*Josh Prenderville, Rebecca O’Sullivan, Fiona Cahill & Derrick Lynch of Clare FM at the IMRO Radio Awards.
TWO NEWS REPORTERS are to leave Clare FM while there has also been an exit from the newsroom of The Clare Champion.
The Clare Echo understands that both Josh Prenderville and Rebecca O’Sullivan both handed in their notice to the local radio station within the past week.
A native of Hospital in Co Limerick, Josh joined Clare FM in the summer of 2020. Prior to this he had worked as a communications officer for both the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) and the Limerick Institute of Technology which has since been rebranded as TUS.
After graduating from the University of Limerick, he began working with Live95 FM as a researcher and later a broadcast journalist.
With Clare FM, Josh had been a senior news journalist where he had the task of covering monthly meetings of Clare County Council and quarterly gatherings of the Clare Joint Policing Committee. For the visit of any high-profile politician, Josh was Clare FM’s representative among the media pack.
One such interview gained national attention when he posed the question to Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) about a potential “cap” on Ukrainian refugees. The use of the word by the Meelick politician prompted him to later do a u-turn on his remarks.
During his three years with Clare FM, Josh also began presenting a business podcast, titled Clare Means Business and served as a stand-in presenter for Sideline View in the absence of Mullagh’s Derrick Lynch. The weekly podcast had helped to give businesses in the county a platform and shared many stories on adapting post COVID-19.
He is to return to communications next month and is among the new additions to Limerick City and County Council, he will be in the Active Travel unit of the local authority. Chair of the Clare JPC, Cllr John Crowe (FG) paid tribute to the reporter at this month’s sitting noting that he was moving on to “greener pastures” and acknowledged that he was attending his final JPC gathering.
Fellow Limerick native, Rebecca O’Sullivan from Kilfinane is to also depart the newsroom of the county’s most listened to radio station. She joined Clare FM in August 2020 where she initially served as producer of the current affairs show, Morning Focus.
At the time, Morning Focus was presented by Gavin Grace but he stepped away from journalism in May 2021 bringing the end to a six year stint behind the microphone of the station’s flagship show.
Rebecca remained as producer on the show, now fronted by Alan Morrissey, until February 2022 when she moved to the role of a news reporter, this transition also saw her concluded presenting the weekend show ‘Hindsight’. Melissa McMahon from Ennis succeeded Rebecca as Morning Focus producer.
A graduate of Mary Immaculate College, Rebecca was heavily involved in the current affairs output of the college’s student radio station, Wired FM during her time at MIC. She also began working for Live95 FM during college working as a news reporter and later part of the production team for Limerick Today, the station’s morning current affairs show fronted by Joe Nash.
There has been further media movement within the Banner County. Kevin Corbett who had been Deputy Editor of The Clare Champion left his role with the newspaper earlier this month, having been there since the summer of 2021.
Also from the Treaty County, Corbett has been credited with increasing The Champion’s online presence since joining from The Limerick Leader where he had been a sub-editor, a post whereby the individual is responsible for laying out and designing pages within the newspaper. He had been a sub-editor with The Champion before returning to The Leader.
Corbett has exited journalism to join the Office of Public Works’ communications department.
Management of The Barrack St based newspaper are now working to find his successor with an outside appointment likely.
