Graduation: Niamh's big break with Sky News

Sky News producer Niamh Green credits inspirational women for propelling her into the exciting world of broadcasting.

Graduating today from the MA in Journalism, the 27-year-old from County Kerry says her three main lecturers – Fran, Christy and Polly - were each “successful women from different areas of the industry” who pushed her to be always better.

“It wasn’t just academically but in general, they kept driving me forward.”

It was senior lecturer Polly Sharpe – a former editor at BBC Breakfast – who made the break for Niamh, putting her in contact with Sky European correspondent Siobhan Robbins, who invited her to Berlin to work alongside her team for a few days.

“When I later applied to Sky, it was that experience in Berlin which I believe, made the difference and I was offered the role,” she says.

Inspired by a profession

A keen writer as a teenager, Niamh loved poetry – a love partly instilled in her by her English teacher Ms Costelloe, but a couple of incidents opened her yearning to journalism.

“One morning before school I saw foreign correspondent Alex Crawford interviewing girls who were about to undergo FGM in Somalia. That clip always stuck with me. More impressing was seeing the movie Spotlight, in which investigative journalists uncover the extent of the child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.  

“I went to the cinema with my mom and grandmother, and when the film ended, the whole room sat in silence for the length of the credits without moving. I left the cinema knowing I wanted to be like those journalists.”

Admiration

Niamh, who studied languages as a first degree, is currently working as a text producer at Sky News in London.

“I’m enjoying the job so far, it’s exciting to be in a bustling newsroom at the heart of live, rolling news, watching and learning from journalists I admire, and hope to be like one day.

“I’m delighted I came to LJMU. I learned a huge amount with support at every point – in a great city with even better people. I’m in the career I’ve always wanted and have made wonderful friends.” 

Niamh is pictured with Head of Journalism, Fran Yeoman.

Today at graduation

Niamh was among more than 600 graduates who received awards at Liverpool Cathedral today.

Today’s graduates were from:

• The School of Education
• Liverpool Business School
• Liverpool School of Art and Creative Industries
• The School of Humanities and Social Science