Bio

 

98 FM Broadcaster and Documentary-Maker Alison O’Reilly is from Drogheda Co. Louth.

She began her career in 1996 after graduating from a three year diploma course at Colaiste Dhulaigh in Dublin. In that same year she moved to London and took up a position as Production Co-ordinator with MTV.

During her three years with the company she worked as a Producer on five MTV Europe Music Awards in London, Milan, Rotterdam, Dublin and Paris.

In 1998 Alison returned to Ireland to work as News Production Co-ordinator for TV3 and stayed with the company for two years.

In 2001 she decided to pursue her life long dream of working in the developing world. Alison began focusing on several ideas for TV documentaries before joining INN as a radio news journalist in 2002.

Her first film Midnight’s Lost Child tells the story of the 200,000 street children living in Calcutta. Alison travelled to India in February 2004 for six weeks to make her documentary.

It was short-listed and screened at the Galway Film Festival in 2006 and Alison also picked up the award for Best Human Rights Director at the 2008 Women’s Film Festival in San Francisco.

Upon her return she took up a TV Reporter’s role at Sky News in Dublin.

Over the next three years she specialised in human interest stories and was first to interview chronic heroin addict Rachael Keogh. The 27 year old hit the headlines in 2006 when doctors warned that her arms would be amputated if she didn’t stop using drugs.

Alison worked with Rachael over a period of ten months following her slow and turbulent progress through detox and rehab. My Heroin Hell, Rachael’s Story was aired on Sky News in March 2007 and received rave reviews. It was short-listed and screened at the 2007 Boston Film Festival.

She also travelled to Ethiopia in 2007 to produce a radio documentary on Irish Aid and how it benefits people in the developing world. The half hour programme tells the story of three people whose lives have been dramatically altered because of Irish aid.

‘My Tax Goes Where?’ was aired on 11 radio stations across Ireland.

In December 2007 Alison directed her third TV documentary ‘My Way Back, Rachael’s Story’. The half-hour programme featured an update on Rachael Keogh, who is now studying at Trinity College, writing her autobiography and preparing for the birth of her first child.

Alison’s fourth documentary ‘Who Will Love My Children’ is well underway and tells the story of an Irish woman who was wrongly accused of sexually abusing her eight children. The one hour programme has been commissioned by Sky Real Lives Britain and is due to air later in the year.

Alison anchors 98FM’s evening talk show in Dublin The Inbox, Mon-Thurs 8-10pm.

Awards

 

Midnights Lost Child

 

Winner of the Best Human Rights Director at the 2008 Woman’s Film Festival in San Francisco