Redmond Shannon

Redmond Shannon – Journalist

  • NB Power pays J.D. Irving $12.3M in gypsum deal penalties, fees

    A CBC News investigation reveals that provincial utility provider NB Power has paid a J.D. Irving company more than $12.3 million in penalties and contract renegotiation fees since 2009. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-pays-j-d-irving-12-3m-in-gypsum-deal-penalties-fees-1.3088090

  • Freetown’s Habs fan, sort of.

    Ajayi Decker traps the soccer ball under his right foot for a moment, before deciding where to pass it. He’s a natural centre-back; calm and quiet. The other young teens scramble and shout on the damp, gravelly road in Freetown’s hillside neighbourhood of Wilberforce. Ajayi and his friends idolize soccer stars at clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Barcelona. But…

  • Green Generation

    A four-part series on renewable energy in the province of New Brunswick http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-s-renewable-energy-target-a-numbers-game-critic-says-1.3032790 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-brunswick-s-tides-trees-hold-energy-potential-say-experts-1.3034842 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/sackville-couple-says-solar-power-becoming-affordable-1.3036748 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-looks-to-small-scale-renewable-energy-1.3038598    

  • The mysterious death of Selamneh Techane

    Selamneh Techane went missing in 2010. Almost five years later, his body was found in the attic above the room he had lived in. The coroner says foul play is not suspected, but Techane’s brother and friends say it doesn’t add up.

  • The invasion of Fredericton and journalistic licence

    A few weeks ago, I was working on a light story about why eerie flocks of seagulls have been circling over buildings, sometimes for hours on end. To give the story a voice, I needed regular people on the street to say they’d seen it too. (Depending on where you live in the anglophone world, these folks are known…

  • Martin Luther King’s visit that never was

    In 1960, Martin Luther King and his wife were to visit Fundy National Park in New Brunswick. But he never took the trip, because an innkeeper was worried it would upset other U.S. tourists. This story ran on CBC News on the 86th anniversary of King’s birth, January 15, 2015. http://youtu.be/ld1NM7b_8o8

  • City improves security of bus passes

    In March 2014, I illustrated how easy it is to make a copy of the new 2014 Fredericton transit passes. The city has now decided to add holograms for 2015. 

  • Madagascar

  • Rob Ford’s mysterious popularity – why Canada’s most scandalous citizen is the new Bill Clinton

    ON THE FACE of it, Rob Ford is to Canadian politics what Paul Gascoigne was to soccer in the ‘90s. Heavy-set, spiky blonde hair, red-faced, an emotional addict with a dysfunctional personal life. But just like Gazza, Rob Ford is man whom some can’t help but love. Ford’s popularity is a mystery to the world,…

  • JHR-trained journalist named Best Female Reporter at Sierra Leone National Media Awards

    In 2013, I worked as a journalism trainer in Sierra Leone. The four-month JHR program included a period at Radio Democracy in Freetown where I worked with three reporters including Mabel Kabba. In April 2014, Mabel was named Best Female Reporter at the 8th Annual National Media Awards. No surprise to me – given her abilities and…

  • New MLA legislation in New Brunswick

    Following the reports I filed on the expenses of New Brunswick MLA Greg Davis in March (including exclusive details of a party loan and how it remained secret), the province’s Legislative Assembly has introduced new legislation to ensure MLA expenses are reported more frequently and more transparently.

  • New Brunswick PC Party loan to MLA Greg Davis

    An exclusive report for CBC News on March 14, 2014. It details how the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick misrepresented a $5,125 loan to MLA Greg Davis in its 2012 financial statement. It came two days after I first reported on the loan’s existence. It was given to Davis to cover five months of rent arrears on…

  • How my country became a beer ad

    When I was growing up in Ireland in the ’80s, St. Patrick’s Day meant two things: a day off school and a break from Lenten abstinence. Back then, most Irish kids were expected to give up chocolate, or potato chips, or even all types of candy for Lent. It was always a struggle for a…

  • A free ride

    I showed a photocopy of the Fredericton monthly bus pass to the city’s transit manager. Here’s what happened. http://youtu.be/cAsLCxyYVyY

  • Back to the well

    In February 2013, the Japanese government helped install clean-water taps across Kambia, Sierra Leone. But two months later, the new taps were all turned off, forcing residents to return to wells, that by then, were no longer sanitized. In my role as a JHR trainer, I headed to Kambia in May 2013 with Africa Young Voices reporter…

  • Canada’s New Measure of Success

    When it comes to Olympic gold medals, Canada knows how to make history. The world’s second largest country is the only nation to have failed to win a gold when hosting a Winter or Summer Olympics. It actually managed to do so twice; in Montreal 1976 and Calgary 1988. Then, four years ago in Vancouver,…

  • When zero was a magic number

    Like many broadsheet newspapers around the world, The Sunday Telegraph in the UK sees quite a diverse range of subjects discussed in its Letters to the Editor section. From events of global importance, to the most trivial of topics that only concern the smallest slivers of society. The latter was never truer than on February…

  • Discussing the Rob Ford scandal on TV3 Ireland

    http://youtu.be/WyEmbpcWjMY

  • History, out of reach (CBC The World This Weekend)

    A small group of people in Sierra Leone are trying to shed light on a dark part of the country’s history. The West African nation once supplied slaves to the south eastern United States, and Bunce Island was the last place they touched African soil.

