Category Archives: POLITICS

GAJ AWARDS 2020

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Investigation into Larry Goodman’s €4bn business empire wins 2020 Guild of Agricultural Journalism awards

Agri Guild Awards were hosted by RTE Broadcaster Damien O’Reilly and Chair of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists, Amy Forde

The Guild of Agricultural Journalists in Ireland has announced the overall winner of the 2020 Guild of Agricultural Journalism Awards went to Lorcan Allen and Hannah Quinn-Mulligan from the farming newspaper the Irish Farmer’s Journal for ‘Larry Goodman’s finances’, a three-week investigative series which ran in July 2020. The feature series explored the corporate structures behind ABP Food Group. The investigation was the first time detailed financial information on the profits, asset values and corporate structure within the ABP Group was published in the public domain in Ireland and was selected by an independent judging panel of industry and media experts as the overall winner from a shortlist of thirty entries.
Commenting on the winning entry, chair of the judging panel Johnny O’Hanlon, Director of Local Ireland said: “While this has been an extraordinarily difficult year, it certainly didn’t deter the enthusiasm of journalists and industry communicators, judging by the volume of entries received across all categories and that the judges were struck by the high categories of entries across the categories. On this year’s judging panel, I was joined by Professor Karina Pierce (Enterprise Ireland), Anna Marie McHugh (National Ploughing Association), Richard Wright (former BBC NI agriculture correspondent) and Declan Malone, former editor of The Kerryman. We enjoyed plenty of lively discussion and debate to reach agreement on the shortlist of entries across each of the categories. Indeed, the liveliness intensified when it came to agreeing the category winners and reached a crescendo when it came to the arduous decision of who would be awarded the prestigious and much coveted Bull.

‘The Bull’ trophy for the overall winner of the 2020 GAJ Awards

The awards which are held every two years and supported by FBD Insurance aim to encourage excellence in the coverage of farming, food and rural life on the island of Ireland. Chair of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists, Amy Forde said: “As Chair of the southern section I was delighted to see over 200 entries for this year’s awards, with best news article and best feature article attracting almost ninety entries between them. To reflect the year, we also introduced two new categories – best COVID reporting and best COVID communications – acknowledging how we as communicators had a very important role to play. Rising Star is another new category which was added as the Guild wished to recognise those that will take the industry forward.”

“We are incredibly grateful to our judging panel who had a mammoth task in both selecting the shortlist and the overall winners. I would like to thank FBD for thier support once again, I would like to commend all of those who entered our awards for doing your part in encouraging healthy competition and promoting excellence in the reporting of agricultural and rural issues year round.”
 
John Cahalan, Chief Sales Officer, FBD Insurance plc added, ““I’m delighted to virtually support and celebrate the 2020 Guild of Agricultural Journalism awards. FBD is proud of our longstanding relationship and sponsorship of this event, which celebrates excellence in agricultural journalism. In a world with so much information and misinformation surrounding us on a daily basis, never before has there been a greater need to support, recognise and reward quality journalism. It is very positive to note, with the high number of submissions, that this competition continues to go from strength to strength.”

The awards also featured an address by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, “To be recognised by your peers as being the best in any field is something that professionals strive for their entire career but only a few can achieve. To win an award of this nature is a tremendous achievement.

“I am heartened by the state of the agricultural media at present – storytelling is needed more than ever and to have such a depth of talent in the sector can only be good for us as consumers of media. I congratulate all involved in the Guild of Agricultural Journalists Awards 2020 and I extend a special word of note to all the winners.”

The overall winners in each category were:

Best news article
Over 28,000ac of farmland controlled by vulture funds – Hannah Quinn-Mulligan, Irish Farmers Journal

Best visual report
Cashel Mart – Paula Williams & Helen Carroll, Indiepics – Ear to the Ground

Best feature article
Larry Goodman’s finances – a three-week investigative series – Lorcan Allen & Hannah Quinn-Mulligan, Irish Farmers Journal

Best audio report            
Potato harvest – Fran McNulty, RTÉ

Best technical article
Natural capital – Odile Evans, Irish Farmers Journal

Best COVID reporting 
COVID-19 virus knows no borders – Michael Fisher, The Northern Standard

Best targeted campaign
ABP Angus youth challenge Northern Ireland – MF Communication


Best COVID communications
Certified Irish Angus repositioning campaign in the year of COVID – Gemma Smyth Communications

Best photograph
Wild Atlantic – Valerie O’Sullivan

Rising Star
Hannah Quinn-Mulligan, Irish Farmers Journal

COVID-19 REPORTING AWARD

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Guild of Agricultural Journalists Award

I recently won the BEST COVID REPORTING award from the Guild of Agricultural Journalists for my reports in The Northern Standard Monaghan over six months from March until August.

