Freedom of County Longford to be conferred on Shaunagh Connaire

Press Release

29 November 2021

The Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council is delighted to announce that the Freedom of County Longford will be conferred on Longford native award-winning filmmaker and journalist Shaunagh Connaire this week.

The honour will be bestowed upon the Longford Town native, who is also the first woman to receive the Freedom of County Longford, at an official conferring ceremony this Friday evening, 3 December 2021 at Longford Rugby Club. Attendance at the event, which is by invitation only, will be strictly managed, in accordance with public health guidelines.

Shaunagh’s frontline work has included reporting live from the Ebola zone in Sierra Leone and the refugee crisis in the Middle East and she has also operated undercover in China to uncover human rights abuses.  

Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council CllrPeggy Nolan says it was a very easy choice for her to make, “Shaunagh is an extraordinary journalist and filmmaker who is known across the world. This honour is in recognition of her outstanding contribution to society through her work. I welcome this opportunity to highlight her efforts to make the world a better place, by highlighting injustice and shining a light on corruption.”

Chief Executive Paddy Mahon also welcomed the upcoming ceremony. “I wish to acknowledge Shaunagh’s work and achievements, especially regarding Human Rights. It’s rare that we have someone from our county who is touching boundaries across the globe.”

Shaunagh Connaire was raised in Longford and attended Mean School Mhuire in Longford Town. She graduated from UCD in 2006 and received an MA in Journalism from Goldsmiths College in London in 2008.

Since her graduation, Shaunagh has worked as an Editor with the Financial Times in New York, a correspondent for Channel 4 Dispatches and Unreported World in the UK and a producer with the BBC.

In 2009, Shaunagh was shortlisted as 'Student Broadcast Journalist of the Year' by the Guardian and Sky News, just one year after leaving her career as an accountant with KPMG. She has also been nominated for an Emmy award and won a duPont-Columbia award for her PBS Frontline documentary about the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

She is also the creator and host of the Media Tribe podcast.

Shaunagh and her family now live in New York where she currently works for George and Amal Clooney as Director of Communications and Media for The Clooney Foundation for Justice.

ENDS

Additional Background Information

Shaunagh Connaire has reported on LGBTQ rights and conversion therapy, covered the refugee crisis in the Middle East, reported on women’s rights in Ireland, and investigated the role of Wall Street in the opioid crisis in the US.

Shaunagh’s work has been published in the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Irish Times, openDemocracy, and the Irish Independent.

Shaunagh is a TEDx speaker and holds an MA in Journalism from Goldsmiths University in London and a BComm with French from University College Dublin.