Sunday Independent writers shortlisted for journalism awards

JOURNALISTS from the Sunday Independent have been shortlisted for the 2018 Newsbrands Ireland journalism awards, highlighting the quality of the work featured in Ireland’s biggest-selling newspaper every week.

The painstaking work carried out by Maeve Sheehan, Wayne O’Connor and Mark O’Regan collating and reporting on the extra charges for residents of Irish nursing homes has been nominated for the Best Investigative Journalism prize.

In the running for Best Political Story is the Irish Political Rich List, by Karl Deeter, Philip Ryan and Wayne O’Connor, in which the real value of politicians’ publicly declared interests was revealed for the first time.

Celebrity interviewer extraordinaire Barry Egan has been nominated for Showbiz Journalist of the Year, while Niamh Horan is shortlisted for Best Showbiz Story for her exclusive report on an €80,000 pay gap between RTE Six One news presenters Sharon Ni Bheolain and Bryan Dobson, who, it was further revealed, was moving to Morning Ireland.

The production team who produced ‘The Power Of Women’ front page, capturing the dramatic result of the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, are nominated for Best Front Page. Joe Brolly’s moving story of Peadar Heffron, the GAA player blown up and left permanently disabled after joining the PSNI, has been nominated for Sports Story of the Year.

Declan Lynch is shortlisted for Feature of the Year for his take on the World Cup in Russia through his diary of the event. Deputy Business Editor Fearghal O’Connor is shortlisted for Best Business Journalist, while Business Editor Samantha McCaughren is nominated for the Business Story of the Year for her piece ‘Dunnes takes flight from British market as Brexit bites’.

Gene Kerrigan’s keen observations of Irish life have also been rewarded with a nomination for Best Broadsheet Columnist of the Year.

This year’s awards are sponsored by the National Lottery for the third year, whose chief executive Dermot Griffin said: “We are delighted to once again sponsor these awards. An independent, inquiring media is vital to any democracy and it is heartening to see such a high standard of entries evident in the shortlist.”

The winners in each category will be announced next month.