Roscommon's Cara joins RTÉ's news2day

Roscommon woman Cara McHugh is the newest addition to the RTÉ news2day team. News2day is RTÉ’s news service designed specifically for children, featuring Irish and international news of interest to a young audience.

Following a call out by RTÉ to young graduates across the country who studied or have experience in journalism and media, and a comprehensive audition process, Cara was chosen to join the team. She begins broadcasting today, Monday 31st August, on RTÉ2, RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player. The first time television presenter is 24 years old.

Cara McHugh is from Boyle, and attended Scoil na nAingeal Naofa / Abbey Primary school and then went on to secondary school in Abbey Community College. She studied English and French in UCD, where she was also involved in the student newspaper, The University Observer. After college, she was as a production runner in RTÉ before going on to work as a freelance journalist across both local and national stories for media including the Sligo Weekender newspaper, The Journal.ie and Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio. Her hobbies include reading, running, cooking, playing guitar and writing poetry. She also has a big interest in history and particularly about the West of Ireland where she grew up.

Speaking about her new presenter and reporter role, Cara said: "I am so excited to be joining the RTÉ news2day team, which reaches primary school classes from every corner of Ireland! This environment is quite full circle for me, as I have always been a keen believer in accessibility to news for all ages. Storytelling was an integral part of my youth, and to be able to do this on a national platform, sharing significant stories with children feels so important. I cannot wait to meet everybody along the road, get out and about."

Cara joins news2day presenter Cathal Dowd from Wexford. Cathal has been with news2day since September 2025.

news2day is broadcast Monday-Friday at 4.20pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ News channel. In addition to young viewers tuning in at home, news2day is also watched online on the RTÉ Player in many classrooms throughout the country and used as a teaching tool. Watch Cara and Cathal on RTÉ news2day here .