JOHN CUNNINGHAM, who has died at the age of 66, was a committed and influential journalist and commentator who edited the Connacht Tribunefor 23 years.
The NUI Galway citation for his honorary degree in 2006 recorded how his journalistic voice “resounded much further” with “remarkable national impact”.
He was a regular contributor to RTÉ television's Today Tonight, now Prime Time, and reviewed the regional newspapers on RTÉ radio for almost a decade.
He was a member of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission for five years and a judge of the ESB Media Awards, having received a national award himself in 1979 for articles on the controversial section 4 planning permissions.
He was born in Tuam, Co Galway, and his mother Mary died shortly afterwards. His father Johnny worked at the Tuam sugar factory and was involved in the Public Utilities Society initiated by Tuam Labour Party activist, councillor, senator and Christian socialist Bobby Burke.
Johnny Cunningham was also caretaker in an orphanage run by the Bon Secours order, and his son would write many years later about how he was reared by the nuns.
He was appointed junior reporter in the Connacht Tribuneby then managing director Nelly O'Reilly in 1964, and rose through the ranks.
During his time as sports editor he began writing a satirical column on GAA politics under the pseudonym “Pancake” – after a diehard Galway football supporter, Pancake Ward.
In 1982 he was appointed editor of the Waterford News and Star, coming back to the Tribunein 1984 to succeed Seán V Fahy.
Editor of The Irish Timesand former colleague Kevin O'Sullivan noted: "The ability to run a large newspaper circulating throughout much of the west of Ireland as well as a modern and visually engaging urban weekly in the shape of the City Tribune(under the inspired editorship of Mike Glynn) and the Connacht Sentinel, an early-in-the-week compact – each with its own distinctive character – was one of his most notable achievements."
Cunningham's weekly column, In The Corridors of Power, by "The Deputy", became essential reading for politicians, and after his retirement in 2007 he also wrote for the City Tribune, continuing throughout his illness. His final column on the subject of Galway Airport was published yesterday at his family's request.
He also provided communications services for the annual Galway Science and Technology Festival.
He lectured on NUI Galway’s higher diploma in applied communications and its masters in journalism programmes for 18 years.
Course director Bernadette O’Sullivan recalled how “JC” was a “charismatic and generous educator”, whose early passing “leaves a huge gap in journalism education at a time when the merging of the traditional values of newsgathering and integrity – which he represented – with the monumental changes in the media landscape were never more important”.
RTÉ Radio 1's News at Onepresenter Seán O'Rourke worked for a year with him after leaving school and says he learned more in that 12 months than ever since as there was a "great quality about everything he did".
Cunningham was an avid golfer, and O’Rourke remembers the only time he ever saw him “outraged” was immediately after he had learned that a well-known sportsman had been caught playing golf in wellington boots.
Tributes led this week by President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny are testimony to the measure of his influence.
His successor at the Tribune, Dave O'Connell, was struck by his "boundless enthusiasm", while the National Union of Journalists mother of the chapel at the newspaper, Bernie Ní Fhlatharta, described him as a "very hands-on editor" who was a committed member of the union.
“At a time when trust has taken a battering within Irish society and sections of the media, his news sense stood out, as it was always infused with balance and fairness,” Kevin O’Sullivan remarked.
John Cunningham is survived by his wife Nuala and four sons, Shane, Ivor, Gary and Enda,brother Patrick and sisters Mary and Therese.
John Cunningham: born June 3rd, 1945; died February 7th, 2012