Sir, – I was very sad to hear of the death of John Cunningham, former editor of the Connacht Tribunenewspaper and lecturer on the MA journalism course at NUI Galway. I was a student of his in the 2006/07 semester when he was in the process of retiring as editor of the paper after 23 years at the helm.
I think I speak for my classmates and other graduates of the programme in saying I will always have very fond memories of JC, as he preferred to be called. He posed as “Sgt John Cunningham” in his simulated Garda press conferences and used to entertain us with anecdotes from his decades of experience. He was delightfully old school in his methods, always offered advice and occasionally even sent one of us on a real assignment for the newspaper.
After our classmate, Donna Ferguson, died in a car crash in December 2006, he came into the journalism lab immediately after he heard the news. We were all a bit lost that day – most of us young and far from home – and he was there for us. We all looked up to him.
JC was the epitome of a great newshound. He was courteous, honest, hard-working and loved a good yarn. Perhaps most important was that he always emphasised our duty of care to the people involved in a story as well as those who read it.
The world is a poorer place without his byline. – Yours, etc,