The Limerick Voice team took home three awards at the first Irish Student Publication Association awards ceremony.
The first ever Irish Student Publication Association awards ceremony took place on February 2 last, at Trinity College Dublin.
As the UK and Ireland’s largest student media association, the SPA’s annual awards programme recognises the ‘best work’ carried out by student-run publications in eight different regions. The awards were contested by newspapers and platforms across Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Co-hosted by Trinity News, the event marked the Regional Awards Ceremony, covering student journalism across Ireland and Northern Ireland.
There were five award categories, with a variety of awards up for grabs – of which, Limerick Voice took home two first place awards, and one highly commended.
First up was ‘Best Article’, a category which saw awards for Special Mention, Highly Commended, and the Overall Winner. This award rewards the best article written for a student publication in the region. It can be anything from a news story, an in-depth investigation, a feature, or a review, but it must stand above the rest.
- Winner: Gemma Good of Limerick Voice with ‘Limerick’s “Going Dark”: A Night in the Life of a Limerick Treaty Suicide Prevention Volunteer’.
- Highly Commended: Kiran Singh of University Times with ‘Racism, Mental Health, and the Urgent Call for Change in Trinity’s Counselling Services’.
- Special Mention: Ruby Topalian of Trinity News with ‘The USSR flag and student communism: a controversial combination’.
Commenting on Gemma’s win, the judges said: “This piece took a lot of commitment and it’s an important topic.”
Next up was ‘Best Journalist’.
- Winner: Clara Roche of University Times
- Highly Commended: Ruby Topalian of Trinity News
- Special Mention: Jayna Rohslau of Trinity News
The final awards in the individual categories were for ‘Outstanding Commitment’. This award recognises outstanding commitment of an individual to their publication over the previous year, going above and beyond the call of duty.
- Winner: Kate Henshaw of Trinity News
- Highly Commended: Molly Cantwell of Limerick Voice
Speaking of Molly’s commitment to Limerick Voice, the judges said: “Under extremely difficult circumstances, Molly has heroically picked things up showing strength and resilience.”
Following the individual awards were the publication awards. First up was ‘Best Digital’, the newest award for regionals, which recognises all digital media from websites, social media, newsletters and anything else. The judges were looking for innovation and engaging ways to get readers involved.
- Winner: Limerick Voice
- Highly Commended: Trinity News
The judges said: “Fantastic dedication to advancing their digital content. From covering live news across Dublin, uploading weekly news round ups and receiving over 39k views on TikTok.”
Finally, ‘Best Publication’ was the final award of the night.
- Winner: The College Tribune
- Highly Commended: TCD Misc
These accolades for Limerick Voice and our reporters comes as Limerick Voice’s stellar crew of reporters return to the University of Limerick campus for the spring semester. Readers can expect a continuation of the quality local and national news coverage, alongside the incredible digital content enjoyed in 2023, as well as our highly anticipated annual print edition – with release date details coming soon!
This isn’t the first year Limerick Voice has been honoured by the SPA. Last year, the team took home the highly coveted ‘Best Publication’ award, with the judges commenting: “Limerick Voice have established themselves as a multi-platform presence. They regularly post photo and video content on social media and maintain three podcasts, despite having under 30 writers — who still write prolifically.”
The Limerick Voice 2023/2024 team are proud to be upholding the excellent reputation of the UL-based newspaper.