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.