Olivia O’Leary

Olivia O’Leary is a journalist, writer and current affairs presenter.

In the late 1970’s she began working for The Irish Times as parliamentary sketch writer. In 1972 she joined RTÉ as a current affairs presenter and later worked as a presenter on ‘Today Tonight’, ‘Questions and Answers’, and ‘Prime Time’. She presented the BBC’s current affairs programme, ‘Newsnight’ and also ‘First Tuesday’, a monthly documentary strand produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV.

Olivia won three Jacob’s Awards during her broadcasting career with RTÉ.

Her first came in 1973 for her work as a radio news reporter. In 1982, she won her second Jacob’s Award for her hosting of ‘Today Tonight’. Her chairing of ‘Questions and Answers’ brought her a third award in 1986. She has also won a Sony Award for her BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Between Ourselves’.

She has co-authored the book ‘Mary Robinson: The Authorised Biography’, with Dr. Helen Burke, and has published two books of her radio columns on Irish politics: ‘Politicians and Other Animals’, and ‘Party Animals’. Olivia has also presented RTE’s ‘The Poetry Programme’.