IRELAND
Irish Independent
By Maeve Sheehan
Sunday May 06 2012
In October 2010, the Prime Time Investigates team kicked around ideas for programmes the following spring. Aoife Kavanagh went to Brian Pairceir, the programme editor, with an idea: a show looking at Irish missionaries in Africa, in the context of an alleged clerical abuse.
She was an experienced reporter and on an upward trajectory in RTE. Originally from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, she cut her teeth on the Examiner and moved from there to RTE in 1996. She worked on the flagship morning news show, Morning Ireland, as well as covering foreign news for television, including American elections, African elections, and fronted a whole series on Ireland’s overseas development programme.
Her biography on RTE’s website describes her “passion for Africa” and her “slightly warped fondness” for the difficulties of travelling and working in hot spots.
Given her background, it wasn’t surprising that Pairceir should take her idea seriously. She hadn’t worked on Prime Time Investigates before but her record spoke for itself.
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