Award winning journalist was ‘off the wall character’

Alan from Causeway End Road, off the Knockmore Road received the National Reporter of the Year when he worked with the former Sunday News, for a series on behind-the-scenes happenings at the Maze Prison in 1978.

Alan, originally from Carrickfergus, was one of the few journalists outside of a national newspaper to be so honoured.

He was classed as being ahead of his time when he was producing stories on computers when colleagues were still using typewriters. He worked for the Belfast Telegraph for 20 years and was head of journalism at the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, with the National Curriculum Training of Journalists.

“Alan was a cranky and opinionated character, but was loved and respected by all who knew him,” said his wife, Janet, whom he met in the Belfast Telegraph, where she worked in accounts.

“There was another side to my husband away from newspapers and words.

“He had a passion for music and was recognised as an above-average flute player, who often gave folk sessions in the Rotterdam Bar and Kelly’s Cellars with his friend Laurie Johnston, who now lives in Blackpool.”

Former Belfast Telegraph colleague Billy Simpson described Alan as ‘gifted’ in many ways,

“I remember him as a talented woodcarver,” he said.

“He was an interesting individual. He made a success of anything he turned his hand to — especially his writing.”

John Caruth, a former features editor of the Belfast Telegraph, added: “Alan had his own way of doing things and he was usually right.

“He had such an original mind and you could depend on him coming up with the kind of stories people wanted to read.”

Former Telegraph editor Martin Lindsay said: “He was an investigative journalist before it became fashionable in regional newspapers.

“I was Alan’s news editor at the height of the Troubles and he was an off-the-wall character, who tackled the most difficult of assignments with flair and dedication.”

His funeral took place on Monday at Roselawn.

He is survived by his wife Janet and their 19-year-old daughter, Ruth, and a son and daughter from an earlier marriage.