Festival celebrates women’s contribution to Irish media
RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan, PR guru and Irish Examiner columnist Terry Prone, along with columnist and feminist Mary Kenny, will be in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, at the end of April for Women in Media 2013.
The event is the brainchild of some local people in the seaside town, whose initial aim was to commemorate the life and work of the late Mary Cummins, a Ballybunion native and a campaigning journalist with The Irish Times for many years.
They also wanted to acknowledge the late Maeve Binchy, who spent her childhood summers in Ballybunion from where she drew inspiration for her bestselling novel, Echoes.
“A few of us got talking one night, about Mary and about Maeve, and we came up with the idea of holding a small festival that would celebrate not just these two inspirational women, but all the other remarkable women who have contributed to the media in Ireland,” explained festival chairperson Joan O’Connor.
The highlight of the weekend promises to be the announcement of the winner of the inaugural Mary Cummins Award for Lifetime Achievement in Irish Journalism, which will be presented to a female journalist.
Other events planned for the weekend include a symposium which will explore how Irish women have climbed the ladder in many previously male-dominated professions, including politics and media.
Speakers at the symposium will include Sinn Féin vice-president Mary Lou McDonald, Fine Gael TD Áine Collins, columnist and broadcaster Alison O’Connor and political correspondent of The Star Catherine Halloran.
This event will be chaired by RTÉ Prime Time reporter Katie Hannon.
Saturday’s programme also includes a special tribute to Maeve Binchy, with readings of extracts from her work by a number of well-known journalists.
There will also be an exhibition of the work of Kerry press photographer Michelle Cooper-Galvin.
The Women in Media weekend will be officially opened by Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Minister Jimmy Deenihan, on Friday, Apr 26, and runs throughout the weekend.
*For more details see www.wimballybunion.com
