Examiner journalist to be honoured

THE Gaelic Writers’ Association will today honour a journalist who has filed reports for half a century on the national games.

Retired Irish Examiner journalist John Murphy will be given a Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.

Galway man Jim Kearney will receive a similar award.

A native of Cashel, Mr Murphy was also the Irish Examiner’s news correspondent in west Waterford.

The awards ceremony takes place in the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Dublin.

Mr Murphy, 69, who lives in Western Bay, Dungarvan said: “It is a huge honour for me to be even considered for the award, especially looking at the impressive list of previous recipients.

“I am thrilled to be up there with the likes of Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin, Jim O’Sullivan and Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh.”

John says he always wanted to be a journalist. “I remember when I was eight or nine, going to national school in Cashel. I was on the way home and I ran into Brother Dowling, who stopped me in my tracks. ‘Murphy’, he said, ‘when you grow up, you are going to be a journalist’.

“When I got home I asked my mother what a journalist was and she told me it was people who reported for the newspaper. I made up my mind there and then.

“When my mother passed away in 1991, her last words to me were: ‘Brother Dowling was right’.”

John has great memories of his career and admits it was a labour of love.

“For any youngster starting out in the business I would say it is a tough job, and you need to be a hard grafter. But you are halfway there if you like the job — getting the work done is not a problem.”

A former chairman of Waterford County GAA Board, he is married to Eileen and they have four daughters.