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Pictured at the PPI Radio Awards after winning ‘best documentary’ are Mairead O’Connor, Mary McDonnell and Diarmuid McIntyre of Grey Heron Media.

Telling a story that gripped the nation when sub contractors had a standoff with teachers and parents in Scoil Fhionain, Kilfinane, Grey Heron Media won first place in the PPI Radio Awards for Best Documentary for 'Take No More'.

The documentary, which also won gold during the summer at the prestigious New York Festival Radio Awards, captures the drama of one fateful day in November 2012, as the local community rallied together to protect the national school.

It focuses on the dramatic events of November 22, 2012, when seven white vans driven by subcontractors arrived at the newly built primary school in Kilfinane. Owed money by the main contractor for months, and already at a loss when the previous contractor went bust, the subcontractors were desperate.

To the horror of teachers, they moved in to strip the school of fittings and cut off the power. Within minutes, stunned parents blockaded the subcontractors vans as they tried to leave the school grounds.

A standoff ensued, with staff in the locked school, subcontractors outside by their vans and parents massed at the gates. The team at Grey Heron Media were on the spot from the beginning, recording the voices of all sides, as the negotiations dragged on into the evening. The listener is brought into the heart of the action as the subcontractors, staff and parents struggle to reach a resolution in the glare of the national media.

The documentary brings in each moment of panic and tension as the community stood together to make sure that the school did not suffer - and it was truly gripping.

The award was presented at the PPI Radio Awards in Kilkenny - the Oscars of Irish radio, at a black tie event with more than 700 people present, where local, regional and national radio stations all vied for the top place in the highly competitive category of 'best documentary'.

'Take No More' faced strong competition from the other contenders on the short list, including two other Limerick-based documentaries - Spin South West's Re:Generation and Limerick Live 95FM's The Sinking of the Plassey. The silver award was presented to another RTE Radio Documentary On One, narrated by Joe Duffy, about the kidnapping in the 1970s, of Thomas Niedermayer.

Head of Grey Heron Media, Diarmuid McIntyre said they were delighted wih the award and he said that the production was a collaborative effort between the members of the Grey Heron Media Team, himself, Mairead O'Connor and Mary McDonnell who produced it for RTE Radio One's Documentary on One and the production supervision was carried out by RTE's Liam O'Brien.

"The reaction to Take No More has been tremendous. I keep meeting people who say they never listen to radio documentaries but that Take No More gripped them. It’s a dramatic story that we were in an unique position to be able to capture it as it happened. This led to creative challenges and opportunities not normally present when making documentaries. 

"After capturing all the audio of the event on the night itself, we spent days working through what had actually happened and figuring out how to tell the story, representing the many levels on which it happened. The fact of the standoff taking place in Kilfinane itself provided an added pressure to do justice to the story and all the very real people caught up in it. It’s great to see the creative and collaborative work of Grey Heron Media gaining such recognition," Diarmuid said.

A link to the podcast of the documentary is available on www.GreyHeron.ie.

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