March 26th 2020 p.1

These four front page stories out from the 100 or so I wrote about Covid during that time helped to win recognition from the judges for this once-off (hopefully!) award.

April 2nd 2020 p.1

Thank you to all who have helped me with their contributions to stories during that time including infectious diseases expert RCSI Professor Sam McConkey from Killeevan near Clones, one of the areas I cover.

One story covered exclusively by myself and the Standard’s photographer © Rory Geary was when the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris met his former PSNI colleague Chief Constable Simon Byrne on a Saturday morning at the Monaghan Tyrone border at Moybridge over the River Blackwater near Aughnacloy on the N2 A5 main road. They signed a memorandum of understanding on dealing with Covid-19 to co-ordinate their responses in both jurisdictions. Social distancing was observed in the pre-mask era.

27th August 2020 p.1

The fourth story I highlighted in my entry involved the controvesy over two elected members of Monaghan County Council who appeared to have contravened the Covid-19 guidelines by taking holidays abroad. In the case of Independent Cllr Paudge Connolly he became embroiled in the Golfgate dinner in Clifden, having attended as a member of the Oireachtas Golf Club which organised the annual golf tournament and function afterwards. It led to the resignation of Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary, EU Commissioner Phil Hogan and an investigation into the presence of newly appointed Supreme Court Judge Seamus Woulfe, a former Attorney General. The second was Councillor Cathy Bennett from Scotstown who went on a family vacation and on return went to her holiday home in Co. Donegal and exercised on the beach instead of staying in Co. Monaghan for two weeks of isolation. She lost the party whip for three months but it has since been restored.

Damien O’Reilly introduced the GAJ Awards from the RDS library in Dublin

Normally the awards would be presented at a black tie dinner sponsored by FBD Insurance. But this was not possible owing to Covid and the ceremony was held online.

REMINDER TO VOTE

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A REMINDER TO VOTE IN THE NUJ COUNCIL ELECTIONS

May Day Parade Belfast Pic. © Kevin Cooper

To NUJ members living in the Republic of Ireland: you should have received an email reminder today from headquarters to use your vote in the NUJ National Executive Council election and where relevant, for the following Councils:

  • NEC – Republic of Ireland ** TWO SEATS
  • NEC – Black Members’ seat
  • NEC – New Media seat
  • NEC – Photographers’ seat
  • Ethics Council – Freelance seat

The closing deadline for the election is at midday on Wednesday 29th January 2020, so please return your ballot paper now to ensure it reaches London by this date. A reply-paid envelope was enclosed with the voting paper and information about each of the four (myself and three job share) candidates. The others are Dara Bradley and Damien Tiernan; Emma O’Kelly and Saoirse McGonagle; and Gerry Curran and Fran McNulty.

Thank you for your support. It’s your union. Participation is vital and voting in an election is one way you can play your part, as it is on the wider stage with a general election contest underway.

VOTE FISHER #1 and then 2, 3, 4 in order of preference. Thank you to all those who have already voted.

If you have not received your ballot paper, please contact elections@nuj.org.uk who will issue a replacement straight away. A few people have already done so. If your address held on file by the Membership Department is out of date eg because you have moved, you must inform them of your new address.

NUJ MEMBERS IN IRELAND

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VOTE FISHER #1

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Protesting in support of Dunnes Stores workers at the company’s HQ in Dublin June 2015: Joe Costello former Labour TD and Michael Fisher

NUJ MEMBERS: Have you voted yet in the election for two representatives from the Republic of Ireland to serve on the National Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists? If you live in the constituency (the 26 Counties) then you are entitled to a vote. The ballot papers were sent out from England before Christmas and contain a pamphlet with statements from all the candidates and a reply paid envelope for the ballot paper. So please VOTE NOW if you have not already done so.

