Editor’s Welcome

By Katie McShane and Eva Quinn

From the Head:

The beginning of every school year feels momentous, this year is no exception. Not only am I going into my final year, but I’ve also been entrusted with heading The Gown – a privilege I don’t intend to take lightly. Ellen rang me to give me the news whilst I was in an Uber, ‘Wetherspoons’ bound. I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now.

I joined The Gown in first year on a whim and never could have guessed where that one moment could take me. Between finding my place at Uni as a wee culchie from Donegal and finding who I was as a writer, I stumbled into this role and could not be happier. In my time I’ve written a million and one serious, funny, and outright absurd articles to varying degrees of success and eventually took over as Features Editor, something I found I love doing as much as writing.

I never saw myself as a candidate for Head Editor. I don’t consider myself particularly commanding, I come from the back-arse of nowhere, and to top it all off I’m dyslexic. However oxymoronic this may sound, it at least proves something I believe strongly – that The Gown is for everyone. As long as you have passion for telling stories and sharing honest, factual news, then there is a place for you in our hypothetical newsroom. The Gown is at it’s heart a labour of love, it runs on the passion of its writers, the team, and of course the readers. Without them there would be no paper.

Our editors from last year, Ellen and Daniel, left us in an amazing position. They set the standard for publishing a physical print once a semester, a system that ensures consistent and compelling journalism, and as a whole breathed new life into the paper. I shall very gladly reap the benefits of their hard work and I hope this year I can add to their progress because as I said, The Gown is a labour of love.

Everyone who knows me, knows The Gown so I quite happily accept this labour. Roll on email chains, late nights, factchecking, proofreading, and of course storing all the papers in my Uni flat. I cannot wait to begin.

Katie

From the Deputy:

Now if you saw this coming, you are the only one. When I joined The Gown a year ago as a news writer, becoming Deputy Editor was something I thought I would only dream about, I never actually saw it becoming a reality. Being in this position has been nothing but a privilege.

Working alongside Katie thus far has been an absolute dream. She is calm, cool and collective but gets things done. Together we share the same ideas, in that we want people who are passionate about story telling while being able to deliver factual news stories.

Anybody who knows me personally knows that I love the news. Now while politics is my dominant place of interest, I believe that The Gown produces so many incredible stories for each section, every publication. This is what I am passionate about. I want people to access their place of interest in a newspaper, while reading stories that feel they relate to them. Whether that be student life, Belfast or Queens specific.

My main goal is continuing what was left for us last year. Continuing to publish online twice a month, while publishing in print once a semester. From what I have seen this far from both our lovely section editors and their incredible team of writers, this is very possible, and we will be able to achieve this plus so much more.

My university experience has been quite chaotic to say the least. The Gown has been the cherry on top to this chaos – but in the most positive way possible. I am so excited for what is coming next not just for me in my position, but for the entire paper. This is my final year, so no pressure to anybody reading this, but I want this to be the best year!

If you are reading this and have an interest in ANY way about The Gown, whether that be writing stories for us, or joining the social media side, then I implore you to join. It is a paper full of so much love, passion and loyalty. That is what has kept it going for so many years. It is truly a place with such a welcoming community and that is something I will always be so grateful for.

As I have already said, this is an absolute privilege of a role to take on. So, if I have somehow convinced you all that I somewhat know what I am doing (emphasis on somewhat, I still have a lot to learn) then I am buzzing for the upcoming year. I cannot wait to see all the exciting stories that come out of this year, and I cannot wait to meet even more people than I already have!

Eva