Laois student Joe Drennan honoured at the Mansion House

A special tribute was paid to Joe Drennan at a journalism awards ceremony in the Mansion House in Dublin on Wednesday, April 10. 

The former fourth year University of Limerick journalism student from Knocknagad, Camross, Mountrath died in a hit and run in Limerick on October 13, 2023.  He had been the Editor-in-Chief of the University’s newspaper, Limerick Voice at the time. 

There was a standing ovation at the awards in the Mansion House after it was announced that from next year, the Journalism Relating to Road Safety Award would be renamed The Joe Drennan Award for Journalism Relating to Road Safety. 

University of Limerick journalism students scooped three awards at the National Student Media Awards.

For the second time Limerick Voice, produced by the final year journalism class, was named Newspaper of the Year 2024 and also won the award for Layout and Design of the Year 2024. The win was dedicated to Joe Drennan. 

Digital Editor, Joe Costigan, spoke about the team’s Newspaper of the Year win.

“We said before we even started working on the newspaper that we would dedicate it to Joe, so to have it recognised nationally at an awards ceremony that meant so much to him is incredible. It’s hard to explain how special it felt, it genuinely means the world to everyone on the team,” he said.

Limerick Voice investigative reporter Gemma Good also won the prize for Journalism Relating to Health for her feature on Limerick Treaty Suicide Prevention.

The National Student Media Awards (The SMEDIAS) is the largest competition of its kind in Ireland dedicated to recognising and celebrating the next generation of media talent.

Presenting the award for Newspaper of the Year to the Limerick Voice team, Mark Hennessy, Ireland and Britain Editor of The Irish Times, commended the journalism students for their “determined efforts to report the community around them.”

Associate Professor and Course Director of the BA Journalism and Digital Communication programme, Dr Kathryn Hayes expressed delight at the event.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our journalism students. To be so successful at The SMEDIAS after such a hard year is a tribute to their resilience. Their work on Limerick Voice shows their ability to work through extremely difficult circumstances to produce award-winning journalism. Joe Drennan would be so proud. The past few months have been full of teaching moments. I look forward to seeing our students make major contributions to Irish journalism in the years ahead.”

“We are extremely proud of all of our students who were nominated for awards in highly competitive categories at this year’s SMEDIAS. This is well deserved industry recognition of the excellent work our students have been producing across multimedia news platforms, which is an integral part of journalism education in UL.”

Pictured above: The Limerick Voice news team.

Managing Editor of Limerick Voice, Molly Cantwell added: “I am so grateful to The Smedias, Oxygen, and The Irish Times for the honour of winning Newspaper of the Year alongside our Layout and Design win. In a year that has been so horrendously difficult, having such an important project recognised on a platform of this size means the world to the entire team.

“In September 2023, Joe Drennan and I started out as co-editors of Limerick Voice, excitedly planning what the year would look like. Ultimately, our main goal was to give a voice to the voiceless in our community, and to take home this highly-coveted award. I know he would be so incredibly proud of the team and of the newspaper.

“Thank you so much to our wonderful lecturer Dr Kathryn Hayes for the work and support over the last year that led us to this point. Thank you to the beautiful Drennan family and friends of the family for their tireless support of our work. Thank you Joe for the ever present reminder to work to the best of our abilities and represent what you stood for. We miss you so much.”