Northern Ireland Travel News’ very own Associate Editor, Sarah Pickering, was awarded the Gerry O’Hare Memorial Award for Best Newcomer Journalist at the recent Travel Extra Travel Journalist of the Year Awards.
Sarah was presented her award at a stunning ceremony, held to coincide with the annual Holiday World Show, which took place at the RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin this weekend.
Nine other winners, each for different holidaying categories, were announced on the evening at an awards dinner in Thomas Prior Hall, Clayton Hotel Ballsbridge which was attended by the cream of Irish travel and tourism writers and broadcasters.
The event was sponsored by the Spanish Tourism Office and Lanzarote Tourist Board. The award winners were chosen by a distinguished panel of senior Irish journalists. The submissions displayed the creativity and innovation of travel and tourism journalism in Ireland.
The category winners were:
Best Home market (Ireland) – Sponsored by Fáilte Ireland
Winner: Yvonne Gordon for two pieces featuring Mayo, ‘Ireland’s loneliest wilderness, Wild Nephin
National Park’ for BBC Travel and ‘What ancient secrets lie beneath little-known Irish bog?’ for National
Geographic Travel
Best Northern Ireland – Sponsored by Tourism Northern Ireland
Winner: Deirdre Reynolds for the Sunday World Magazine – ‘River of Dreams’ and a second entry ‘Cliffs
side capers.’
Best Long Haul – Sponsored by Cassidy Travel
Winner: Isabel Conway for her two entries – ‘Southern Hospitality in the Birthplace of the Blues’ for the
Business Post; and ‘Sands of time that eternally surprise’ for The Sunday Independent.
Best Short Haul (including Sun holidays & City Breaks) – Sponsored by Sunway & Hotel Fariones
Winner: Jamie Ball for ‘Cycling in Denmark is this Europe most bike friendly country?’ published in The
Irish Times; and ‘Perfect for pedalling’ published in The Sunday Times Ireland Edition.
Best Adventure – Sponsored by UWalk.ie
Winner: Julie Taylor for ‘The climb was like an out of body experience’ published in the Irish
Independent Weekend magazine.
Best Skiing – Sponsored by Topflight & Gastein Tourist Board Austria
Winner: Catherine Murphy for ski features she wrote for Irish Daily Mail, Sunday Independent,
Business Post Magazine, and Irish Independent Weekend magazine
Best Broadcasting – Sponsored by TUI
Winner: Hector Ó hEochagáin for Hector: Balkans go Baltics which aired on TG4.
Best Digital Media – Sponsored by Click&Go
Winner: Tom Sweeney for his travel blogs ‘Discover the delights of northern Spain’ and ‘Top dishes to try
when you visit Spain’. Both published on the blog www.tomsweeneytravelwriter.com.
The Gerry O’Hare Memorial Award for Best Newcomer Journalist – Sponsored by Malta Tourism
Authority
Winner: Sarah Pickering for her entries published in NI Travel News.
Travel Extra Journalist of the Year – Sponsored by the Spanish Tourism Office and Lanzarote tourism
Winner: Hector Ó hEochagáin
