The founder of the Galway Advertiser, Ronnie O’Gorman was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Arts by NUI Galway at a ceremony held in the university on Tuesday.
Ronnie O’Gorman is the founder and owner of the Galway Advertiser which celebrates its 52nd birthday next week. At the time of its inception in 1970, it was a novel concept in this country but has since gone on to become the highest circulation regional newspaper in Ireland.
Mr O’Gorman is a renowned historian, key to the restoration of Coole Park/Thoor Ballylee, and has been at the heart of the development of Galway from being a market town to a bustling city, through his promotion of the west and the region culturally and historically.
Born in Salthill in Galway City, Ronnie went to university in London in the 1960s to study literature and drama, with ambitions of becoming an actor, but a chance meeting in the British capital with a man involved in the emerging free newspaper business, altered the course of his life, and he was invited to work at the Westminister Press.
He returned to Galway in 1970 with a determination to create a free paper for the city similar to those he saw in England.
On Thursday April 16 1970 the first edition of the Galway Advertiser hit the streets and Ronnie was the Galway Advertiser’s editor from 1970 until retiring in 2001. He now serves as the chairperson of the Galway Advertiser Newspapers Ltd and continues to write a weekly column for the paper, Galway Diary, focusing on aspects of history of Galway city.
In conjunction with his long time friend Tom Kenny, he writes, produces and records a weekly podcast dealing with the history of Galway. The pair collaborated on a compilation book of a selection of their columns, which was published last winter, with all proceeds going to Galway Simon.
He was joined by family and colleagues at the ceremony in the university on Tuesday.
