We’re tops again for sport

The standard of sports writing in the Irish Examiner has been recognised by the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) awards for the second successive year.

Ewan MacKenna’s brilliantly insightful series of how sport can be a panacea for many of the social and economic issues in depressed communities was rewarded yesterday as McKenna was named sports reporter of the year at the NNI awards.

The sports columnist of the year went to Eamonn Sweeney, formerly of the Irish Examiner and now writing for the Sunday Independent. He succeeds last year’s sports journalist of the year, Kieran Shannon, also of the Irish Examiner.

The awards offer further testimony to the emphasis and importance this newspaper places on its sports coverage, and, in particular, the quality of its sportswriting. “It’s a very challenging time for newspapers, but we still place huge store in the importance of how we cover sport,” said sports editor Tony Leen, “ensuring we offer the reader a level of insight, expertise and quality that can only be found in a newspaper. In this country, I’d like to think there will always be a readership for quality sports journalism.”

Yesterday’s NNI awards also posthumously honoured the late, great Con Houlihan with eight-time All-Ireland winner Pat Spillane saying that in this country, there was always the Gospel according to Con. There has never been and may never be another sportswriter of Houlihan’s stature, Spillane added.