John Irvine

Who is John Irvine?

John Irvine is a television news journalist, and the principal ITV News overseas journalist.

Irvine was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After attending Campbell College, he went on to study journalism at the College of Business Studies, graduating in 1983. Before joining ITN in 1994, he worked for the Tyrone Constitution and UTV.

After two years as a producer, he was appointed as ITN's main Ireland Correspondent in 1996. During his time in Northern Ireland he covered the Shankill Road and Remembrance Day bombs.

In 2001 Irvine moved to the Middle East, where he was based in Jerusalem and covered the Israeli Army's occupation of Ramallah. From there he moved to Iraq to cover the 2003 Invasion. It is for this coverage that he is most well known, broadcasting nightly reports for ITV News from Baghdad during the intense aerial bombardment. Irvine won the Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year award in 2003 for his coverage of the invasion. He was the first foreign correspondent to greet the arriving US Army.

Following the war, he transferred to Bangkok, where he was ITV's Asia Correspondent.