Ursula Halligan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ursula Halligan
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Ursula Halligan at the RDS in 2009
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| Born | 1960 (age 64–65) |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | Journalist |
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Notable credit(s)
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RTÉ Current Affairs TV3 News |
Ursula Halligan is a well-known Irish journalist. She was the political editor for TV3, which is a major independent television station in Ireland. As a political editor, her job was to report on government and political news.
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Early Life and Career
Ursula Halligan grew up in Templeogue, a part of Dublin, Ireland. She is a Catholic. Her brother, Aidan Halligan, was a respected doctor in England. He was even the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England.
Ursula started her journalism career in 1990. She worked for newspapers and magazines like the Sunday Tribune and Magill.
Joining TV3 and Awards
After working for RTÉ News and Current Affairs, Ursula joined TV3 when it first started. In 2000, she won the TV Journalist of the Year award. This was a big honor in Ireland's National Media Awards.
She used to host a show called The Political Party. This was TV3's main weekend show about current events. The show ended in March 2009 because of financial cutbacks at the station.
Key Reporting Moments
Ursula Halligan was known for her important reports on Irish politics. She often covered big news stories that affected the country.
Reporting on the Minister for Finance
On December 26, 2009, Ursula Halligan reported a significant piece of news during a TV3 broadcast. She announced that Brian Lenihan Jnr, who was the Minister for Finance at the time, had been diagnosed with a serious illness.
This report caused a lot of discussion. Some people, including the Taoiseach (Ireland's Prime Minister) Brian Cowen, criticized her. However, many other journalists and publications supported her. They believed that the public had a right to know about the health of a key government official during a major financial crisis.
Covering Political Parties
In September 2011, Ursula presented a three-part TV series. This series looked at the history of Fianna Fáil, a major political party in Ireland. The series explored how the party rose to power and then lost many seats in the general election that happened earlier that year.
Incident with the Taoiseach
In July 2012, Ursula Halligan was involved in a notable incident with the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. She asked him a question about his views on a certain topic outside the National Library. During this interaction, the Taoiseach accidentally bumped into a flowerpot.
Afterward, a government press secretary complained about Ursula to her bosses. However, many witnesses, including other journalists, said that one of Kenny's political advisers had aggressively pushed past Ursula. Some even said that Ursula might have been the one who was pushed. This event became known as "flowergate" because of the flowerpot.
