Archive News
Sadness and tributes at death of an icon of Irish journalism
Date Published: {J}
Irish journalism this week lost a true giant and the Connacht Tribune is today mourning the death of a man who steered the paper, from the front, for almost a quarter of a century.
John Cunningham’s time as editor from 1984 to 2007 saw the paper enjoy a period of unprecedented growth, copper-fastening its position as the best selling regional newspaper in the country.
But that is only part of his legacy – because it was his unbridled enthusiasm for the business itself and for the story that marked him out from his peers. And that commitment shone through to the very end; he was still writing his award-winning Deputy column – which has filled this slot for decades – in the week before his death.
The Tuam native, who first joined the Connacht Tribune as a junior reporter in 1964 – lost his brave battle against illness on Tuesday evening, and he died surrounded by his loving family in the tender care of Galway Hospice.
It was fitting that he should go to his eternal reward at the Hospice because he had championed the need for such a facility before its arrival and he served on its board from its inception.
As the tributes flowed in to these offices yesterday, the one characteristic that marked John apart from the pack was his commitment to his profession and his ability to engender that devotion into so many generations of journalists who were to learn from his wise counsel.
Journalism was never just a job to John, just as politics was never just a source of stories. He lived and breathed newspapers and lived for the good story.
He lectured for many years on the Masters in Journalism course in NUI Galway and – at a stage when most journalists had long grown cynical – he still had that infectious enthusiasm and ever-generous desire to help another generation make their way into the profession he loved.
John Cunningham was editor of the Connacht Tribune newspapers from 1984 until his retirement in 2007 –a remarkable run of 23 years – and right up to last week he continued to write both his Deputy column for the Connacht Tribune and Galway City Tribune and his weekly ‘As I See It’ column for the Galway City Tribune.
He began his career in journalism as junior reporter with the Tribune in 1964. In the late Seventies he was News Editor with the Tribune papers and in 1982 took up an appointment as Editor of The Waterford News & Star and The East Cork News, part of the Examiner Group.
John was appointed Editor of the Connacht Tribune, in succession to his great friend, Sean V Fahy, in 1984 and was part of a team which introduced a number of important developments and changes in the group’s newspapers.
He was a regular contributor to national newspapers and to radio and television over many years. He won a Journalist of The Year Award in 1979 for his ‘Corridors of Power’ column – especially in relation to a controversy surrounding the use of Section Four of the City and County Management Act to force through planning permissions.
A former member of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, John was conferred with an Honorary Master of Arts Degree by the College for his work in journalism and in education, a proud day for a man who studied journalism at the best university of all – the one dipped in ink and moulded in hot metal.
And for all of his years as an editor, he remained at heart a reporter – a man who loved writing and was a master of his craft. He was scrupulously honest and meticulously precise, reporting without fear or favour, but equally without malice or malevolence in his work.
His interests outside of work were simple but all-consuming – golf, both playing it and talking about it, and walking the Prom with his wife, Nuala, like John himself a valued and much loved colleague of the Connacht Tribune staff for so long.
Nuala was by his side, in death as she invariably was in life, and he will be missed most of all by her and their four sons Shane, Ivor, Gary and Enda.
But his passing has also left a gaping hole in the lives of those who worked with him, who trusted in his wise counsel, who learned how to write under his tutelage, and who valued his wisdom and his friendship in equal measure.
Last week, John wrote a story about the latest HSE cut in funding to Galway Hospice and it filled the same position on the front page of the Connacht Tribune as the news of his death does a short seven days later.
In paying tribute to John on the Keith Finnegan Show on Galway Bay FM yesterday, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny recalled meeting with John in the Hospice at the end of last year when he found out once again that – even in dealing with his illness and pain – he was thinking of the story, and of his longstanding support for that wonderful facility.
He asked the Taoiseach to sort out the funding issue that threatens services at Galway Hospice, and yesterday Mr Kenny said he viewed that as John’s last request – and one he’d like to see if he can stand over.
What a fitting testimony that would be to the work and life of John Cunningham, journalist, editor, broadcaster, lecturer, father and husband – a man who served the Connacht Tribune so well for almost half a century … a man who was the consummate reporter to his dying breath.
If you would like to leave a tribute to John Cunningham a book of condolences has been opened in the Connacht Tribune office or you can click here to do it online.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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