Talking to one of the other candidates at today’s meeting of NUJ representatives in Dublin, and from speaking to a colleague, it appears that some members eligible to vote did not receive a ballot paper.

Please contact: elections@nuj.org.uk or telephone the office in London on: +442078433700 if you did not receive a ballot paper and arrangements will be made to send out a new one. What appears to have happened is that the central database contains addresses of members that are out of date. People might have moved on and not told the union about their new address. If you are in that situation please advise the NUJ membership department in London.

Thank you to those who have already voted in this election.

There are four candidates, myself and three others who are all contesting the election as job shares. Vote 1,2,3,4 in order of preference. Dara Bradley & Damien Tiernan (Job-share); Gerry Curran & Fran McNulty (Job-share); Michael Fisher, and Emma O Kelly & Saoirse McGarrigle (Job-Share)

NUJ BLAST FROM THE PAST

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VOTE FISHER #1 in the election for the National Executive Council 2020. This is another reminder to those eligible to vote in the republic of Ireland to send in your completed ballot paper now. A reply paid envelope was enclosed with the election literature to send the form back to London.

THANK YOU if you have already voted. There is still time to vote. Four candidates including myself (three of them job shares between two people) are standing in the election.

VOTE FISHER #1

NUJ seminar on proposed local radio bill (1983)

News conference on proposed local radio Bill 1983 with Dublin Broadcasting Branch officers including (R-L) Michael Fisher, Charlie Bird, Minister for Communications Ted Nealon, Patrick Kinsella, RTÉ Deputy DG Vincent Finn and Roberta Wallace.                        Pic. RTÉ Stills Library.

This “blast from the past” from the RTÉ Stills Library shows an NUJ (National Union of Journalists) seminar on the proposed local radio bill to end RTÉ’s radio monopoly, held at the Montrose Hotel, Dublin, on 6th October 1983. At the top table are (L-R): Roberta Wallace (NUJ Branch Secretary); RTÉ Deputy Director-General Vincent Finn; RTÉ News correspondent and Chairman of the NUJ Dublin Broadcasting Branch, Patrick Kinsella; Minister for Communications Ted Nealon; RTÉ News reporter and Vice-Chairman of the NUJ’s Broadcasting Branch Charlie Bird, and RTÉ News reporter and Branch Treasurer, Michael Fisher.

ERIC POOLE: SHOT AT POPERINGE JAIL

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Family photo of Eric Poole (centre)

Eric Poole, aged 31. Second Lieutenant in the 11th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. Admitted to hospital with shell shock in July 1916 (around the time of the Battle of the Somme). Despite his panic attacks he is sent back to the Front.

On 5th October 1916 Poole’s platoon arrives at the Front Line near Flers in France. However the 2nd Lt has disappeared. Poole is arrested days later and sentenced to death for desertion. He is the first officer in the British Army to be actually executed.

Cell in Poperinge jail with graffiti by soldiers

Cell in Poperinge jail with graffiti by soldiers

The execution took place on December 10th 1916 at 7.25am at Poperinge jail. Shot at Dawn.

Looking out into the courtyard from the prison cell

HILL 62 SANCTUARY WOOD

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Sanctuary Wood museum

In the last decade there has been a large increase in visitors to the Ypres Salient, and many have included a visit to the trenches at Sanctuary Wood, a few kilometres outside Ieper.

WWI shell and British Army cap badges

In the 1990s the trenches were covered in grass and the whole site was overgrown with undergrowth. Nowadays the ground around the trench line has been visited by so many pairs of feet that it is mostly bald with no grass or undergrowth.

British Army WWI recruiting poster

The need for the preservation of battlefield areas makes for an interesting discussion. The natural desire to be allowed to walk freely amongst historical remains such as these trenches is one side of the argument, the possibility that they will be damaged in so doing is another.

Vickers machine gun

It’s been a topic of discussion for some years already by battlefield historians, local authorities and the people who live with the scarred landscape all around them.

German machine gun

Sanctuary Wood is a fascinating example of how such war remains bring together the local people who own the ground and live with them daily, the people who come in their thousands each year to see them, historians who debate whether these trench remains are original or not, and the people who want to find ways to preserve endangered WW1 battlefield remains.

