Editor’s Welcome

By Katie McShane, and Connie Say

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.

And of course I am buzzing to have Connie alongside me as my Deputy Editor.

I met Connie in first year and sussed her at once as someone collected, calm, and impossibly cool. I fangirled over her articles that were so relatable and funny I wish I wrote them myself. I feel it is kismet for us to now be (wo)manning the ship together. Between us and Eva, our Editorial Secretary I truly believe this is going to be an incredible year.

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:

Over my university years, The Gown has been a constant. There are some pieces I feel proud of, and am glad that I got around to writing. My Restaurant features, which received an SPA nomination. I wrote a piece on the wonderful and incredibly poignant play: ‘Here There Are Blueberries’ (it’s moving to Broadway!). I pitched the Agony Aunt idea in first year, and have been The Gown’s Agony Aunt ever since, with not a grain of real qualification to my name. So I suppose ‘capitalise on clerical errors’ is the message there. I have been Opinions Editor, and now Deputy Head.

Overall, I think I feel good about the progress I’ve made.

I am grateful to have Katie with me this year. We first met in class, in the first week of first year. She sat in front of me and took better notes than I did, so I tapped her up at the end for help (her notes) and she very stoically said “okay”. I knew we would get on just fine.

She did really well in that class. I didn’t. Then I read an early piece she did for The Gown, and I was bowled over by her again: tenfold. She is one of the most hard-working and unwaveringly dedicated writers I know. A force for good, a kind heart, and penmanship like hell. I’m so glad it’s you, Katie Mouse.

I think that words are one of the most essential things we will ever have, so I believe it’s important we use the right ones. Be clear. Be kind. Find the story. Everyone has one. Don’t take yourself too seriously. You are, after all, just the messenger. 

       A slight wink to camera there. 

Writers: The Gown probably won’t be the pinnacle of your writing experience. Good. I hope you all go on to do madly impressive things far, far, far beyond this. But, what this is, is an opportunity to learn with a safety net beneath you; that is invaluable. If working on a piece for this newspaper encourages you to practise writing a story with empathy, curiosity, and consideration towards someone else, or towards an experience that sits outside of your own, then that is wonderful. Listening is so important. More so than talking. That favoured distinction will show in the quality of your writing.

Finally, thank you to Ellen, and Daniel for putting their trust in me to help move this newspaper forward another year. To Katie, I hope we have a wonderful year. And to Eva, our Editorial Secretary, thank you for holding down our slightly rickety but made-with-love fort. I love fort-making. So I’ll try my best not to knock ours over.

Con