South Tipperary General Hospital Radio hosted the I.H.R.N. Training workshop on Saturday the 14th of April 2012.

The subject for the workshop was media law and the  instructor was Andrea Martin Solicitor specialising in media law and author of the book  Media law in ireland. 

Saturdays workshop was attended by members of St. Ita's Hospital Radio Portrane and South Tipperary General Hospital Radio. It was the second of two workshops the first having taken place in Cork in Februrary  which was attended by members from Cork's CUH fm and Limerick's Regional Hospital Radio.

Both workshops were very informative and enjoyable and the IHRN wish to thank everyone that gave up their time to attend and  a big thank you to Andrea for producing and  presenting the Workshop.

THE annual Irish Hospital Radio Network Awards (IHRN) took place at the Minella Hotel in Clonmel and a large attendance of hospital radio members from around the country travelled to the Co. Tipperary venue. The awards are presented as a token of the hours of dedicated voluntary work put in by members of the four stations throughout the country; St Ita’s, Portrane, Co. Dublin; South Tipperary General Hospital radio Regional Hospital Radio, Limerick, and CUH FM of the Cork University Hospital.

Over the past number of months, the three judges had a difficult task of selecting winners in each of the eleven categories. This year’s panel of judges were: Rick O’Shea of 2FM and Trevor Welch, of the TV3 sports department, both former hospital radio presenters, along with Richard Smith from the UK, who presents a syndicated A to Z of pop which is supplied to stations throughout Britain and Ireland.

Left to Right- John Martin - Leo Kirby - Christine Noctor - Donal Cronin on behalf of Claire Jones
Eileen Sheehan - Frank Rea - Susan Cloonan - Brian Dunne - Ray Matthews
(Photos by Berit Alits)
(More photos on the Events Menu )

The winners of the Presenter of the year awards from each station were. Clair Jones CUH fm. , Leo Kirby, Limerick Regional Hospital Radio, Susan Cloonan, South Tipperary General Hospital Radio, Ray Matthews St. Ita's Hospital Radio Portrane. The overall winner of this Catagory and National Hospital Radio Presenter of The year award went to Ray Matthews of St Ita's.

The Winner of the Irish Music Presenter of the year was won by Christine Noctor of St. Ita's Portrane for the second year running . Eileen Sheehan from CUH fm won the award for Irish Bi Lingual presenter of the year.

Clair Jones from CUH fm received her second award of the day when she was announced as the winner of the specialist music show of the year. The new presenter of the year award was won by Brian Dunne , Limerick Regional Hospital Radio.

The winner of the Richard Smith Award was Frank Rea, of CUH 2FM in Cork. Richard Smith had this to say about his award:

 ‘‘From the nominations received, it was an extremely difficult decision to make and I wish that there were awards I could give for all of those nominated."

‘‘There are really dedicated people working within stations that are part of the Irish Hospital Radio Network and I hope that you are all rightly proud of what you do to entertain your listeners. ‘‘

However, from what I’ve read of the nominees, Frank Rea sounds like the ideal candidate to win his award as he has, over the years demonstrated what hospital radio means to him as a ‘hobby’ and to a certain extent, his life.

‘‘Frank has a first-hand grasp and knowledge of what listeners in hospital beds require from their service having spent time as an in-patient, therefore with this knowledge he has obviously used this to his advantage to create a warmth and, if there is such a thing, an ‘at ease’ feeling during his many programmes he has done over the years, which included some whilst he was an in-patient, that’s dedication! ‘‘

As I say, an incredibly difficult one to judge this year, although I feel Frank just edged it ahead of some very worthy runners-up.’’

Chairman of the Irish Hospital Radio Network, Noel Welch, presented his award to St Ita’s John Martin. John has been with St Ita’s since 1987, a total of 24 years. He broadcasts every Sunday morning from 9 to 12.30. In those 24 years he has been thoroughly reliable and seldom missed his show.

He must be one of the longest serving hospital radio presenter in the country. To turn in week after week for 24 years at his own expense displays a huge commitment to hospital radio and for this reason he deserved the award.

The awards ceremony was hosted by John Savage and his team from South Tipperary General Hospital, along with IHRN committee members: Noel Welch, Tom Noctor, Tom O’Sullivan and Donal Cronin. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) was represented by Patricia Kelly and special guest was the deputy town mayor of Clonmel, Gabrielle Egan. The full list of winners: