Since I’m at the end of my wonderful time here at the NewsFour office I thought it would be an appropriate time to say goodbye and farewell and take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has been reading my articles over the past four years. When I first started with NewsFour Ann Ingle the former editor of NewsFour was very helpful and accommodating to me in my first job as a journalist. I wrote my first article on damaged Daffodils in Ringsend Park which had been vandalised the day before (pretty hard hitting stuff). From then on it got better and I got to meet lots of interesting people from Boat Builders to Bodhrán makers and two of my articles managed to get on the front page; Richie Saunders ‘The Ferryman’ and more recently ‘Abundant Grace’.
My favourite part of being a journalist over the past four years was highlighting all the up and coming artists and bands and also being the person who created popular segments of the paper like the Artist in Profile and the Culinary Corner. My only regret in the past four years would be taking Dublin Bus at face value; I had been covering all of the changes to the bus service and schedules when I got a letter of complaint from them saying I had not covered their side of the argument. When I did approach them for their side of the story all I got was misinformation which unfortunately went to print. On the other hand, getting a mention last year in the Irish Times by Roisin Ingle about the Arctic Terns in Dublin Bay and the new commemorative benches at the Poolbeg Lighthouse were definitely other highlights of my time with NewsFour.
By Jason McDonnell
