Background
Ella McSweeney grew up in Ireland.
Ella McSweeney grew up in Ireland.
She graduated from Trinity College, Dublin and is a post graduate student in food policy at City University, London. She graduated with a first-class honours degree in science - specialising in zoology - from Trinity College, Dublin. McSweeney studied science at Trinity College, Dublin, specialising in zoology.
She has worked for British Broadcasting Corporation, RTÉ (Ireland"s national broadcaster) and the Guardian newspaper. Radio She began working for RTÉ Radio in 2000, producing Future Tense and Nature"s Web. She then spent three years at British Broadcasting Corporation radio, television and online media in Belfast and London before returning to RTÉ in 2004.
She presented and produced a number of RTÉ series, including The Green Light, Farm Week, RTÉ"s Big Science Debate, as well as science documentaries for Raidió Teilifís Éireann"s Documentary on One slot.
From 2004 to 2007, McSweeney travelled around rural Ireland recording her wildlife and walking series Shanks Mare. She also made the marine series Into the Deep, and the award-winning science series Mind Matters.
She has reported for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4"s Farming Today and also the British Broadcasting Corporation Food Programme. In 2013 she presented a British Broadcasting Corporation World Service documentary on vertical farming and in 2015 she went to Kentucky to make a radio documentary on Wendell Berry which was broadcast on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4.
Television Journalism McSweeney has written for the Guardian, Irish Times, Irish Examiner and other publications.
In 2015, she was part of a Guardian team which published a year-long investigation into the use of migrant workers in the Irish fishing industry.