When Sally Hayden was named Ireland’s Journalist of the Year last month for the second time in three years, it was an acknowledgment of how her reporting for The Irish Times combines dogged investigative work, close attention to the experience of people caught up in war and geopolitical conflict, and a precise, almost austere style that refuses the consolations of sentimentality. Her journalism asks you to look directly at what is happening to people who have very little power, in places where the most powerful actors would prefer you looked away.
But Hayden also forms a part of what has become a distinctive tradition of women reporting international conflict. Lara Marlowe’s work for The Irish Times across the Middle East, the Balkans and, more recently, Ukraine has set – and continues to set – a benchmark. More recently, Hannah McCarthy’s reporting for a number of Irish outlets continues that tradition.
Across the world, the
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