Students from around the country attended the prestigious National Student Media Awards at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
The awards, in their 16th year, are organised by Ireland’s largest student website Oxygen.ie.
The KBC National Student Media Awards, or the Smedias, as they are known by students, provide a platform to showcase the talent and hard work of media students.
Twenty two year old Grace O’Sullivan from Waterford Institute of Technology was successful on the night as she walked away with the award for ‘Leiruchain Teilifíse I nGaelige’ (Irish Television Production of the year).
Grace, in her own words, is “born, bread and buttered in Dungarvan”. Over the weekend Grace can be heard presenting the news on BEAT 102-103 on both Saturdays and Sundays.
Twenty three year old Robert Byrne scooped up the Award for ‘Blog/Vlog’ of the Year. Robert is currently undertaking his masters at University College Cork in Digital Arts & Humanities. He founded his blog called ‘The Digital Human’ in October 2014 as part of his course module.
The blog mainly focuses on music and local Waterford news. When he is not busy studying or working on his blog, Robert can be found reporting for the Munster Express.
RTÉ’s Eoghan McDermott was MC on the night and with over 500 students in attendance, they were given the opportunity to mingle with leading personalities in the media industry such as Lorraine Keane, Dave Fanning, Marty Morrissey and Miss Universe Ireland Joanne Cooper. Others who presented awards on the night included RTÉ’s Teresa Mannion, and UTV’s Alison Comyn.
The judging panel for the awards included top industry names such as Editor of the Irish Independent Fionnan Sheahan, News Editor of the Irish Times Mark Hennessey, Editor of the Irish Examiner Tim Vaughan, Garret Harte, Editor in Chief of Newstalk and Chairperson of TG4 and the CEO of Ardmore Studios, Siun Ni Raghallaigh. .
