Miriam O'Callaghan – Keynote Speaker

Miriam O’Callaghan was born and raised in Dublin. She qualified as a solicitor before beginning her broadcasting career on ITV’s This is your Life. She joined the BBC as a producer in 1987, and went on to become a reporter on BBC2’s Newsnight.
In the early ‘90s Miriam returned to Ireland to present RTÉ’s current affairs flagship programme Prime Time, while continuing to cover the Northern Irish peace process for Newsnight. Despite offers to leave to present other full time shows in RTE and in other Broadcasters both here and in the UK, Miriam has always said her absolute loyalty remains to Prime Time and that’s where she will be staying.
In August 2000, Miriam co-founded Mint Productions, an independent production company that specialised in documentary.
Unusually for a current affairs presenter, Miriam was voted Best TV Personality at the Irish Film and Television Awards. To her surprise, she won the RTÉ Guide Style Award at the IFTAs following another public vote. Her Prime Time interview with Praveen Halappanavar, won the Television News Category of the Justice Media Awards.
Outside of her work on Prime Time, Miriam presents her own chat show during the summer, Saturday Night with Miriam, and a radio programme Sunday with Miriam… which won a PPI Radio Award for best Speech Driven Magazine Programme. This program is one of the Top Ten most listened to radio shows in Ireland. On January 18, 2015, she made history when the first Cabinet Minister in the history of the state, to openly admit he was a gay man, chose to do so live on her radio show. The Minister in question was Leo Varadkar.