“I always had an interest in journalism when I was young, but with it doesn’t always come job stability. My careers teacher at Tullamore College advised me to study something broader than journalism just in case, and she was right. I loved history and politics, so I studied that in Galway and did my first work experience in the newsroom at Radio 3. I loved that. It was great to start with a local radio station because the staff were thin on the ground, and everyone had to muck in. In the early 90s, I moved to the UK. Work was relatively rare in Ireland at the time, and there was more opportunity to get experience in London. I was there about a year when a job opportunity came up back in Radio 3, and I applied for it and came home. People told me I was mad. Those days you only went one way. You left Ireland; you didn’t come back. However, there was never a job that I said, “Wow, I love this”, when I was in London. This was a job I loved. In any job, you need to be doing it to know this is the career that you want to do. Journalism is hard work. It’s long hours and unpredictable. People can sometimes have a very idealised view of it, thinking it’s all very glamorous. I was two years on Radio 3 when I spotted an ad for a new TV station. I had no TV experience, but I threw in a cv and got a job with TV3 a month before it went on air. I started as an assistant editor, working on the news desk. TV3 was the TV version of Radio 3 at the time, so again everyone had to get stuck in. “I’ve never done this before” was not an excuse! I worked at anything and everything, from doing reports to even presenting bulletins during the day if there was nobody else to do it. My first time presenting was terrifying. The good thing was that it was usually midday bulletins with about six people watching!

I worked at TV3 for two years when I got a job at RTE. In Ireland, RTE is where you want to end up, but when you get there, you have to figure out what bits of it you want to be in and what you want to do. I was largely behind the scenes until four and a half years ago, which I was more than happy with. I’m not big at being on camera because it terrifies me. But when the London job came up, I thought that was the only job I ever wanted in RTE, and I just had to go for it.

I always had a huge interest in British politics and was forever reading about it. When you go for a job interview, you must prepare for it and read all about it. I realised I was doing a lot of that already. It always makes it much easier if you’re interested in doing something. If you don’t, you’re done for real.

If I had known what London would hold, I might not have gone for the interview, but it has been a hell of four and a half years and an amazing time to be there.

You could be somewhere for four years and might never get to cover a general election or a change in a political leader.

In the time I have been the London correspondent for RTE, there have been three major terrorist attacks, the Grenfell Tower fire, a Brexit referendum, two general elections, and the Skripal poisoning!

It has been one story after another before you even get to the general stuff, so it’s been busy!

By the time I finish up in London, it will be five years, and it will have been the most incredible five years. I can say that without knowing what the next few months will even bring! I feel so lucky, and it has been an absolute honour”.

Fiona Mitchell,

London Correspondent, RTE.