Spirit of Northern Ireland Awards, Sunday Life

The Sunday Life Spirit of Northern Ireland Awards brings our brand to the heart of communities across NI. As this supplement demonstrates, it clearly shows how we champion people here. This year’s event was the biggest to date. As well as building a special relationship with our readers across print and digital, it provided excellent and engaging positive news content. Social media played a huge role in driving more than 1,000 nominations, aided by award judge India Sasha, a disability rights advocate with more than half a million followers on TikTok. How our teams work together to ensure the best combined digital and print coverage was evident as we honoured unsung heroes including disability and environmental campaigners, mental health advocates, young carers and those who have excelled in education, health and charity. People from all walks of life were represented and from every corner of Northern Ireland. We had one celebrity receiving an award from our 12 winners – Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody. However, this was not for his music but for starting a foundation to donate more than £1m to charitable causes. For the event itself, as anyone who has attended can testify, the real stars are the ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Stars from the worlds of screen, stage, sport and music support the event and present awards, which makes the content and visuals even stronger. For example this year we had Hollywood actor Ciaran Hinds and James Martin (the first actor with Down syndrome to star in an Academy Award winning film). On the night itself Thin Lizzy and Tony Christie performed. Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell who survived a murder bid in February when he was shot several times was honoured with our Special Recognition Award. This was his first public appearance since he was shot by the New IRA. We arranged for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to name him as the Special Recognition Award winner in a video message which we quoted in this supplement. This video and one of DCI Caldwell speaking on stage was distributed via PA to TV, radio and other media. Their words provided an extremely powerful story for the supplement. We published the videos and picture galleries on our own social media and websites, attracting hundreds of thousands of views and some of our biggest video viewing figures of the year. We then collated all the content, interviewed the winners and published four pages in news and a special supplement. Inextricably linked to our news brand, the awards are now the most high-profile event in regional newspapers across the UK. This and our journalism makes a tangible impact for our readers and society in Northern Ireland. This supplement had a real feel-good factor with engaging stories shining a light on the real heroes of NI, a region where people have become accustomed to a diet of hard news due to our Troubles and political situation. The design, colourful photographs featuring our winners and many famous faces made it a must-read.