Ursula Halligan

Ursula Halligan
Ursula Halligan at the RDS in 2009
Born	1960 (age 56–57)
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	Journalist
Notable credit(s)	RTÉ Current Affairs TV3 News

Ursula Halligan is the political editor of Ireland's main independent television station, TV3.

Halligan grew up in Templeogue, Dublin. She is a Catholic. Her late brother, Professor Aidan Halligan (1957–2015), who held a number of senior leadership positions in English medicine including Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, refused the appointment in 2004 by the Irish Government as the first head of the Health Service Executive, and was "a giant in British medicine" according to the NHS Alliance. It was not until 1990 that she entered journalism. She worked at the Sunday Tribune and Vincent Browne's Magill magazine. After a period with RTÉ News and Current Affairs, she joined TV3 at its inception. In 2000, she won TV Journalist of the Year at her country's National Media Awards. She presented The Political Party, the channel's main weekend current affairs programme until the show was axed as part of wider cutbacks due to the station's financial situation, in March 2009.

On 26 December 2009, Halligan famously disclosed during a TV3 news broadcast that the then Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, Jnr had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Among those lining up to criticise her were Taoiseach Brian Cowen, senior government members and the Sunday Independent. However, she did receive support from numerous other publications and journalists, including the political bi-weekly Village magazine, Ger Colleran, editor of the Irish Daily Star tabloid and the Phoenix magazine, who stated that "If a report of the finance minister facing a serious illness while simultaneously grappling with the biggest financial crisis in the history of the state is not in the public interest then nothing is".