Limerick Post news editor wins mental health journalism award

Limerick Post News Editor Adam Leahy receiving his award from Journal.ie editor Siobhan O'Carroll.

LIMERICK POST news editor Adam Leahy was last week awarded for his work in mental health journalism at the 2022 Headline Mental Health Media Awards.

Adam, a recent MA journalism graduate from University of Limerick, received the Student Journalism Award at the annual ceremony recognising excellence in reporting and media coverage on mental health issues and suicide.

Award organisers Headline are Irelandโ€™s national media monitoring programme responsible for promoting responsible and accurate coverage of mental health and suicide-related issues in the Irish media.

The Limerick Post news editor received the national award from Headline programme leader รine Oโ€™Meara and The Journal editor Sinead Oโ€™Carroll, who, on behalf of award judges, described his work as โ€œa journey delving deeper into the mental health challenges of studentsโ€ that was โ€œwell sourced, reported, and structuredโ€.

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Accepting the award, Adam thanked Headline, as well as the assembled group of the countryโ€™s leading mental health writers and reporters, for their contribution to the field and expressed his inspiration in the devotion they showed to the often strategically-avoided subject of mental health in the media.

In his academic work, Adamโ€™s Masters research at UL focused on suicide reporting and the national print mediaโ€™s depiction of Limerick City in relation to suicide.

Other awards went to RTร‰โ€™s Barry Lenihan (Mental Health Broadcasting), Ann Murphy of The Echo (Local Print/Online), Noel Baker of The Irish Examiner (National Print/Online), writer and mental health activist Stefanie Preissner (Mental Health Champion), and Noteworthy.ie editor Maria Delaney (Special Interest award).

Earlier this year, Adam led ULโ€™s MA in Journalism class to winning a national student media (SMEDIA) award for TV Production. He was also nominated as Journalist of the Year (National Media) at the same event.