Latest News

Dublin, Monday, 9 December 2024: Ireland’s leading business journalists were celebrated today at the UCD Smurfit School Business Journalist Awards. Seven journalists were recognised across the categories and Brian Carey received the Lifetime Achievement Award. 

The awards, sponsored by Bank of Ireland, recognise excellence in Irish business journalism across the media spectrum. The honours were delivered in conjunction with the Business Journalists Association of Ireland.

The 2024 categories and winners are:

• Business News Story of the Year – Charlie Weston, Irish Independent
  ‘Thousands whose mortgages were sold to vultures cannot call on ombudsman for help’
• Audio Story of the Year – Conall Ó Móráin, The Media Group
  ‘Never give up – Interview with Ashley McDonnell, Global Marketing Director of PUIG’
• Business Feature of the Year – Jon Ihle, The Sunday Times, Ireland 
  ‘A very Canadian kind of coup’
• Business Analyst of the Year - Eoin Burke-Kennedy, The Irish Times                  ‘From high-minded ambition to mere corporate tokenism: ESG’s rise and fall’ and ‘The rise and fall of Blackberry serves as a lesson for Ireland’
• Business Interview of the Year – Thomas Hubert, The Currency, Interview with Entrepreneur Tom Cotter: “We’re back to bootstrapping, but we’re doing better than ever”
• Women in Business Journalism Award – Catherine Sanz, Business Post ‘Johnny Ronan in talks to sell Bewley’s café building as part of €300m sale of prized assets’ and ‘Inside the toxic culture pushing Irish lawyers to breaking point’
• Upcoming Journalist of the Year – Emer Walsh, Irish Examiner ‘IDA chief: Investors see stability and certainty in Ireland’; ‘Gaza puts Ireland's public investments in the occupied territories under scrutiny’; and ‘Gold shows its mettle: In a world of cryptocurrencies and AI stocks, investors still drawn to the oldest commodity’

In addition to the seven categories listed above, an Outstanding Achievement Award was presented to Brian Carey of The Sunday Times, Ireland for his contribution to journalism. Read more about Brian’s career below.

Professor Federica Pazzaglia, Director of UCD Smurfit School and Associate Dean of UCD College of Business said:

“In the 17th edition of the Business Journalist Awards, we are once again proud to recognise the best of Irish business journalism. In a tumultuous time around the world, journalists play an ever-important role in highlighting business trends that have an impact in Ireland and beyond. We sincerely thank our sponsors, Bank of Ireland, for partnering with us to celebrate the best of Irish journalism."

Damien Garvey, Head of Group External Communications and Public Affairs, Bank of Ireland said:

“The importance of journalism, including fact-checking and critical thinking, has never been clearer. An independent and impartial media is of immense value to our economy and society, and these awards recognise business journalists who uphold the highest standards. We are proud to collaborate with UCD Smurfit School once more and sponsor these prestigious awards and we congratulate all the nominees and winners today.”

More on Brian Carey’s Career

Over the years, Brian has charted the highs and lows of Irish business life. Brian has won awards for his ‘Agenda’ column in The Sunday Times which has become required if not always comfortable reading for Ireland’s business community. 
His career has seen him work for both Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch, and indirectly for Tony O’Reilly. His first published business article centred on the coming together of three Irish bookie chains to see off UK competition – that was the birth of Paddy Power, now Flutter, the world’s largest gambling company. While working with the Sunday Business Post in the 1990s he wrote the first newspaper profile of a young up and coming airline executive called Michael O'Leary. He also served as midwife at the birth of publishing phenomenon Ross O’Carroll-Kelly while sports editor of the Sunday Tribune.

In 1996, he won the Business Journalist of the Year award for a series of articles on the film industry, focusing on the collapse of the ill-fated Marlon Brando movie Divine Rapture which was being filmed in east Cork at the time. Around that time, he also covered the hugely unexpected and controversial award of the second mobile phone licence to Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone, the Eircom flotation and subsequent take private, and the debt fuelled empire building of emerging property moguls such as Derek Quinlan.

After what in hindsight was the inevitable crash, he co-authored the award winning book The Fitzpatrick Tapes with Tom Lyons.

Since then, as Business Editor of The Sunday Times, he has continued to bring to light the business stories that need to be told as well as those that some people would prefer not to be told.

Each winner of each category is awarded a €1,000 prize.