Goodbye and thank you

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this, my last ever editorial for the Leitrim Observer.
I depart this week after 24 years as editor and 34 years with the paper.

Leaving is never easy and this has certainly not been an easy decision for me.
I am honoured and feel very privileged to have been your editor for over two decades.

I first walked through the doors of the Observer in 1989, starting as a junior reporter and gradually making my way up the ranks.
There are so many stories to tell, so many characters I have met - there has been a great deal of laughter, sometimes sprinkled with some sadness, during those years.

I was greatly aided in this by people allowing me into their homes, opening their hearts in some truly tragic situations and basically allowing me to be out and about recording the news for the Observer.

During that time I have worked with some absolutely brilliant people and in recent years our newsroom has become a family, however cliched that may be.

Willie Donnellan, Donal O'Grady, Leonie McKiernan, John Connolly, Frankie Smith and Fiona Heavey (who has also left the paper) are a measure of what a true colleague should be along with our advertising department of Melanie Bainbridge and Millie English.

The list of people could go on and on but essentially this team has supported each other through thick and thin. We have been there for each other in good times and bad, when family members have been sick or when there is a wedding or birth to celebrate.

To all our readers, local notes correspondents, photographers, advertisers and regular visitors to our offices I thank you from the bottom of my heart. We don't get to meet often but your hard work and support has not gone unappreciated.

If there is one thing I ask before I take my leave is that you continue to support the Observer.
There is no doubt that papers in general are losing circulation but if we are to continue bringing the news of the week to your homes we need your support.

There is a wonderful team of people in the Observer who work very hard to do so.
So goodbye and thank you.

“Chance made us colleagues but fun and laughter made us friends.”
Claire McGovern