 called the Fame Game. Her work on the Fame Game
involved preparing her scripts and
interviewing all the contestants and guests
to be featured on the show. The recording
schedule was hectic with the series
(twenty-three shows) recorded in six days.
At Off the Rails, Caroline works to a
three-week schedule where the items recorded
on week one appear on television on week
three. She spends half her week filming and
the other half preparing scripts and
researching. Caroline has been working as
the Evening Herald fashion correspondent and
social diarist for the last two years but
she has taken a sabbatical from the paper
while she adjusts to her
role with Off the Rails. |
Popular Irish comedian Ardal O'Hanlon's
first introduction to prolific comic
scriptwriting was the mock election campaign
he and other budding stars, Barry Murphy,
Kevin Gildea and Dermot Carmody, ran for the
students’ union presidency while studying Communication Studies
at DCU. In 1994, he won the coveted title of
“Comedy Newcomer of the Year" for his
ground-breaking performances as the hapless
Father Dougal in acclaimed comedy series,
"Father Ted". He currently stars in the BBC
series, "My Hero", in which he plays a
mild-mannered shopkeeper, who can transform
into an unlikely superhero known as
Thermoman. Ardal has also appeared on stage
at the Gate Theatre in “See You Next
Tuesday,” the dramatised English version of
an original French film, and he is currently
working on a book provisionally titled
“Ragweed,” which follows his first
successful venture into fictional writing,
“Talk Of The Town,” which was published in
1998. |
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Ciara
Fitzpatrick, BA in Communication Studies, is
currently a producer for Sky Television. Ciara
devises enhanced TV programming and strategy for the
Sky Network - from David Blaine interactive to the
Simpsons awards, as well as consulting externally on
interactive TV projects such as Big Brother and
Graham Norton. Previously, she won ‘Best Site Revamp
of the Year Award’ from Online Tech News for her
work in reshaping the online offering for O2. Ciara
worked on the inception of interactive TV at ITV
Digital, managing promotions for the interactive
division. Before this, she looked after events and
promotions for Hot Press Magazine.
Kevin Brannigan, BA in
Communication Studies, is managing director of
Learning Ireland, an educational publishing company
that produces web-based information about adult
education, evening classes and further learning in
Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK. Web sites
include Nightcourses.com, Daycourses.com and
CorporateTraining.ie. The company also produces the
national guides to nightcourses, third level
education and corporate training, the top selling
courses guides each year. Learning Ireland also
operates The National Education Database, which
lists details of over 22,000 courses run around the
country. Kevin instructs in radio broadcasting and
media studies at The Dublin Media Centre, and
regularly writes about broadcasting issues in
Ireland for ‘Radio World’ and ‘The Radio Magazine’.
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As
Director of Radio at RTE,
Journalism graduate Helen
Shaw has responsibility for
Radio 1, 2FM and Radio na Gaeltachta,
and was instrumental in the
establishment of classical music
station Lyric FM. And all this
despite being told by one of her
lecturers that she didn't have a
voice for radio. Showing their
entrepreneurial spirit, she and some
former classmates set up a news
agency called Copyright. Later Helen
worked for The Irish Times in
Belfast as a reporter before
returning to Dublin in 1988 to take
up a post with RTE as a producer. As
her radio career began to blossom,
Helen retraced her steps and
returned to Belfast to work for the
BBC. She moved up the ladder and
into a management position but
returned to Dublin in 1997 to become
RTE's Director of Radio. |
Journalism graduate, Matt
Cooper became the youngest
editor of a national newspaper in
Ireland when he took over at the
Sunday Tribune in 1996 aged just 30.
His career started with a placement
on Business & Finance magazine
where, together with Susan O'Keeffe
(who was to break the story on
Granada television that led to the
establishment of the Beef Tribunal)
Cooper became one of the small team
which helped O'Toole and three of
her journalistic colleagues to
launch the Sunday Business Post.
Three hectic years later he left
reluctantly for the Irish
Independent and took up the
appointment as business editor,
where his business news stories
elbowed their way onto the front
page, such as the 1993 story on the
Greencore sell-off. Matt became
Editor of The Sunday Tribune in
1996, and was awarded the ESB
National Media Awards Journalist of
the Year 2001. Matt currently
presents the drive-time favourite,
The Last Word, on Today FM.
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Journalism graduate, Beatrice Murail
is a senior producer with the French for
Africa section of the BBC World Service in
London. Beatrice joined BBC Monitoring in
1993 as a sub-editor and later worked as a
broadcast journalist on the Africa desk at
BBC News Online. She received the 2003
United Nations Correspondents’ Association
award, in the broadcast category, for a
series of programmes on refugees. |
Among the other noted journalists who have graduated
from DCU are:
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Seán Potts, deputy sports editor with the
Evening Herald
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Aideen Sheehan, is agriculture and food
correspondent with the Irish Independent
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Shane Coleman, political correspondent for
The Sunday Tribune
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Sylvia Thompson,
Features Writer with The Irish Times
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Aidan Fitzmaurice, sports journalist with
the Evening Herald
- Arthur Beesley,
finance reporter with The Irish Times
- David Murphy,
Deputy Business Editor with the Irish
Independent
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Vincent Wall,
editorial consultant for Business & Finance
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Alan Soughley,
editorial executive with Fintel Publications
- Rory Carroll,
Baghdad Correspondent, The Guardian
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Tom Lyons,
financial reporter with the Irish Independent
Ruth
Croke, Film and Television
Studies graduate, is the global PR and
marketing manager for IDA Ireland, based in
New York. She is responsible for IDA’s
international branding, promotion and media
relations in the US, Asia and Europe. Over
the last four years, she has developed a
vibrant marketing campaign promoting Ireland
as a location for foreign investment. Ruth
won the 2003 Creativity Award of Distinction
in New York for her last advertising
campaign for IDA. She has written a number
of articles on Ireland and has been
interviewed by many leading publications in
America on Ireland’s economic development.
Ruth is currently undertaking the global
marketing campaign for IDA’s new strategy,
based on the theme of ‘Knowledge – is in our
Nature’. Prior to this post with IDA in New
York, she worked for BBC Television in
London. |
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