More than 250 guests from across print, broadcast and online media filled Dublin’s fashionable Guinness Storehouse for the second annual ‘Media Night’ benefit in support of Self Help Africa and Irish Motor Neurone Disease.

The gala event attracted representatives from across a broad cross section of Irish journalism, with RTE, The Irish Times, Independent Newspapers, The Daily Mail, The Irish Star, Sunday Business Post, Today FM, TV3, The Irish News, Business Plus, The Irish Sun, Irish Examiner, Sunday Times and Storyful online platform amongst the attendance.

Organised as both a benefit and a networking occasion for media practitioners, the event was also attended by senior figures within the National Union of Journalists including the union’s London-based general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, Scottish senior union official Dominic Bascombe and Irish organizer Seamus Dooley.  Also the amongst guests was Ireland’s press ombudsman John Horgan.

The event was sponsored for its second year by Diageo Ireland, with guests convening for a drinks reception in the venue’s Gravity Bar, enjoying comic entertainment courtesy of Apres Match’s Risteard Cooper and Gary Cooke – who gave guests an exclusive preview of their take on new Irish soccer management team Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane – while dinner was followed by live Latin jazz late into the night.

Diageo’s director of corporate affairs Liam Reid said that their company had a long association with Africa and was happy to back an event that was supporting the ongoing effort to eradicate hunger and poverty on that continent,  while Seamus Dooley of NUJ described the event as a valuable opportunity for journalists to meet and network, and commended the organizers for building upon the success of their inaugural year.