Distinguished local journalist honoured by his peers

Jim is heavily involved with All Saints Church in the Waterside and his interest in cricket has lasted a lifetime - he said he has been involved in a serious way since 1989. He is also a man with the 'perfect gentleman's family' of one son and one daughter, saying: "If you can't watch your children grow up then you aren't a parent."

Mr Lindsay has been awarded lifetime membership of the National Union of Journalists for his service to the profession, which all began in the Sentinel in 1961. Since then, he has covered a wide range of stories and worked for a variety of media outlets, including both the Sentinel and the Journal, as well as the Belfast Telegraph and the BBC.

Speaking about the award by the union of his peers, he said: "I have never really thought about it before but I suppose it is quite a nice honour to receive lifetime membership."

He has some very interesting stories about his experiences over the years and some well informed comments on the general state of things in the city of Londonderry today.

Among the things that has surprised him most is the fact that the Derry Journal and the Londonderry Sentinel are now sister-papers, owned by the same company.

Mr Lindsay had a good deal to say about his interest in cricket. He said: "I have basically always been involved, I played a bit in my early days. I was nominated vice president of North west cricket a number of years ago. I was apporached to become secretary and I told them no. To cut a long story short, I was at the AGM, I was sitting down the back and I was proposed and seconded for the secretary's job. I was sitting as acting Chairman. The Treasurer of the Union was the wife of the secretary so I ended up with that job too.

"So I have been doing a job that I didn't want for 21 years- two jobs actually. I organised tours in the seventies out to the West Indies, to the Middle-East and to Barbados in '79. They were unofficial North West tours. I missed the tour to Barbados because the BBC wouldn't let me go. So it was me who helped to organise the tour and I missed out on sunning myself. I have been involved in a serious way since '81."

He spoke fondly about his family: "I have a son and a daughter. I have a grandson, Clarke and he is seven. My son is Lawrie and he is the Secretary of Brigade Cricket Club. He was always interested in sport but I didn't think he would go on to become the Secretary of Brigade. My daughter, Katherine, is an administrator for the Curches Centre on Spencer Road. My wife is Norma. If you can't see your family grow up you are not a parent."

He told the story of how his career started for him as a teenager in the early sixties: "I started as a sixteen year old in the Sentinel over 50 years ago, in the summer of '61. I worked with some great journalists in my time, Sydney Buchannon, Davy Ruddock, Jim Donaghy and Bobby Ferris.

"When I started I must have been the only journalist who couldn't write. I write with my left hand and I had a broken bone in it so I was starting off without being able to write. I was able to do bits and pieces on the typewriter, but I had to own up after a week.

"After about six months I probably should have been fired. I remember writing about a wedding where the veil was a hundred years old but I wrote that the dress was a hundred years old, and you can imagine the reaction I got. I began wondering whether or not I could succeed, whether I had a thick enough skin. But here I am, over fifty years later."

He tells of how he developed his skills over the years and even gave a few tips to a journalist many years his junior: "I was brought up in a very good school of journalism. There were some very good journalists back then, those I have mentioned, but there were also those like Tom Cassidy, Frank Curran and John Dinsmore who I worked with in the Belfast Telegraph.

"There was a good learning curve. I learnt the importance of accuracy, respect and what-have-you. I learnt how to go and talk to somebody, how to talk to someone where maybe they didn't know you were getting a story from them. You can take that information and develop it, and you would go back to that person maybe a couple of weeks later and there is respect there.

"Before joining the Telegraph I was writing a column. When I joined the Telegraph it became half a column and when I joined the BBC half a column became a paragraph. You learn to be consice, to tell the story simply and clearly. You need to just tell the facts and don't confuse it, don't write in confused sentences. Just get the information across plain and simple.

"I always liked people in Derry, I always knew someone. That was quite handy for covering the troubles, as you might imagine. I never got involved in politics. It can tar you with one brush or the other. If you are not involved you can have respect from both sides."

Over his many years in the industry he has some amazing stories to pass on: "In the seventies at one time there was an explosion inside the BBC's broadcasting house. I actually had to broadcast from inside the building after an explosion had gone off in there. It was all hands to the pump, the windows were all covered over with cardboard and we all just had to get on with it. We didn't miss an hour of broadcasting.

"I remember standing outside the old bakery that used to be on William Street and there was rioting going on. Bishop Daly knew me and he called me Jim, by my first name, 'can you give me a hand to get this rioting out of the bakery' and the remarkable thing is, I actually did.

"I have seen some sights in my time, things that will stay with you. I seen a man with his arms tied behind his back, face down and dead. You are just expected to cover it. It is difficult and it will stay with me.

"I have witnessed some places getting blown up, but I have also seen those same places getting built again."

He also spoke of some of the things he has done in his role in the National Union of Journalists: "I was the organising secretary for the first ever NUJ National Conference to be held in Northern Ireland back in the seventies. We were bringing them to Derry. The representatives from London decided in their wisdom not to come to Derry. I told them if they didn't come to Derry I would make politics for them. I would cover it and say why they weren't coming to Derry. It was held in the Guildhall and we all had a great night."

In Mr Lindsay's long career he has covered some of the most important stories in local history, but the stories he said were most prominent in his mind seemed to have more to do with jobs and new developments: "One of the best ones I got was the Fruit of the Loom. I think it might have been me who broke the story that Fruit of the Loom were coming to Northern Ireland and coming to Derry in particular. I opened a lot of factories and I closed a lot of factories. I got the story about the American money going into the Foyleside centre. The one about the third bridge over the Foyle was one of mine as well."

Although he is no longer working full time for any news outlet, he still has the same journalistic instinct he always had and that he still has a number of projects to get on with. He admits that he might no longer be fully up to speed with technology the way he used to because it has moved forward so fast. He said: "I have been in it for 50 years, and I still get a great buzz out of getting a front page. It is all about doing the best for the organisation you are working for. I reject the viewpoint that you have nothing to offer when you are over a certain age. I still intend to continue to prove that point.

"I am the secretary of a group in the Waterside, All Saints Caring Association, and we have plans to restore the church's former social centre, the Stewart Memorial Hall on Glendermott Road. I am also secretary and treasurer of the North West Cricket Union and I have been for 21 years.

"One of the biggest changes over the years has been in technology. It can help you with fast churn out. At times you were getting ready to broadcast and there would be a bomb explosion. You would just have to cover it. You just had to get it done, get on with it. I'm sure if I walked into the BBC at Radio Foyle now I wouldn't know where to start."

He is keen to stress the importance for everybody to look forward with optimism and to learn to live together: "The city has changed and it has changed dramatically. It will continue to change further. You can see that with the 20 acres at Crescent Link, the big housing project out at Skeoge. If we can get the local government right and the economic downturn doesn't bite too hard then we can look forward with optimism.

"There might be some small positives out there but it shows that there are still people working for the benefit of the city. We are known as a city of begrudgers and whingers, but I think there is still a bright future for this city. That is something we hope to prove at All Saints. There are people out there who are working hard in the community for the community. I would hope that with all these cuts the budget for community groups isn't too badly restricted."

Mr Jim Lindsay has had a remarkable career in journalism and he has been suitably acknowledged by the NUJ for his many years of unbiased reporting.

But who knows what other honours time may bring to reflect the service made by the Waterside man to the news industry in the North West?