Belgian Royal Family Tree

The museum was developed by Jacques Schier, the grandson of the farmer who founded the museum and owned the site of the museum since before World War I. It has a unique collection of World War I items, including a rare collection of three-dimensional photographs, weapons, uniforms, decommissioned bombs and shells.

WWI British Army recruiting poster

On entering the museum through the café visitors will be in a room with display cases on tables in the centre of the room. Many interesting photographs are arranged on the walls. In this room you will find a large and rare collection of three dimensional photo images inside special viewing boxes. These 3D photographs were produced after the war and are absorbing and absolutely fascinating to look through.

Calling on young Belgians 18-25 to enlist

The museum collection contains equipment removed from the battlefield in the vicinity of Sanctuary Wood. There are several German grave markers reclaimed from the battlefields. These were removed from their original burial location after the burials were presumably moved from outlying battlefield burial plots into a formal German military cemetery during the battlefield clearance after 1918.

Last refugees in Ieper at the Cloth Hall 1915

Among the battlefield relics is a rare example of a British Army Cook’s Wagon. This was given a treatment of wood preserver in the 1980s by volunteers from the British Army’s Royal Corps of Transport serving near Antwerp.

Ruins of Ieper

In what was once a house, several rooms are dedicated to various displays of wartime memorabilia. They include some fascinating posters and pictures, including several showing the devastation of Ieper (Ypres) by the Germans during World War One.

More pictures of the destruction in the centre of Ieper

LT TOM KETTLE

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Looking out at Trônes Wood near Ginchy from Guillemont Road Cemetery

From Guillemont Road cemetery you can look across the fields to what was once known as Trônes Wood, outside the village of Ginchy. Although the scene today is that of a beautiful rural landscape, it would have been very different during the Somme offensive in 1916.

Ginchy is a small village

The trees in the wood would have been burned down and just scarred and scorched trunks remained.

The countryside near Ginchy

It was in this area that Lt Tom Kettle met his death. He was a temporary Captain with ‘B’ Company of the 9th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

Tom_Kettle

Tom Kettle BL c.1905

Kettle (then aged 36) was involved in an attack on German lines on 9th September 1916, near the village of Ginchy. During the advance Kettle was felled when the Dublin Fusiliers were ‘struck with a tempest of fire’. Having risen from the initial blow, he was struck again and killed outright.

The view from Guillemont Road Cemetery

His body was buried in a temporary grave by the Welsh Guards, but it could not be located when hostilities ceased. His name is etched on the huge monumental arch for the missing of the Somme at Thiepval.

Thiepval Memorial

The erection by of a commemorative bronze bust of Kettle in Dublin, commissioned from the sculptor Albert Power and finished in 1921, was beset for almost twenty years by controversy and bureaucratic obstruction owing to the antipathy of the state authorities post-Independence towards Irishmen who had fought in World War 1. It was finally raised in 1937, without an unveiling ceremony, in St Stephen’s Green.

A stone tablet commemorates him in the Island of Ireland Peace Park at Messines in Belgium.

Memorial at Irish Peace Park quoting Lt Tom Kettle, poet and soldier

He is listed on the bronze plaque in the Four Courts in Dublin which commemorates the 26 Irish barristers killed in the Great War. Kettle is also commemorated on the Parliamentary War Memorial at Westminster Hall in London, one of 22 present and former Members of Parliament that lost their lives during World War 1 to be named on that memorial.

WWI Memorial at Westminster Hall

A further act of commemoration came with the unveiling in 1932 of a manuscript-style illuminated book of remembrance for the House of Commons, which includes a short biographical account of the life and death of Kettle.

JUDICIAL REVIEW

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Notice on gate at entrance to farmland in Co. Meath along the route of proposed interconnector. Pic. © Michael Fisher

JUDICIAL REVIEW OF BORD PLEANÁLA DECISION ON ELECTRICITY INTERCONNECTOR

Anti-pylon campaigners representing landowners from Meath and part of Co. Monaghan are taking part in a court case in Dublin this week aimed at overturning the planning approval for the North-South electricity interconnector. An Bord Pleanála granted approval last December for the major infrastructure project involving almost 300 pylons and overhead high voltage wires running across countryside from the border at Lemgare, near Clontibret in Co.Monaghan, to a sub station at Woodland, near Batterstown in Co. Meath. EirGrid has said the overall cost of construction will be €286 million, €180m for the proposed development in the Republic and the balance for the shorter SONI section in Co. Armagh leading to a sub station at Turleenan near the Moy, Co. Tyrone.

