Award for `Irish Times' journalist

The Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times, Mr Patsy McGarry, has won the John Templeton European Religion Writer of the Year Award.

He received the prize, awarded annually for "excellence, enterprise and versatility" in the reporting of religion in the secular press, at a ceremony in Odense, Denmark, on Saturday. Mr McGarry won for articles published in 1998: on the Pope's visit to Cuba; the Irish churches' failure to practise rather than just preach reconciliation; and a profile of the rector of Drumcree, the Rev John Pickering.

The Danish, German and Swiss judges were unanimous in their choice, noting that while the articles dealt with difficult subjects, they were written in a way that was "informative but not sensational". They were also described as having "powerful endings which can move the reader from emotion to action".

The prize, valued at 3,500 Swiss francs (£1,700), is presented under the auspices of the Conference of European Churches in conjunction with the Templeton Foundation. It was won in 1998 by a Moscow Times staff writer, Mr Andrei Zolotov.

From Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, Mr McGarry was educated at St Nathy's College and at University College, Galway. He has extensive media experience, beginning with the pirate station Sunshine Radio, then at the Sunday World, Magill, the Irish Press, Capital Radio, the Sunday Independent and the Irish Independent. In 1992 he won a national media award for analysis and comment following articles in the Sun- day Independent on the fall of Charles Haughey as leader of Fianna Fail.

He began freelance writing for The Irish Times in 1994 and was appointed Religious Affairs Correspondent in 1997.