RTE put Whelan in Washington post
Veteran newsman Sean can’t wait to report from Stateside
RTE has announced Sean Whelan as their new Washington correspondent.
He has held a similar role, London correspondent, for the past three years, reporting on Brexit, the pandemic and politics in the UK.
Prior to this he was RTE’S economics correspondent for almost nine years.
In his new role, Sean will be responsible for reporting for the nationals broadcaster’s TV, radio and digital platforms news services on all aspects of life in the United States.
He said: “I’m really looking forward to this posting: US politics and society is always fascinating but is particularly so right now. Ireland is literally hard wired into the US economy, so we need to keep an eye on that.
“And of course, the US role in world affairs is a vital one. The international security environment right now is challenging to say the least
– no better place to observe it from than Washington DC. I suspect
I’m going to be busy.”
Sean joined RTE
News in 1991 and has worked as a radio reporter on Morning Ireland and a reporter/presenter on This Week and World Report.
He joined the foreign desk in TV news in 1994 and reported on the war in Bosnia. Later as Deputy Foreign Editor he reported from the conflict in Kosovo,
the attempted impeachment of Bill Clinton in Washington, and the return of Hong Kong
to China in 1997. He spent a decade as Europe editor, based in Brussels, filing stories from every state of the EU.
He was also heavily involved in RTE’S coverage of the Lisbon Treaty referendums.
A history and politics graduate from UCD, Sean also has postgraduate diplomas in Journalism from NIHE (now DCU) and accounting and finance from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants..
He started his career in journalism in the mid-80s as a freelance feature writer with Magill Magazine and the Irish Independent, before moving to London, where he worked as a reporter on the weekly business newspaper M-arketing.