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Jacqui Hurley (born 15 January 1984, in County Cork) is a sports broadcaster and chat show host employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland's national radio and television station, where she is a regular sports news presenter on RTÉ News and has co-presented Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1 since February 2009.[1] Hurley has played at the highest Irish level in the sports of basketball and camogie and currently manages the Irish under-16 girls basketball team.

Jacqui Hurley
Born	Jacqueline Hurley (1984-01-15) 15 January 1984 (age 38) County Cork, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Education	Media and Communications
Alma mater	Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
Occupation	Sports broadcaster
Employer	Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)
Spouse	Shane McMahon
Children	2
Website	Jackie Sports Blog

Early years

Hurley grew up in Australia in the 1980s.[2] She is the daughter of David and Mairead Hurley and sister of Catriona and Sean.[3] She played basketball for Ireland and camogie for Cork and has since taken on a management role with the Irish under-16 female basketball team.[2] She is a sports enthusiast.[1] She graduated from Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in 2006 with a degree in Media and Communication Studies.[4] She has webbed toes, a feature of her anatomy which she has openly discussed on radio.[5] She was paralysed for several days when she was 17 due to a sports accident after she and another player crashed into each other.[6]

Career

Television

Hurley initially spent some time as an intern with CBS Television in Mississippi, United States.[2] She also worked in local radio before joining RTÉ in 2006.[1][2] She was only supposed to stay with CBS for eight months but she remained for a year, developing her love of sports broadcasting.[2]

Hurley's RTÉ television work includes reports for the sports magazine OB Sport,[7] a Friday preview slot on the daytime chat show Seoige,[8] the weekly "60 Sixty" segment on the League of Ireland magazine programme Monday Night Soccer aired on RTÉ Two, where she questions a different footballer each week for sixty seconds.[9]

Hurley has presented the sports quiz show Know The Score on RTE since November 2016.

Radio

Hurley started working for Limerick's Live 95fm in Limerick after her time in college, where she covered Munster's 2006 Heineken Cup win for the station. On 18 October 2018 while speaking on Limericks Live 95 FM, Joe Nash asked Des Cahill how Jacqui Hurley was getting on. Joe Nash made reference to the fact Jacqui Hurley has a soft spot for Limerick. Joe Nash is owner/presenter of Limericks Live 95FM, the station where Jacqui Hurley worked in the early 2000s.[1]

She often appeared on The Colm & Jim-Jim Breakfast Show on RTÉ 2fm where her sports blog was a regular feature.[1]

In early 2009, Hurley took over as the co-presenter of Sunday Sport alongside Con Murphy on RTÉ Radio 1.[2] In doing so she made history as the first ever female presenter in the 40-year history of Sunday Sport at the age of 25.[1] She writes the "Jacqui's Week" column for Sunday Sport.[10]

Writing

Hurley's first book, Girls Play Too: Inspiring Stories of Irish Sportswomen, was published by Merrion Press in September 2020. An illustrated children's book, Girls Play Too celebrates some of Ireland's top contemporary female athletes.[11]

Personal life

She lives in Dublin with her husband, Shane McMahon. They have two children, Luke and Lily.[12][13] In August 2011, she and Dublin footballers Eamonn Fennell and Eoghan O'Gara launched the Tomás Mulligan Memorial Cycle, an annual event held in aid of suicide crisis centre Pieta House.[14] Her brother Seán was killed in a car crash at the age of 25 on 30 November 2011.[15][16]

References

External links

• Jacqui's Sports Blog
• Jacqui's Week at Sunday Sport
• Jacqui Hurley at Facebook
• Jacqui Hurley's closing thoughts on London 2012

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