Rowan Gallagher is the 2012 National Journalist of the Year at the Student Media Awards (Smedias). He is a 4th year BA Journalism and New Media student at the University of Limerick. He won his award for a series of off-diary investigative stories published in the Irish Examiner and The Irish Times concerning the closure of the Vatican embassy by the Irish Government.

Rowan has previously worked for the Mayo News newspaper, and has been published extensively in national newspapers. He is due to graduate later this year.

Tom Felle, director of the BA in Journalism and New Media programme, said that winning such a prestigious award demonstrated the commitment the University of Limerick had to its journalism programmes. "Rowan will be among the first class of BA graduates in journalism from the University of Limerick, and winning a national media award is a great coup of him. I have no doubt this is just the first of many awards Rowan will win in his career," he said.

The journalism programmes at UL began in 2008 and have quickly become one of the most high profile and respected degree programmes in the country. Student on the degree spend a full semester abroad as part of their degree as well as an extensive six-month placement in a local newspaper or radio station. The degree offers cutting edge digital journalism and social media skills as well as traditional reporting modules as part of their degree.

Earlier this week, the inaugural Vincent Doyle Award for Investigative Journalism was also won by a journalism student at the University of Limerick, Craig Hughes also from Co Mayo.