The Irish Times was last night named Ireland's best-printed national newspaper.
The award was accepted on behalf of The Irish Times Ltd by Mr Derek McCullagh, director, production, at the Irish Print Awards dinner in Dublin.
The awards ceremony, organised by the Irish Printer magazine, was attended by more than 300 members of the graphic arts industry. The print of the year trophy was presented to the Dublin firm Cahill Printers for the book, Best of Irish Advertising and Design Awards.
Other winners included the Meath Chronicle, which won the best-printed regional newspaper for its printing of the new Dublin newspaper, Dublin People.
Mr Ciaran Dunne, a production manager at Sunday Newspapers, Terenure, Dublin, was named young print manager of the year. The award for a small printing house with up to 10 employees went to Brosna Press, Church Street, Ferbane, Co Offaly, for its printing of the Eily O'Connor tourism brochure.
Mr Roy Bailie OBE, chairman of W. and G. Baird Holdings, Belfast, was elected to the National Print Museum Hall of Fame. In 1977 he led the management buy out of W. and G. Baird and has since led the firm through a programme of growth and modernisation.
Mr Bailie is a member of the court of directors of both the Bank of England and the Bank of Ireland; chairman of the Northern Ireland Tourism Board and a director of Ulster Television. He is president of the British Printing Industries Federation.
Other awards went to: Hudson Killeen for sheet-fed printing; Lithographic Universal of Bray for web offset printing and magazine printing (Image); D.C. Kavanagh for business forms; Litho Studios for pre-press; Boxmore Packaging for carton packaging; Marksell Hobson Morris for screen printing; Label World, Swords, for self-adhesive labels; Microprint for computer manuals; and Imagelink for digital printing.