Donna Traynor

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title: "Donna Traynor" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["alumni-of-dublin-city-university", "bbc-newsreaders-and-journalists", "irish-television-presenters", "irish-women-journalists", "irish-women-television-presenters", "living-people", "people-from-lisburn", "1960s-births", "broadcasters-from-county-dublin", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)"] description: "Irish television journalist" topic_path: "society/education" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Traynor" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Irish television journalist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Donna Traynor
image	Donna_Traynor.jpg
image_size	135x195
birth_name	Donna Traynor
birth_date
birth_place	Lisburn, County Antrim
nationality	Irish
known_for	BBC Newsline
Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)
occupation	Broadcaster, journalist
spouse
::

| name = Donna Traynor | image = Donna_Traynor.jpg | image_size = 135x195 | caption = | birth_name = Donna Traynor | birth_date = | birth_place = Lisburn, County Antrim | nationality = Irish | known_for = BBC Newsline Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) | occupation = Broadcaster, journalist | spouse =

Donna Traynor (born October 1964) is a journalist and broadcaster in Northern Ireland. She is best known as the former main anchor of BBC Newsline.

Early life and education

Traynor was born in Lisburn to Kathleen and Gerry Traynor; her family moved to Dublin when she was a child. She has three sisters. Educated at Loreto Convent, Bray, she studied journalism at NIHE, now Dublin City University, and in Preston, Lancashire.

Broadcasting career

Traynor has been nominated twice by the Royal Television Society awards for the Presenter of the Year category. She began her career in broadcasting at RTÉ in Dublin.

Traynor joined the BBC in 1989. She presented news bulletins on BBC Radio Ulster, and was on air when news broke of the Provisional IRA ceasefire in August 1994. Around this time, Traynor began reading television news bulletins, and was later promoted to the position of main anchor on BBC Newsline.

In addition to her news work, Traynor also presented Country Times, various educational programmes and coverage of the Balmoral Show for BBC Northern Ireland, along with local coverage of Children in Need.

On 15 November 2021, it was announced that Traynor had resigned from BBC Northern Ireland with immediate effect after 33 years at the corporation. Claiming discrimination on grounds of age, sex and disability, she brought the case before the employment tribunal against BBC Northern Ireland and its then news director (later director), Adam Smyth. The suit was settled without admission of liability in June 2023.

Personal life

Traynor is deaf in one ear. The couple live in south Belfast. In April 2022, Traynor and her husband announced the sudden death of Traynor's mother.

References

References

1. "WWW.BUSINESSNI.TV LIMITED people - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
2. (21 April 2008). "Meet The Team - Donna Traynor". BBC NI.
3. (26 June 2007). "'Actually, I'm a better nurse than I thought I'd be'". Media Huis.
4. (15 November 2021). "Donna Traynor resigns from BBC Northern Ireland". BBC News.
5. Robbie Meredith. (2 June 2023). "Donna Traynor's BBC employment tribunal case settled". BBC News.
6. (2 June 2023). "'We wish Donna all the best' – BBC NI boss Adam Smyth reacts as employment case settled". Belfast Telegraph.
7. (2021-11-16). "Donna Traynor's broadcasting career so far as presenter quits BBC NI".
8. "Former BBC presenter Donna Traynor mourns death of her mother Kathleen". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::