The Irish Times won eight prizes at the Irish Journalism Awards in Dublin this afternoon with investigative reporter Conor Gallagher, columnist Fintan O’Toole and international affairs journalist Hannah McCarthy among the winners.
Fionnán Sheehan of The Irish Independent was named Journalist of the Year and also took awards in the political reporting and scoop categories.
The Irish Farmers’ Journal won a prize in the video journalism category, with the Sunday Independent’s Niamh Horan and the Irish Mail on Sunday’s Michael O’Farrell also among the winners for showbiz and business journalism respectively.
The Herald won Headline of the Year for its “The Late Late Troy Show” effort alongside a photograph of Troy Parrott’s winning goal against Hungary.
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The Ticket was named Magazine of the Year, with the award accepted by culture editor Liam Stebbing, books editor Martin Doyle, and production editor John Lane.
Philip Watson was named Arts Journalist and Critic of the Year while London Correspondent Mark Paul won Features Journalist of the year. McCarthy was recognised for her Foreign Coverage from countries including Cuba, Palestine and Guatemala.
The paper’s immersive storytelling team, represented at the event by Gallagher, Paddy Logue and Rachel Lavin won in the Digital Innovation category, while Malachy Clerkin was again named as the Broadsheet Sports Journalist of the Year.
Gallagher was praised by the judges for his painstaking investigative work into how alumina from a Limerick refinery enters Russia’s weapons supply chain, while O’Toole was recognised as Columnist of the Year for work on subjects including the disregard of Government policy on private medicine in public hospitals shown by the Rotunda Hospital as well as analysis of the implications of the fuel protest movement.
Clerkin won for work that included interviews with Kellie Harrington in which he revealed she would be coming out of retirement to fight again and Ciara Mageean in which she spoke movingly of receiving her cancer diagnosis.
Mark Paul won features journalist of the year for work including an interview with a 100-year-old man in London.
Commenting on the paper’s successes at the awards, Editor of The Irish Times, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic said “the eight awards are a pleasing affirmation of The Irish Times’s pre-eminent place in Irish journalism. They recognise our journalists’ great writing, our digital creativity and our major investment in high-value investigations and foreign coverage.
“The quality of shortlisted work across all titles is a reminder that, despite the commercial and legal pressures facing news publishers, Irish journalists are producing outstanding work that holds the powerful to account and provides an essential public good for society.”
Speaking at the awards, Ann Marie Lenihan, chief executive of NewsBrands Ireland, said “a strong, independent news publishing industry is essential to a healthy democracy”.
“It takes significant investment, skilled people and a long-term commitment from publishers to produce original journalism that serves the public interest,” she said.
The awards “recognise the people and organisations making that investment every day, and celebrate the talent, ambition and dedication that underpin the industry.”
Addressing the event, Press Ombudsman Susan McKay highlighted the danger so many journalists around the world endure in order to do what is often critically important work in warzones and other centres of human suffering. She criticised Israel over the high death toll among Palestinian journalists.
