Two RTÉ Television programmes receive awards

An RTÉ television documentary which investigated the murder of the Pope's Ambassador to Burundi, Tipperary born Archbishop Michael Courtney, has won the 2005 Connacht Gold/John Healy Award.
The documentary, 'Assassination -The Death of Archbishop Michael Courtney’ was presented by RTÉ's Western Correspondent Jim Fahy and produced by Caroline Bleahen. It was first broadcast in the 'True Lives' series in April of last year.
The award, which honours "single pieces of work which are of exceptional journalistic merit", was presented at a function in Sligo on Wednesday May 11.
The award is named after the distinguished West of Ireland writer and broadcaster John Healy. The hour-long programme won both the Radio and TV category and the overall National Award.
Archbishop Michael Courtney, the Papal Nuncio to Burundi, was one of the Vatican's most senior and experienced diplomats. He was sent to Burundi by Pope John Paul II in an effort to help bring peace to a war torn state where 300,000 people have been killed in 11 years of genocidal tribal warfare. On December 28, 2003 he was shot dead after a hail of bullets ripped through his car - just three weeks before he was due to leave Africa for a new posting in Cuba.
The documentary looks at the turbulent life Archbishop Courtney led in Burundi engaging in often times dangerous contacts with the rebels; arranging hostage releases and also attempting to eradicate corruption in the Catholic Church in the state.
The series Prime Time Investigates was also honoured at the Irish Medical Media Awards when the documentary ‘From The Cradle To The Grave’, an exposé of the links between poverty and ill-health in Ireland, won the Consumer Broadcast Media Award for reporter Keelin Shanley and producer Judy Kelly. The programme was shown in December 2004.
Prime Time Investigates also received five awards last year - an Irish Film and Television Award.
(GB)