The Connacht Tribune and Galway City Tribune are celebrating six nominations for this year’s Local Ireland Media Awards – joint highest for any newspaper in the country.

The prestigious awards, sponsored by the National Lottery, celebrate excellence in local journalism and the regional news publishing industry.

There were individual nominations for Dara Bradley (Best News Story), Joe O’ Shaughnessy (Best Photograph) and Denise McNamara (Best Community Story), as well as nominations for Best Local Ad, Best Use of Social Media and Best Use of Photography.

And that is from a year when – as President of Local Ireland and Connacht Tribune Operations Manager Declan McGuire said – there was a record entry of more than 600.

“It reflects the huge popularity of the awards and the intense competition to get a nomination,” he said, at the launch of the awards at the offices of the National Lottery.

“We are grateful to the National Lottery for their continued support and I want to thank all our judges for their time in considering so many entries,” he added.

National Lottery CEO Andrew Algeo said they were particularly proud of their long-standing partnership with the Local Ireland Media Awards.

“We are especially looking forward to this year’s in-person event, which will allow us to celebrate the impact that local media has on the communities that they serve,” he said.

“We are excited to host our very own category once again, the Best Community Story of the year, which will recognise community spirit and the impact of people working together to make a difference to their communities,” he added.

The judging panel for the awards is chaired by entrepreneur and broadcaster Áine Kerr, joined by author and broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald, Emeritus Professor at TUD Michael Foley, Dawn Wheatley of DCU School of Communications, Managing Director of Kinetic Ireland Andrew Sinclair, photographer and former Irish Times Picture Editor Frank Miller, broadcaster and writer Valerie Cox, and journalist and author PJ Cunningham.

This year’s awards will be held at the Bloomfield House Hotel, Mullingar on Thursday, October 13, when the Master of Ceremonies will be RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey.

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