[4] From 1999 to 2001, Paul Cunningham reported on the infection of Irish people with haemophilia, with HIV, and with Hepatitis C from contaminated blood products.
[5] He followed this up with a documentary exposing the practices of US-based drug firms that exported infected blood products to Ireland.
He followed up with reports on numerous conflicts including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Lebanon, Kosovo, Algeria, Pakistan/Afghanistan, Guatemala, Nepal, Darfur and Chad.
[10] In 2008, after Cunningham interviewed civil servant Padraig O hUiginn for the same series, Sunday Independent columnist Brendan O'Connor compared Cunningham to the hero in US television series Columbo: "seemingly awkward, nerdy and self-effacing and merely innocently asking odd questions, while all the time letting his subject reveal himself".
[12] Cunningham has worked as a reporter and producer on several TV documentaries, apart from Bad Blood, including: Kidnapped: Sharon Commins' hostage ordeal in Darfur - 2010 [19] Green Gold: Search for Ireland's Green Economy - 2010 [20] Far Away - So Close: Conflict in Guatemala - 2008 [21] Poptarts and Chemotherapy: Robbie Dillon's story - 1998[22] A Noble Failure: The Bosnian War and Irish efforts to help - 1994 Cunningham has been RTÉ's Europe Correspondent, where most of the work focused on the Eurozone debt crisis.
Other stories included Arrest and detention of former Bosnian Serb Commander Ratko Mladic,[23] the 20th anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo,[24] Greek elections,[25] Portuguese elections,[26] Ireland at the helm of the OSCE / Visit to Georgia - Abkhazia,[27] horse meat contamination problems in Poland[28] and a train crash at Santiago de Compostela.
He covered the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and resulting Fukushima I nuclear accidents in Japan for RTÉ.
[30] He had just arrived in Brussels when the disaster occurred and, not having packed enough clothes, he raided the apartment of colleague Tony Connelly, before setting off, first to Paris, then on to Tokyo.
[33] He wore the hat during a live television news report for RTÉ outside Government Buildings during the January 2010 weather emergency in Europe.