By News Editor Katie O’Shaughnessy.
An Interview with Young Journalist of the Year 2025, Conor O’Carroll.
Conor O’Carroll knew general reporting wasn’t for them – “that stuff is so valuable and so needed”, but just not the right fit. They were set on exploring journalism’s investigative side. Half way through their politics science degree at UCC, Conor knew it was time to go, the civil service seeming “so very boring”.
The public should be glad that Conor didn’t feel a vocation to stand for office, as they recently went on to win the Young Journalist of the Year award at the National Journalism Awards for their crucial investigative work at the Journal.
“It is always nice to be told that you’re still young.”
With an Investigative Reporting masters over in the UK under their belt, they came home to a job with The Village Magazine. Conor later joined The Journal Investigates (TJI). Alongside their colleagues, editor Maria Delaney and Patricia Devlin, the three person team have worked on a number of vital investigations across the length and breadth of the country.
“Publications make a big deal when they publish an investigation… I kind of wanted to be a part of that. Egotistically”.
Much of Conor’s work has centred on the environment and data centres, transgender issues and more recently accessing childcare. Conor primarily works alone and can be juggling many investigations at once. The day-to-day job could be spent in a variety of ways depending on what stage their investigations are. Days may be spent researching, writing or doing a piece-to-camera to promote an upcoming story.
The Journal Investigates team do tend to serialise some of their investigations, simply given the amount of journalism they would like to give to the public. Though they tend not to dwell on stories for the sake of it.
“If there are worthy newslines, chase them and see where they go. Otherwise someone else will find them. You can’t sit on stories for too long in the hopes that nobody else will publish”.
Conor’s main piece of advice for aspiring investigators is to master the open source data. Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are used by newsrooms and investigative journalists to access documents held by state bodies. It is free and open to all but it can be “a little more tricky” as you have to know what you are asking for. Unlike the UK, the document holding the information must actually exist – civil servants will not pull the info together for you. But annoy them nonetheless, it is the key for good story sourcing.
“Learn when and how you can challenge a decision. And be relentless in pursuing angles. If you think there’s interesting decisions being made at the university, there are undoubtedly meeting minutes or email chains from the people that make those decisions and you can ask for them. See what their rationale is.”
Conor’s success over the past year is a testament to their drive and work ethic. The Journal Investigates is a key output for important Irish societal stories that are valued enough to be given ample time and money to be worked on.
The Bulletin strives to deliver DCU’s student body investigative journalism which scrutinises our institution in order to uphold our journalist role of watchdog. We will operate in the public interest and take inspiration from Conor’s work into our own.
Credits: Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography