IT REPORTED on Alcock and Brown’s historic transatlantic landing on Connemara’s Derrygimla bog, a bishop’s condemnation of country dances, the KLM air crash off the west coast in 1958, and much more.
Last night the contribution made by the Connacht Tribunenewspaper to social and economic life on the western seaboard over the past century was marked at a birthday celebration in NUI Galway (NUIG).
The event, hosted by NUIG president Dr Jim Browne, was attended by some past and present staff of the weekly publication, including chief executive David Hickey and current editor Dave O’Connell.
“An enormous honour,” is how O’Connell summed up his editorial role at this time, in spite of a “challenging” period for newspapers in general. He paid his own tribute to a very loyal readership. “As a result, even when advertising is down, as it is everywhere, our circulation has not suffered,” he noted.
O’Connell’s first job was with the Tribune, and he returned to become group editor in succession to John “JC” Cunningham two years ago.
Many other journalists who cut their professional teeth at the newspaper on Market Street include Seán O'Rourke, presenter of RTÉ Radio's News at One, and RTÉ's former political editor Seán Duignan, who subsequently became government press secretary.
Joe Fahy, brother of former editor Seán Fahy, went on to work for the European Parliament, while Ray Burke became RTÉ chief news editor.
John Carlos, subsequently of the Sunday Tribune, Stan Shields and the late Jimmy Walsh were among its best known photographers.
Regional newspapers rely heavily on the popularity of their local notes, O'Connell noted, though many of the authors relish their anonymity. Masters of this trade have included Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív, who transmitted the Cornamona local notes when he was manager of the co-op, and Irish Independenteducation editor John Walshe.
Staff photographer Joe O’Shaughnessy’s shots of historic occasions and personalities, such as the visit of the late pope John Paul II to Galway racecourse in the company of former Bishop of Galway Dr Eamon Casey and Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, are reproduced in a centenary supplement.
The two-page display includes Pat Ruane, last horse-and-cart delivery man in Galway, the late queen of Connemara Bina McLoughlin, and a headless Padraic Ó Conaire statue in Eyre Square.
“At the risk of plagiarising Sinatra, if you could make it there you could make it anywhere,” O’Rourke said of his experience as a junior reporter in the “Trib”.
