Brendan Kennelly, Marketing Manager Kerry's Eye, Padraig Kennelly, MD Kerry's Eye,Jerry Kennelly, Founder & CEO at Tweak.com, Enda Dowling, Rathdowney Co Laois, Kerry Kennelly, Photo Editor Kerry's Eye pictured at the presentation of the inaugural winner of the Padraig Kennelly Award for Excellence in Regional Journalism, UL.
UL Student receives Padraig Kennelly Award for Excellence in Regional Journalism
Monday, 22nd April 2013
A University of Limerick journalism student has become the inaugural winner of the 'Padraig Kennelly Award for Excellence in Regional Journalism' for a series of articles examining the blight of emigration on rural communities.
The series entitled 'The effects of emigration on small rural communities and sporting communities' was penned by final year BA Journalism and New Media student Enda Dowling (22) from Rathdowney in Co Laois. It examines the devastating impact the economic crisis is having on GAA clubs, and the families left behind, when young people from the Mid-West region emigrate in search of work.
The award has been inaugurated to honour the memory of the late Kerry's Eye founder and renowned Tralee-based photographer and journalist Padraig Kennelly. Lecturer, BA Journalism and New Media programme Tom Felle said the accolade was a major honour for the young journalism student.
"Padraig Kennelly's contribution to recording the first rough draft of Ireland's, and Kerry's, history through his own lens, and through the pages of his newspaper, is unrivalled.
"Enda's work highlighted a story that Padraig Kennelly would have been all too familiar with in his native Co Kerry - the scourge of youth emigration from rural communities. In many ways it's a 2013 version of the seminal work by the late John Healy, who wrote the story of his own native Charlestown, in the 1950s and 1960s. I can think of no greater honour for any young journalist than to be the recipient of such a prestigious prize."
Padraig's son Jerry Kennelly, founder and CEO of tweak.com and chairman of the judging panel, said the Kennelly family was delighted their father was being honoured with an award for journalism.
"Enda has clearly demonstrated an ability to illustrate the real social cost of a major phenomenon of our times. Burning shoe leather in the old style, he unearths a truth that is painful and with great writing craft, puts it into perspective in a fashion that is rarely seen in journalism today," he said, on behalf of the Kennelly family.