March 2010 Donna Ferguson Memorial Award 2010

The presentation of the third annual Donna Ferguson Memorial Award is to take place on Thursday, 25 March at 11.30am in the Siobhan McKenna Theatre, Arts Millennium Building at NUI Galway. The 2010 winner of the award is Eoin Ryan from Athlone, Co. Westmeath who achieved the highest mark in the broadcasting module of the MA Journalism. The presentation will be made by journalist, author and sportsman, Christy O' Connor. Donna Ferguson was posthumously conferred with an MA in Journalism at NUI Galway, following her untimely death in a car accident in December 2006. The Donna Ferguson Memorial Award was initiated by her family and community in Belleek, Co. Fermanagh, and commemorates Donna's achievements while she was a student on the journalism programme in 2006. The inaugural presentation of the award was made by Gay Byrne in 2008 and by Noirin Hegarty, Editor of the Sunday Tribune in 2009. Christy O' Connor is a journalism graduate of NUI Galway, a former inter county hurler with Clare and sports writer with The Sunday Times. He is also author of the critically acclaimed book on hurling Last Man Standing which was runner up in the Irish Sports Book of the Year Award 2005. He is currently working on a new book due out in October. The emphasis on sport at the presentation of the memorial award this year will highlight Donna's interest in sport as a Gaelic footballer for both NUI Galway and her home county of Fermanagh. Eoin Ryan graduated from the MA in Journalism with first class honours and now edits Ireland's most popular student website www.oxygen.ie, The Spanner satirical magazine, and also works as a freelance GAA reporter for national newspapers. Eoin also achieved first class honours in his final project entitled "The Birth of the GAA and its Founding Fathers". ENDS