Signature Journalism in Ireland & Northern Ireland
‘The Tenant’ brought a presidential campaign down
The story of presidential candidate Jim Gavin and his unpaid debt to a former tenant sent shockwaves through Irish political circles in 2025. When Gavin sensationally withdrew from the race, mystery intensified around the identity of the figure known only as “The Tenant”.
Our sister title, the Irish Independent, broke the story that brought Gavin’s campaign to its knees. But the Sunday World and the Crime World podcast quickly became the story. For the mystery man at the centre of this political maelstrom was none other than Sunday World deputy editor and Crime World co-host Niall Donald.
In the days following Gavin’s withdrawal, Niall revealed his role in an hour-long interview with podcast co-host Nicola Tallant. His retelling of how he ended up at the centre of one of Ireland’s greatest political scandals resonated across platforms and made for compelling viewing, listening and reading.
The interview video attracted 115,000 YouTube views, while the podcast was downloaded more than 70,000 times and republished on our sister show Indo Daily. Audience engagement on social media was unprecedented.
This case demonstrates the power of signature journalism amplified through collaboration. By working with colleagues across Mediahuis titles, a single investigation became a multi-platform story with national impact.
© Crime World - Niall Donald
The investigation that stopped a presidential campaign
The campaign to become president of Ireland – the head of state but a largely ceremonial role – leads to heavy scrutiny on each of the candidates. That scrutiny was going to be all the greater when Fianna Fáil, the largest political party, selected as its candidate a famous football coach with no political experience. As manager of the Dublin football team, Jim Gavin had enjoyed unprecedented success, winning a record five All-Ireland championships in a row. But what did we know about his life outside of football?
Ireland editor Fionnán Sheahan, known for breaking major political stories, did his research patiently and diligently. He established that Gavin – like many in Celtic Tiger times – had hit some financial problems in the crash and had a rent dispute with a tenant who had overpaid him. Crucially, Gavin had never paid him back. He claimed there were no records of such a dispute, but the Irish Independent proved otherwise and published the story.
Gavin subsequently had to admit that we were correct. And for the first time in the history of the state, a presidential candidate quit mid-race. The fallout ran for months and has, many believe, begun the process of a slow ousting of prime minister Micheál Martin, who championed Gavin’s candidacy.
Fionnán’s research was painstaking work and produced a unique piece: the definition of signature journalism. And the investigation didn’t end there. There was a remarkable twist on the Crime World podcast where the tenant revealed his identity, detailing the human impact behind the political scandal and amplifying the story’s reach across platforms and audiences nationwide.
© Collins Photos - Fianna Fáil representatives
Powerful journalism begins at the kitchen table
In July, two years after a devastating car crash claimed the lives of teenagers Kiea McCann and Dlava Mohammed, our journalist Liam Cosgrove and photographer Mark Condren sat down at a kitchen table in rural Ireland with the parents of 17-year-old Kiea. They listened quietly as the family shared a personal story of love, loss, heartbreaking grief and anger at the justice system.
This sympathetic treatment of a sensitive subject had a profound impact. It was one of last year’s top 30 local stories for engagement, with 115,000 minutes of attention time and exceptional levels of social media sharing and commentary. More importantly, it helped promote a vital, wider conversation about road safety and speeding, the words of two parents piercing the silence like nothing else could.
A fine example of signature journalism, it went beyond mere reportage as, without embellishment or hyperbole, journalist and photographer carefully brought to light the terrible human story behind stark statistics. For Liam, the story had its own personal impact – and maybe that’s why it resonated so widely.
“As journalists, we’re conditioned to deal with and emotionally detach ourselves from even the most sensitive and harrowing of stories,” he says. “However, when it came to stepping through the doors and listening to the daily nightmare being encountered by the parents of Kiea McCann, no amount of training or experience could have prepared this journalist for what Frankie and Teresa McCann bravely shared with the outside world.”
© Mark Condren — Frankie and Teresa McCann, parents of Kiea McCann
Troubled Waters: the hidden story behind the Olympic medals
In 2021, Irish rowers scored an unprecedented success at the Olympics, with six athletes coming home from Tokyo with medals. But behind the scenes, all was not well.
Our story started in February 2023 with an email to Paul Kimmage, a Sunday Independent journalist with an unrivalled reputation for uncovering major sporting scandals. What followed was over two years of painstaking investigation into the abusive training regime at Rowing Ireland and its impact on athlete welfare. Over two Sundays in November 2025, we published “Troubled Waters: The inside story of the toxic world of Irish rowing and the true cost of those Olympic medals”. It ran to more than 20,000 words.
Paul’s story was raised in the Dáil (the Irish parliament), where politicians demanded that Rowing Ireland appear before a special parliamentary committee to answer questions about the training methods deployed in the team camps and why pleas for help from athletes were repeatedly ignored.
Audience engagement, in print, online and in audio, was astonishing. It was, by a significant margin, the most-read story of the year on independent.ie: subscriber attention minutes totalled 591,998, pageviews reached 165,112 and the story brought in 148 new subscribers. The investigation also had two accompanying podcasts which were downloaded more than 62,000 times.
Troubled Waters was a story with impact. And it’s a story that someone, somewhere, didn’t want us to tell. That is the very definition of signature journalism.
© Julian Finney — Troubled Waters
Exposing a digital get-rich-quick scheme
In 2025, a local entrepreneurship programme, the FBA Brand Builder, came to an abrupt end following an investigation by Liam Tunney. The programme charged participants for guidance on launching online selling businesses through Amazon.
Liam exposed serious concerns about how the business was being run by CEO Darren Campbell. Many participants, who had paid at least £6,500 each, reported significant financial losses. Liam’s reporting revealed a troubling pattern: the Brand Builder promised financial freedom but instead delivered debt and disappointment as clients were advised to take out credit and secure loans to pay for course fees and resources. When the business collapsed, it owed some £450,000 to tax authorities, as well as thousands more to two law firms.
This story was about speaking truth to a very new and unpredictable kind of power: the ability to reach into people’s lives through their phones and convince them to part with their hard-earned cash. The investigation showed how press freedom and the truth ultimately overcame legal threats and disinformation, giving a voice to those affected.
© Belfast Telegraph graphics - Darren Campbell's FBA Brand Builder has collapsed