Born in Dublin, Orla Guerin decided to pursue her career in reporting without knowing what journalism and journalists look like. She said her choice to become a journalist was out of her instincts as she had no one in her family whom she could look up to, not even her parents.
In 2005, Orla opened up about how she became a journalist with the Press Gazette and mentioned that her parents, in fact, her whole family, had no connection with the field.
She said, “I had never seen a journalist, much less a newsroom, when I decided that reporting was the path I should follow in life. There were no journalists in my family, so there was no example to follow.”
Without anyone in her family assisting the young Orla, she discovered her path on her own, which, of course, surprised her parents. She began researching journalism but initially got the wrong idea about the profession.
She said, “I loved English lessons and had a misguided idea that writing would be a key part of this job. In fact, I’ve found that journalism (especially in foreign news) is 50% traveling, 40% hanging around, and 10% frenetic activity.”
Despite that, she began writing for several publications while still in school. In 1990, she was appointed to the Irish State broadcaster, RTE, which helped her to grasp the ground in her broadcasting career.
Orla, an Irish journalist, is now a senior international correspondent for the BBC, covering worldwide news of war zones, domestic violence, and many others. In fact, as a brave journalist, Orla is more likely to have become a voice for the voiceless, and now people recognize her mostly for her bravery.
Lately, Orla Guerin mainly reported on the Israel-Gaza war, where she explored people’s suffering of losing their loved ones. In January, she covered the news of grieving Ukrainian parents that seems to have touched the soul of numerous avid readers as Orla presented it as it is, with brutal honesty. So, what it was all about?
Orla Guerin’s coverage of the agony of Ukrainian parents losing their daughters in the Russian invasion touched the humanitarian soul
On January 3, 2024, BBC Published Orla’s article “Ukraine war: They sang of victory-then a Russian rocket struck.”
It covered the story of the suffering of the parents of two Zaporizhzhia natives, 18-year-old Svitlana Siemieikina and 21-year-old Kristina Spitsyna, who died after a Russian rocket struck over them.
The two talented girls who aspired to become singers lost their lives just twenty minutes after they sang a well-known Ukrainian song, Winning The War.
Their instant death turned to profound agony for their parents as they somewhere regretted that if their daughters hadn’t reached to playground at the time, they would have survived.
Kristina’s mother, Halyna Spitsyna, said, “What if the girls had not gone to the playground? What if they had stayed on the street?”
With tears in her eyes, Halyna elaborated, “You don’t know what plans to make for tomorrow, “Sometimes you can smile, but then you remember that she can’t smile anymore. It is as if you are dead, but you can speak.”
Svitlana’s father, Yurii Siemieikin, expressed the same grief saying that the rocket attack in which his daughter and her friend became lifeless resonated throughout the city.
He stated, “How is it possible in the 21st Century, to do something like this, completely unprovoked? The Russians will never be forgiven.”
After all this, it’s no wonder how Orla’s covered news echoed through human hearts and touched their soul after all parents lost their children untimely, mainly due to human cruelty, which is the hardest thing that they have ever gone through.
FAQs
Are Veronica and Orla Guerin related?
Journalists Veronica and Orla Guerin are not related by blood. But they share the same nationality, as both are from Dublin, Ireland.
Who is the news reporter Orla?
The news reporter, Orla, is a Dublin native currently working as a senior correspondent for BBC News broadcasting.
How old is Orla Guerin?
Born on May 15, 1966, Orla Guerin is currently 57 years old.
