AWARD WINNER Michael Duffy, Editor of The Mayo News, receiving the Supplement of the Year award from Andrew Algeo, CEO of the National Lottery and Declan McGuire, President of Local Ireland.
Michael Gallagher
The Mayo News’s War of Independence commemorative supplement was selected as the Best Supplement for 2021 at the Local Ireland Media Awards last Thursday night in Mullingar.
It is the sixth award the paper has picked up since the Local Ireland awards were first initiated in 2016 and is the second time the paper has picked up the Supplement of the Year award.
The 48-page supplement was printed free with the paper on June 1, 2021. It was widely lauded at the time for the breadth of its coverage of the War of Independence in Mayo, as well as the excellent layout of the supplement by the newspaper’s Head of Design, Kevin Loftus.
The judges described the supplement as ‘outstanding’.
“Combining great design and artwork with compelling local stories, this supplement proved to be an outstanding commemoration of the War of Independence in County Mayo. An excellent read from a wide variety of contributors, which captured the drama, uncertainty and sacrifices as Ireland fought for its freedom,” they stated.
Supplement Editor Edwin McGreal paid tribute to all who contributed.
“We are blessed to have a team of excellent writers who we could call on to do justice to such a seminal period in Irish history and thank everyone who helped pull this supplement together. We express special thanks to Westport Historical Society’s Seán Cadden, Harry Hughes and James Kelly for their invaluable help and advice. Our designer Kevin Loftus pulled out all the stops to ensure a top-class presentation,” he said.
The Mayo News was also nominated in three other categories – Columnist of the Year, Best News Series and Best Use of Photography.
Forensic and unforgiving
Dr John Bradley’s fortnightly column ‘Notes from the Western Periphery’ was beaten by Paul Fitzpatrick’s Cavanman Diary in The Anglo Celt but still came in for high praise from the judges.
“Not every local or regional media can avail of the economic prowess of Dr John Bradley whose column, ‘Notes from the Western Periphery’, explores, in incredible detail, the impact of national policies on regional economic growth. They should try.
“Forthright, forensic and at times unforgiving, Bradley unpicks major economic strategies such as the National Development Plan and National Tourism Development, dissecting their application to the regions and serving them back onto the national conversation with a studious critique. Bradley’s writing is highly accessible, tailored to the locality, offering not just analysis and overviews, but critical insights and solutions too,” they stated.
Michael Gallagher’s work in highlighting ongoing issues at Mayo University Hospital in Castlebar earned the newspaper a nomination in Best News Series and while The Echo in Dublin won that award, the judges were suitably impressed with Michael’s work.
“Michael Gallagher of The Mayo News told the story of the chaos at Mayo University Hospital. He talked to nurses and patients about the fall in standards, and conditions which nurses said they could not stand over. One nurse described the hospital as dangerous. The paper also talked to the hospital management and eventually the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. The paper, aware of its responsibilities also explained to readers why they were following the story in such detail and was not involved in scaremongering. It was a well sources series that showed the power of the newspaper in reflecting the concerns of local people,” they stated.
The paper was also nominated for Best Use of Photography for Bearing Witness to the War of Independence, an interview with Jim McManamon from Skirdagh, Newport who was a toddler when his home was raided by the Black and Tans in the aftermath of the Kilmeena Ambush in 1921. Karen Cox’s excellent pictures illustrated the spread, which was designed by Padraic Geraghty of The Mayo News production department.
“Super use of Karen Cox photographs by The Mayo News in an inside spread. Rather than settle for a single portrait the designer has wisely used a set of images to give a fuller sense of the personality being interviewed for the piece,” said the judges.
There were a total of 16 award winners on the night in the Bloomfield House Hotel near Mullingar. There were over 600 entries into the prestigious awards.
“Our team were absolutely thrilled to pick up the Supplement of the Year award. Both supplement editor Edwin McGreal and designer Kevin Loftus put in a huge amount of work and Mayo County Council also supported the whole project,” said the Editor of The Mayo News, Michael Duffy.
The evening was hosted by sports broadcaster and journalist Marty Morrissey and sponsored by the National Lottery.
A special presentation was made on the night to honour the career of Johnny O’Hanlon, former editor of The Anglo-Celt in Cavan and a former Director of Local Ireland.
The judging panel for the awards was chaired by entrepreneur and broadcaster Áine Kerr. She was joined by author and broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald, Emeritus Professor at TUD Michael Foley, broadcaster and writer Valerie Cox, journalist and author PJ Cunningham, Dawn Wheatley of DCU School of Communications, Managing Director of Kinetic Ireland Andrew Sinclair and photographer and former Irish Times Picture Editor Frank Miller.
The previous awards won by The Mayo News include Best Sports Story of the Year (2016, for our coverage of the heave against the Mayo football management), Best Designed Newspaper (2016), Supplement of the Year (2018, for our 125th anniversary supplement), Best News Series of the Year (2019 for our coverage of the EU TEN-T funding debacle) and Sports Journalist of the Year (Colin Sheridan, 2020). The paper has also been shortlisted several times in a wide variety of categories.
Prestigious award won by The Mayo News
