Down
have been named among the winners of the
2007 Mc Namee Awards which will be presented
at a function in Croke Park on Sunday
10th of August.
The awards are presented annually by the
GAA in recognition of outstanding contributions
made by individuals in the area of communications
and this year Down have picked up an award
for their 2007 County Football Final Programme.
The judges said "This is an excellent
production with high quality colour photographs
and edited by County PRO, Diarmuid Cahill".
"It has a very clear layout with a
number of interesting articles". "Truly
a worthy souvenir of County Final and opening
of newly developed Páirc Esler".
Over all their was eight winners, the other
seven are:
Best Local Radio Programme
RADIO KERRY’S EXTENDED SUNDAY
SPORTS ALL-IRELAND FINAL DAY PROGRAMME
The programme is composed of short interviews
with a number of Kerry players and excels
by virtue of the fact that the interviewers
not only ask relevant questions but allow
each player to answer fully without any
interruptions.
The non-Kerry native will find plenty of
interest in the entire presentation, which
brings to the fore intriguing sidelights
such as how much it meant to Kerry to beat
keen rivals Cork in an All-Ireland final.
The recording ends with the Kerry homecoming
in Terrace Talk, and all round is an excellent
production reflecting radio coverage of
a sporting occasion at its best, and very
well put together by Sports Editor Joe O’Mahony.
Best Website
St. Vincent’s GAA Club www.stvincentsgaa.ie
The site has an extremely attractive, well
designed Home Page, in the club colours.
It provides an RSS feed of site updates
and info to members; it has a ’printer
friendly’ feature, something that
is often overlooked in web sites; it has
a good search facility and a facility to
email information from the site to a friend
and it makes good use of photos and video
inserts. In addition, the site marshals
a huge volume of news and club information
in a way that is very easy to navigate.
A truly remarkable web site.
Best Club Media Production
"Ní neart go cur le
chéile- The History of St. Laurence’s
GAA club, co Kildare 1957-2007 by Daragh
Ó Conchúir
All aspects of the club are considered.
The history of the club and its progress,
or setbacks through the decades are chronicled
well and always maintain the interest. The
author, Daragh Ó Conchúir
avoids the rather boring tactic of merely
copying local newspaper sports reports.
Instead we are treated to interview quotes
and comment pieces from the media of the
day, primary historical sources if you will.
Best County Yearbook - Donegal
There was an exceptionally high
standard in all the entries, but Donegal
shaded it for the breath of their coverage,
for the amount allocated to clubs, for the
standard of the articles and for the imagination
of the graphics. The photography was also
top class. It was obvious that the editorial
team, headed by County PRO, Seamus Ó
Domhnaill, had decided to put in extra work
to produce a well researched, comprehensive
publication.
Provincial Media Award - Sligo
Champion
Their celebration of Sligo’s
Connacht Championship success in 2007 captures
the excitement, the delight, the colour
and the drama of a unique occasion. Sligo’s
Super Sunday (July 8th), as dubbed by the
Sligo Champion, shows what a provincial
title means not just to the players and
management team but more significantly to
the public at large.
National Media Award - Michael
Foley, The Sunday Times
His profile of and interview with
Kerry’s Colm Cooper lyrically captures
all the highs and the few lows, both sporting
and personal, that have made The Gooch one
of the best known and most popular sportsmen
in Ireland and provides a unique insight
into the personality of the player.
Hall of Fame Award - Martán
Ó Ciardha
The Hall of Fame Award is presented
to an individual who has made an outstanding
contribution to communications in the GAA
over along number of years. Mártan
Ó Ciardha has worked for RTÉ
Raidió na Gaeltachta for the past
30 years and has been Sports Editor for
most of that period. As well as co-ordinating
the station’s sports output, he regularly
broadcasts from national, provincial and
local GAA matches and has covered every
senior All Ireland Final in football and
in hurling from the mid 70’s. He is
a member of the Steering Committee of the
Vodafone All Stars and writes a column in
the weekly newspaper Foinse. Reared in na
hAille in Cois Fharraige, he lives in Baile
an Domhnalláin, an Spidéal
with his wife Toni and children Caoimhe,
Róisín and Pádraic.
