One of the big success stories of the newspaper industry’s year was the inaugural NNI Journalism Awards, which took place at Dublin’s Four Seasons hotel in late October.

On a cold afternoon in the capital, Ireland’s fourth estate turned out in force to celebrate our finest scribes. Simon Carswell, financial correspondent for The Irish Times, was crowned NNI National Journalist of the Year 2011.

Simon’s award came in recognition of “an extraordinary body of work” relating to the financial crisis, including an exclusive interview with former Anglo chief David Drumm and an article explaining how the notorious bank guarantee came into place.

“He brought us inside the very rooms where the banking deal was hammered out,” is how Michael Brophy, Chairman of the NNI judging panel, put it. “He has helped us to understand why things have happened in the way they have happened.”

In total, 13 national and regional journalists received NNI awards, including Fiach Kelly of the Irish Independent (Young Journalist of the Year), Senan Molony of the Irish Daily Mail (Scoop of the Year) and Jennifer O’Brien of the Irish Sun (Showbiz Journalist of the Year).

On a day when the principles of good journalism took centre stage, it was fitting that the special award for Outstanding Contribution to the Newspaper Industry went to former Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy.

Introducing her as “a doughty figher for the freedom of the press”, NNI’s Frank Cullen had the honour of presenting Geraldine with her award.

See the full list of winners here, and a gallery of photos from the big night below.

500+ Entries Submitted

A total of 546 entries were submitted to the NNI Journalism Awards website. This was far beyond our expectation and was a superb response considering the awards were the first of their kind to be run by NNI.

Guest of honour at the Four Seasons was the Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte TD, who presented the gongs in tandem with then-NNI Chairman, Paul Cooke. Our guest speaker was Simon Kelner, former editor of the UK Independent.