Munster student journalists claim top awards

Secondary students in Clare, Cork, and Kerry scooped major prizes at the Press Pass Student Journalists of the Year Awards

Maya Hogan and Isabella Danaher of Coláiste Muire, Ennis, who won second and first place respectively in the photojournalism category at the Press Pass Student Journalists of the Year Awards. Picture: Paul Sherwood

Two Cork students took home top prizes at this year's Press Pass Student Journalists of the Year Awards.

Cian Morrison and Elyssa Thornhill, both of Coláiste an Chraoibhín, Fermoy, were named top news and features writers respectively.

The winners of the NewsBrands Ireland awards were announced on Tuesday at a ceremony hosted by Matt Cooper in the Aviva Stadium.

The award-winning students, their teachers, and their families were in attendance as prizes were handed out to the top three students in each category — news, features, opinion, sports, photojournalism, and overall best school newspaper.

Elyssa Thornhill, a student at Coláiste an Chraoibhín, Fermoy, won first prize in the Opinion category at the Press Pass Student Journalists of the Year Awards. Picture: Paul Sherwood

Moville Community College in Donegal was presented with the overall prize for their student newspaper, TY Times.

Press Pass judging panel chairman Michael Foley said the judges had been unanimous in choosing the student paper.

"The team behind Moville Community College’s TY Times should be immensely proud of themselves for publishing a student newspaper of such high quality," said Mr Foley.

"The publication stood out immediately for its attention-grabbing front page, excellent news and production values, and wide range of content which included opinion pieces, local news reports, interviews, and sports news and features, and even letters to the editor."

Coláiste Muire in Ennis also claimed the top prizes in two categories as Isabella Danaher took home the prize for best photojournalism and Amelia Corcoran was named best sports journalist.

Moville Community College students Cora Cain, Molly Boothroyd, Vilte Karlaite, Aisling Harvey, and Amy Bonner, being congratulated by NewsBrands Ireland CEO Ann Marie Lenihan and chairman Colm O'Reilly for their award-winning student newspaper, 'TY Times'. Picture: Paul Sherwood

Meanwhile, Grace De Bhal of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne in Dingle came first in the Features category.

Press Pass is a transition year student journalism and news literacy programme that encourages students to engage with newspapers and digital news in the classroom, to analyse it, and then create their own.

The programme, now in its 11th year, has been completed by over 120,000 students.

NewsBrands Ireland chairman Colm O'Reilly said: "Our aim is to encourage the next generation of journalists, to help students explore, develop and improve their writing skills, and to help develop news literacy skills for all students — empowering them to become critical consumers of news in all its forms.”

NewsBrands Ireland is rolling out a series of journalism workshops in schools which will provide a chance for students to understand the journalistic process with opportunities to pitch a news story to the editor.