Meet RTÉ News’ Newest Presenter

Irish-Iraqi Reem El-Hassany announced as RTÉ news2day presenter

This autumn, first time television presenter Reem El-Hassany from Limerick is the newest addition to the news2day team. news2day is RTÉ’s news service designed specifically for children, featuring Irish and international news of interest to a young audience.

Following a call out to media and journalism graduates across the country, and a comprehensive audition process, Reem was chosen to join the team and begins broadcasting from today, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ News.

Reem was born in Iraq but has lived in Limerick since she was a baby when her family moved to Ireland. Reem studied her undergraduate degree in pharmacy at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. She worked as a pharmacist for a year, before deciding to move to South Korea and teach English to young children. But keen to follow her passion for journalism, she returned home to Limerick to study a Masters in Journalism at University of Limerick. Throughout her studies, Reem always sought out journalistic opportunities, ranging from presenting a radio show in secondary school to working as a research assistant at her college’s student’s union.

Since lockdown began Reem has taken to spending a lot of her free time baking, crocheting and doing all sorts of arts and crafts. Reem’s five siblings and her young cousins are all very excited to watch her present news2day.

Reem joins news2day presenter Mícheál Ó Scannáil, from Castetown in Co. Wexford. Mícheál has been with news2day since September 2020 and this summer he worked with RTÉ Sport, reporting on the Olympics and presenting the sport news on RTÉ’s Six One News. Previously he worked for INM, where he spent two years reporting for the Irish Independent, Independent.ie and the Herald. Prior to that, the Wexford native earned a degree in Journalism from DCU and subsequently a Masters in TV and Radio Journalism from Griffith College. As well as all that, Mícheál worked on GAA podcasts for SportsJoe.ie.

Mícheál attended Gaelscoil an Inbhir Mhóir and Gorey Community School.

news2day is broadcast Monday-Friday at 4.20pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ News. In addition to young viewers tuning in at home, it is also watched online in many classrooms throughout the country and used as a teaching tool.  Watch Mícheál and Reem on RTÉ news2day here: www.rte.ie/news2day and follow them on twitter at @news2dayRTE