 An alumnus of St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast and a former civil servant, Dougal's career as a journalist began at BBC Northern Ireland as a general reporter.He also worked at Ulster Television before taking up the post as Northern editor at RTÉ from 1974 to 1991.Dougal returned to BBC Northern Ireland in 1991 as the station's political editor, replacing Denis Murray upon his promotion to Ireland Correspondent for the corporation's network news bulletins.