Pól Ó Conghaile, Darragh Keany and Tom Sweeney at the Travel Extra awards. Photo: Arthur Carron
Winners of the Travel Extra Travel Journalist of the Year Awards. Photo: Arthur Carron
Mediahuis Ireland journalists and contributors have won several prizes at the Travel Extra Travel Journalist Awards, held in Dublin this weekend.
Cian Byrne was named Travel Journalist of the Year for a body of work across several publications, including the Irish Independent and Belfast Telegraph.
Daragh Keany of Crime World and The Sunday World won the ‘Best Long-haul’ category for his piece on a family trip of a lifetime to Universal Studios in Orlando, while Tom Sweeney won ‘Best Short-haul’ for several pieces in the Irish Independent and The Herald, including a river cruise journey in France.
Mediahuis Ireland group travel editor Pól Ó Conghaile won ‘Best Home Market’ for the third year running – for writing including travel features on Dundalk and Ballydehob in the Irish Independent.
Emer Roche received the Gerry O’Hare memorial award for best newcomer for her piece on Gen Z’s “grá for the Gaeltacht”, published in the Sunday Independent.
Winners of the Travel Extra Travel Journalist of the Year Awards. Photo: Arthur Carron
Domhnall O’Donoghue won the ‘Best sustainable’ category for work published in the Belfast Telegraph, while Catherine Murphy took ‘Best Adventure & Skiing’ for articles in numerous publications, including the Sunday Independent.
The awards were presented at a ceremony coinciding with the Holiday World Show, which sees over 1,000 travel professionals from 50 countries gathering at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin.
Eoghan Corry of Travel Extra said the nominees’ work was “testament to the creativity and innovation of travel and tourism journalism in Ireland”.
Other prizes went to Deirdre Mullins of rte.ie for digital media, Fergal O’Keeffe for local broadcasting on Clare FM, and Tracy O’Connor of RTE’s Nationwide for national broadcasting.
Jim Gallagher won the ‘Northern Ireland’ category for a piece in the Irish Examiner, and Dylan Kehoe from St Andrew’s College in Blackrock, Co Dublin received a prize for secondary school travel writing.
The awards took place at a dinner sponsored by the Spanish Tourism Office and Costa del Sol Tourism in Thomas Prior Hall, Clayton Hotel Ballsbridge.
Holiday World continues through the weekend.