Editor awarded OBE in Queen's Birthday Honours list
Thursday, 19 June 2008
Lady Mary Taylor, joint proprietor of the Alpha Newspaper Group, congratulates Guardian Editor Maurice O’Neill on being awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his service to journalism.
THE founder and editor of the Ballymena Guardian has been appointed an OBE for services to journalism in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
Maurice O'Neill, who started his career with the Ballymena Observer in 1955, has edited the Ballymena Guardian for over 35 years.
The 69-year-old, born and bred in Ballymena, said that the award is one of his greatest achievements.
“It's a great honour," the Academy Alumnus said adding with a twinkle in his eye "but it's been a long time coming."
It certainly has - Maurice made the decision to follow in his father's footsteps 53 years ago as a lineotype operator and seven years later, he became a junior trainee reporter.
He made the leap from the bottom rung to editor when he founded the Ballymena Guardian in 1970 after the Belfast Telegraph took over the Observer. With the backing of the then Coleraine Editor, Uel Troy, Maurice signed the Guardian up to the Northern Constitution setting the Guardian series on the path to become the largest selling weekly paper in Northern Ireland.
In its fledgling years, Maurice and two other staff members kept the paper afloat with "hard graft, plain and simple."
“We worked stupid hours and we worked hard to get the job done," he recalled. Something which hasn't changed much over the years as anyone who has seen the light on in his office at 10pm can tell you.
Maurice said that because of his late night comings and goings, his wife Jean needs praised for putting up with him all these years. "But, to be honest, I think she's just glad that I'm not under her feet."
He also thanked everyone that has worked for him and added that the OBE honour is a "testament" to the hard work that has made the paper what it is.