In February the North East Pylon Pressure Campaign, which has led the opposition amongst landowners and residents to the 400kV overhead line since it was first proposed eight years ago, was granted leave to apply for a judicial review of the Bord Pleanála decision. The case is also in the name of Maura Sheehy, a farmer, of Teltown Road, Donaghpatrick, Co Meath, one of the hundreds of objectors who attended the lengthy public enquiry held in Carrickmacross last year.

As well as challenging An Bord Pleanála, the case is also against the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources; and the State. The developer, EirGrid, is a notice party. Nigel Hillis of the County Monaghan Anti Pylon Committee was among the interested observers at the Commercial Court on Tuesday when the hearing opened in front of Mr Justice Max Barrett.

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High voltage electricity line and pylon. Pic. Michael Fisher

The court was told that in approving the development, An Bord Pleanála had failed to take into account the potential impact of the UK planning to leave the European Union. A lawyer for the applicants, Conleth Bradley SC, said the grounds of challenge included a failure by the Board to address properly the rights of the affected landowners as well as environmental issues and the implications of Brexit.

The judge will later hear two separate but similar challenges over the permission granted for the interconnector. They are being brought by David Malone, of Eurolaw Environmental Consultants, St Joseph’s Terrace, Portarlington, Co Laois, and Val Martin, a farmer and environmental campaigner of Gortnakesh, Co. Cavan. The case continues.

ANTI PYLON REACTION

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Padraig O’Reilly NEPPC Pic.Michael Fisher

Anti-pylon action will dwarf Shell to Sea campaign, says NEPPC
Group says campaign against EirGrid will make Corrib protests ‘look like walk in park’

Michael Fisher THE IRISH TIMES

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Anti-pylon sign in Co.Meath  Pic. Michael Fisher

Campaigners have warned that the battle to stop the erection of hundreds of electricity pylons will make the Shell to Sea campaign “look like a walk in the park”.
Responding furiously to An Bord Pleanála’s decision to approve EirGrid’s plans to build a North South electricity interconnector, the North East Pylon Pressure Campaign (NEPPC) described it as “deplorable” and “an affront to democracy”.
Describing it as “biased”, Padraig O’Reilly, of the NEPPC, claimed it would only deepen public cynicism towards bureaucracy and intensify local opposition to the pylons.
However, he drew comfort from the fact that the project still has to navigate Northern Ireland’s planning system, while court battles will continue in both jurisdictions.
Woefully inadequate
A “viable, realistic and publicly acceptable option” to put much of the electricity line underground along public roads does exist, but it has never been properly examined, he went on. However, EirGrid had already decided on an overhead line and had put out, and awarded, a contract tender even before public consultation had taken place, he charged. EirGrid’s planning application was woefully inadequate and failed to contain enough information for an acceptable environmental study, he claimed.

Meanwhile, the utility had not accessed 75 per cent of the lands proposed for the 300 pylon towers and had communicated with only 5 per cent of the landowners, he added.
The planning decision ignores these deficiencies and heralds the end of An Bord Pleanála’s status in the public eye as an objective, independent decision-making body, he continued.

However, the anti-pylon group insists that there is still time for EirGrid to be ordered by Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten to place the lines underground. “If political action is not taken, this project will make the Shell to Sea debacle look like a walk in the park. The will of the people will prevail,” said the NEPPC.

Meanwhile, opponents in Monaghan are equally determined in their opposition, saying An Bord Pleanála had “waved the application through”. “It’s a bad day for the Irish planning system,” said Nigel Hillis, who was particularly critical of the decision to issue such a finding so close to Christmas.

Monaghan County Council chairman PJ O’Hanlon described it as “very unfortunate” and supported calls for an emergency council meeting early in January.
There, councillors – who are all united against the pylon plan – will, he said, examine the ruling in detail and look at ways to oppose it.

Opponents in Northern Ireland remain hopeful that the planning authorities there will make a different decision when they rule on the pylon plan.
“We are disappointed at this ruling by An Bord Pleanála,” said a spokesperson for the campaign group, Safe Electricity Armagh and Tyrone (SEAT).