Law Society director general Ken Murphy and president James McCourt present the Justice Media Award to The Nationalist’s Mairead Wilmot

NATIONALIST news editor Mairéad Wilmot last week scooped a top prize in the Law Society of Ireland’s Justice Media Awards. Mairéad was named the winner in the regional newspapers category of the national media competition and picked up her award at a ceremony in Blackhall Place, Dublin last Thursday.

The Cork native, who’s been working with The Nationalist since 2005, garnered the prestigious award for her story Victim speaks out on sex abuse that destroyed two lives. Mairéad’s incisive yet sensitive interview with the survivor of sex abuse was praised by the judging panel, who said: “Mairéad Wilmot of The Nationalist fully deserves this award for the clarity of her reporting, her tenacity in achieving such a significant interview and the positive effect that the interview, no doubt, had on other victims of similar crimes.”

The judges continued that the “article reveals the important role that regional newspapers play in seeing justice being done by reporting on significant local cases that can have a big impact nationally … The impact of the exclusive interview, as covered by the winning journalist, was such that the story was picked up by the national media.”

Mairéad was accompanied to the awards ceremony by her editor, Conal O’Boyle, and was presented with a Dublin Crystal trophy. Commenting on Mairéad’s success, O’Boyle said: “This award is a tribute to the skill and dedication that Mairéad brings to her work every day and all of us at The Nationalist are very proud of her achievement.”