Dil Wickremasinghe

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Dil Wickremasinghe
Born1973 (age 51–52)
Rome, [1] Italy
OccupationBroadcaster
PartnerAnne Marie Toole
Website http://www.dilw.ie/

Dil Wickremasinghe is a broadcaster and journalist living in Ireland. She was a radio presenter with Newstalk and is a panellist on TV3's Midday programme. [1] She has also done stand-up comedy. [2]

Contents

Biography

Born in Rome to Sri Lankan parents, who rejected her at the age of 17 after she told them she was gay and she became homeless as a result. [1] [3] Her mother, a Jehovah's Witness, attempted to "cure" her of her lesbianism after she fell in love with a girl. [1] She is also a survivor of sexual abuse. [4] While in Sri Lanka, she had a job on the radio but was dismissed in a dispute over her sexual orientation. [1] [5] As well as Italy and Sri Lanka, she lived for a time in Bahrain. She moved to Ireland in 2000. [1]

She later experienced depression and received counselling from One in Four (the charity founded by Colm O'Gorman). [1] She first met her partner, the psychotherapist Anne Marie Toole, when they shared a room at a weekend mental health conference in Wicklow. [1] They started dating one month later. [1]

On 4 February 2014, she received the Lord Mayor of Dublin's Frederick Douglass Award. [4] [6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Smith, Andrea (16 March 2015). "Newstalk presenter Dil Wickremasinghe and her partner Anne Marie Toole on the joy of their first baby". Sunday Independent .
  2. ↑ McManus, D. (11 August 2013). "Dil's playful personality makes hardline topics easy listening". Sunday Independent.
  3. ↑ "An octogenarian gentleman taught me that it's never too late to come out". TheJournal.ie. 17 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 Kennedy, Jason (28 November 2014). "'I'm walking on air': Gay Newstalk presenter on her pregnancy". Irish Independent .
  5. ↑ "The Iona Institute's David Quinn has crossed the line of decency". 3 March 2015. Archived from the original on 16 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "Newstalk's Dil Wickremasinghe receives Frederick Douglass Award". 5 February 2014. Archived from the original on 16 May 2015.
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