You met Dan Kearney on these pages before. Dan’s first attempt at radio documentary making wound up being broadcast on RTÉ Radio One last August and that was an outstanding achievement in itself. That it was well received here at home is another.
Any attempt to glean a piece of good news about Dan – from himself – is usually met with great reluctance. In an attempt to explain his recent success, Dan places the foundation for any such rewards firmly with his tutor on a radio production course he embarked on last year.
It was an experience which opened his eyes and ears to a world full of possibility after he felt the crush of redundancy in 2014.
Dan has just won the City and Guilds Medal for Excellence Award for Media and it’s a just award for the dedication and work he’s put in since he did that course.
Excellence Award for Media
“My tutor on the Radio Production Course, John Herlihy, told me last August that he was going to nominate me for The City and Guilds Medal for Excellence Award for Media,” said Dan.
“I gathered my ‘best bits’ of audio that I had produced throughout the year including my ‘Kerry Is’ pieces, some of my RTE documentary Once Were Champions, Weekend Sport contributions, etc . I saved them on to a file, sent them to John, and thought no more about it.
“Shane O’Connor, who works at the Radio Kerry Training with John, put a submission together and sent it on to City and Guilds. Last week I got a phone call from Shane saying that I had won the award.
“I am the first person from Radio Kerry Training to ever win The City and Guilds Medal for Excellence Award. Afterwards I received a lot of congratulatory e mails from staff at Radio Kerry who were delighted with my win. The certificate and gold medal will be presented to me at the end of February. In June I will be travelling to London to a presentation ceremony,” said Dan.
Nominated for Further Award
Dan has also been nominated for a further award, The Lion Award is the culmination of the Medals for Excellence Award programme winners. Each year the organisers invite selected Medals for Excellence winners from across Ireland and the UK to London to celebrate their achievements together.
This summer, Castleisland, Kerry and Radio Kerry will have a representative there.
May I respectfully suggest to the newly formed, steadily performing, Castleisland Chamber Alliance that Dan Kearney’s achievement should be honoured in whatever way they see fit. It should be marked as much for the journey to this point in his career as for the award itself. As should the Castleisland Community College All-Ireland Basketball win a couple of weeks ago and Noel Browne and all associated with Clonmel winner Coolavanny Bingo and indeed Aeneas Horan’s addition to his All-Ireland Ploughing Championship title list. As was mentioned at the Chamber meeting with the general election candidates last night, maybe we should start celebrating our strengths.
If you’d like to read about Dan’s path into radio documentary making you can do so with a click here: http://www.mainevalleypost.com/2015/08/12/dans-doc-on-one-to-make-rte-radio-broadcast
