Charlie Bird
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| Charlie Bird | |
| Born | 9 September 1949 Sandymount, Dublin, Ireland |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Irish |
| Education | Sandymount High School |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Employer | Radio Telefís Éireann |
Charles "Charlie" Bird (Irish language: Searlás Ó Héin - born 9 September 1949) is an Irish journalist and broadcaster. He is currently the Washington Correspondent with RTÉ News.
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[edit] Early life
Bird was born in Sandymount, Dublin in 1949. He was educated at Sandymount High School but left before he completed his Leaving Certificate. After working with pirate radio stations Bird joined the RTÉ newsroom in the late 1970s after several years as a successful researcher in RTÉ current affairs programmes, and since then has covered most of the major domestic and international stories of the last quarter century.
In the late 1960s, Bird took an active interest in far left politics, being a member of Young Socialists.
In this role, along with Tariq Ali of the International Marxist Group, he attended the funeral of Peter Graham of Saor Éire (1967-1975) who was assassinated on 25 October 1971 in an internecine dispute. A photograph of the funeral shows Ali and Bird giving a clenched fist salute at the grave.[1]. Charlie Bird was recruited into RTÉ by Eoghan Harris in the mid 1970s. [1]
[edit] Career
For many years in the 1990s Bird was the only point of contact between RTÉ and the Provisional IRA. He witnessed at first hand the ceasefires and the subsequent twists and turns of the peace process. In 1998, Bird and his colleague George Lee broke the National Irish Bank story.
On the international front, Bird reported on both Gulf Wars and was the only Irish journalist in Syria for the release of Brian Keenan. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin in 2002.
Bird was attacked during the Dublin Riots of 25 February 2006, suffering a fractured cheekbone, soft tissue damage and bruising.[2] He later spoke of his personal experience - and of the way the attackers knew who he was and called him an "Orange Bastard" - on RTÉ News broadcasts later that evening. His attack was witnessed by Sunday Independent journalist Daniel McConnell who reported on the event the next day. Bird's appearance on the six o'clock news was criticised by the Sunday Times in its edition the following day, as it felt "Bird makes himself the story". In 2008 a man pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assaulting Charlie Bird.[2]
In recent times he has gone on televised excursions to the Amazon, Ganges, and the Arctic. A signature feature of these programmes has been Bird's elevation of mundane events (the discovery of insects in his tent, for example, or the act of shooting a tin can with a rifle), to emotionally charged, heroic moments of personal discovery, with unintentionally humorous results.
On 7 October 2008 it was announced he was to take up the post of RTE's Washington correspondent.[3] His first report as Washington correspondent was on RTÉ News: Nine News about US Airways Flight 1549.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Ireland on Sunday, 1 October 2006
- ^ a b Man gets 4 years for 'Love Ulster' assault on reporter, Irish Times, 8 March 2008
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1008/1223335466197.html
- ^ http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0115/9news.html
[edit] External links
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