Derry University Group Awards: 2025

There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have contributed to the DUG campaign for an independent, cross-border university in northwest Ireland over the past year. We are grateful for all the support - and would like to mention a few in our first annual awards list.

Parliamentarian of the Year (Stormont)

Winner: Sinead McLaughlin MLA (nominated for her work on the new Regional Balance Bill)

Honourable Mention: Dr Caoimhe Archibald MLA (nominated for refusing to raise student fees) 

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Parliamentarian of the Year (Dáil Éireann)

Colm Burke TD (nominated for his long-term championing of an independent university as the last unresolved civil rights demand)

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Parliamentarian of the Year (Westminster)

Mike Kane MP (nominated for his recent work on the NI Select Affairs Committee and long-term support for a cross-border NWU)

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Most Significant Government Intervention (Belfast, Dublin & London)

£40m Shared Island funding of the new Magee Teaching Block, as sanctioned by Taoiseach Michéal Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris) 

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University Leader of the Year (Atlantic Coast)

Dr Orla Flynn (President of the multi-campus, federal university, ATU) 

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University Leader of the Year (Eastern Coast)

Dr Eucharia Meehan (President of the Dublin Institute for Advance Studies and former co-chair of the Royal Irish Academy Futures All-Ireland Research and Innovation Committee.)

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University Partnership of the Year

Queen's University Belfast and Dundalk IT (nominated for the announcement of their formation of a cross-border, federal university)

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Investigative Reporter of the Year

Winner: Garrett Hargan, Belfast Telegraph NW Reporter and author of ‘A Scandal in Plain Sight’

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Newspaper Column of the Year

Nominees: Tom Collins (‘Time to stop the rot and give Derry the university it needs and deserves’, Irish News); Tom Collins, (‘UU award cannot disguise its neglect of the North West’, Irish News); Brian Feeney (‘Keep the civil service away from decisions on Derry’, Irish News); Conal McFeely (‘Governments must team up to deliver the NWU’, Derry Journal); Pat McArt (‘So tell me… what are you going to do for the North West?’, Irish News)

Joint Winners: Tom Collins (for ‘Time to stop the rot and give Derry the university it needs and deserves’), Brian Feeney & Pat McArt.

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Best Book

‘A New Ireland - A Five Year Review’ by Paul Gosling

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Best Blog

Winner: Conal McFeely (Derry must move now to establish its own cross-border university, colmcillepress.com)

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Find of the Year

The Derry Journal’s extended report from July 31, 1850, detailing plans to open an independent university in Derry and to fight Belfast attempts to steal the funding. (Sourced by Seamus Breslin.) 

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Special Award

To Professor Gerry McKenna MRIA, who receives the North West University’s Honorary Doctorate 2025, for services to cross-border education in Ireland.

[*Garrett Hargan received the first honorary doctorate from NWU upon the publication of his investigative history ‘A Scandal in Plain Sight’ in 2024]

ENDS