Echo journalist awarded fellowship for work on Bessborough

The Echo and Irish Examiner journalist Donal O'Keeffe has been selected as Ireland's 2026/27 Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism for his work on the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home.

Since 2023, Shine has partnered with the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism to support Irish journalists in reporting on mental health.

Founded by former United States First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the year-long Fellowship provides journalists with expert guidance, training and international peer support to strengthen reporting on mental and behavioural health and help reduce stigma.

Over the coming year, Mr O’Keeffe, the first recipient of the fellowship to come from a regional publication, will develop his project exploring the mental health journeys of survivors of the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork.

Throughout the Fellowship, he will receive specialist guidance, mentoring and support from Shine's Media Programme and The Carter Center.

Mr O’Keeffe said: “I am very honoured to be selected for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for mental health journalism.

“It means the world to me, and I hope I can be worthy of the great privilege which has been afforded me. My hope is to look at the mental health journeys of mother and baby home survivors, and to document the lived experiences of those survivors.” 

In September, he will join the international cohort of Rosalynn Carter Fellows at The Carter Center, where he will present his fellowship project.