  • A forgotten island (Deutsche Welle Radio)

    Sherbro Island is located in the Atlantic Ocean, off the south western coast of Sierra Leone, and bears the name of one of the ethnic groups living in the country before the colonial era. Almost 200 years ago, it was a settlement for a group of freed slaves sent back from North America. But today…

  • Sierra Leone

  • McKinstry on a mission (Irish Examiner)

    Johnny McKinstry was 15 when he crashed a motorbike and broke his collarbone. It was perhaps a sign – as if he needed it – that he would not follow in the footsteps of his father Billy. McKinstry Racing has been competing around Europe since before Johnny was born. Billy has been racing since the…

  • A story on every corner

    My first full-time gig as a reporter was a wonderful summer in a small city in eastern Canada. Fredericton is the capital of New Brunswick. It’s home to the provincial legislative assembly and two universities. The problem for news-gatherers is that those three institutions are effectively in hibernation for the summer months. Between May and…

  • A good walk spoiled

    Freetown Golf Club (FTG). Saturday, May 18th, 2:03 p.m. – I was finishing some interviews for a feature article about Sierra Leone’s only golf club, when I saw something remarkable for a golf course; people running. To read the full blog post, click here.

  • You lucky dog

      The goal of Journalists for Human Rights is to make everyone in the world fully aware of their rights. We do this through facilitating good human rights journalism, primarily in developing nations. It’s sometimes hard for visiting trainers like myself not to feel like we should be doing more than just this. When we…

  • Digging up the future

    In Hollywood “romcom” movies, you’ll sometimes see the male lead whisk away his lady in a blindfold for a surprise holiday. When they arrive, he removes her blindfold and she gushes in delight. Maybe that was an episode of The Bachelor, but I think you know what I’m talking about. For the rest of this blog click…

  • The life and death of 110-408

    Sherbro Island Airport (BTE) just outside the town of Bonthe hasn’t seen any fixed-wing aircraft land or take-off for around 11 years. The runway has long since lost its battle with Mother Nature. It’s now so overgrown, it would actually be safer to land a plane on the grass beside the runway. The site is…

  • A deafening silence

    Bonthe is like nowhere else I’ve ever been. It has no cars, no real roads, and just a few motorbikes. It is like stepping back in time. Crumbling colonial buildings line the town’s shore, looking across to the mainland. Behind them, are a mixture of mud houses, simple modern bungalows and metal shacks. For the most part,…

  • A closer look at Democracy

      For much of the past month I have been working with journalists at The Society for Radio Democracy 98.1fm in Freetown. Most people here refer to the station as simply “98.1”, but its name is a nod to its origin. The station was set up 16 years ago, in the middle of the civil…

  • In the field, literally

    Just like in most countries, Easter is followed by a four-day week here in Sierra Leone. That normally equates to less being achieved, especially after a lazy holiday weekend. Normally. On Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., I headed for Bombali District with two journalists from Radio Democracy in Freetown – Mabel Kabba and Fatima Sesay. We were joined…

  • A Good Friday lesson

    I started my Good Friday with an early trip to Lumley Beach in Freetown. I ran a wavy line along the soft, white sand, dodging the waves as they lapped up to my feet. Then I cooled-down with a quick swim in the Atlantic. There was no one else in the sea for maybe two…

  • Foreign Export

    There’s an old joke about my much-maligned hometown of Limerick. A Limerickman is on holidays in the United States. A girl serving him at a diner notices his strong accent. She asks him where he is from. He tells her “Limerick.” She asks “what state is that in?” He replies “It’s in an awful state.”…

  • The patience of my job

    On Friday, I was helping one of the employees at Skyy Radio with writing and recording her voice track for a radio documentary. We were forced to delay its recording twice, because others needed access to Skyy’s only recording studio for more urgent matters. When we did finally get started, we were again interrupted. This…

  • All your money where your mouth is

    One of the many embarrassing moments in my life was at a supermarket checkout in Hamburg a few years back. A teenage girl finished scanning all my items, and then asked me where I was from. Weird, I thought. I answered “Ich bin von Irland.” She looked at me like I had zwei Kopfs. She…

  • Divided and United

    Every Saturday afternoon, the chaotic streets of Freetown, Sierra Leone get a little quieter, as English Premier League football draws thousands of young men to the city’s sports cinemas. These cinemas do not have wall-to-wall projection screens, Dolby Surround sound, or popcorn. These are humid, white-washed rooms, where the temperature inside can top 40 degrees.…

  • Home Again

    I follow Edwina Thomas through the tight alleys of Kroo Bay in Freetown. This is one of the city’s most deprived areas. Thousands of metal shacks, built beside open latrines. Mothers washing and cooking. Teenagers sitting around. Kids running, everywhere. For the rest of this blog, click here

  • Hey, Peteh Crouch!

    I nod to the guard as I walk through the gates of Mamba Point. This is a centre of affluence in Freetown. Located high-up on Signal Hill, it’s a hotel and bar where some ex-pats – many of whom work for mining companies or aid organizations – go for air conditioning and wireless Internet.  I just…

  • Air Canada wildcat strike (CBC World Report)

    Ground crews and baggage handlers at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport walked off the job to protest the suspension of three workers who applauded sarcastically as Labour Minister Lisa Raitt walked through the airport.

  • Boeing Dreamliner visits Toronto (CBC News Toronto)

    The Boeing 787 – a.k.a. “The Dreamliner” – visits Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on its global promotional tour http://youtu.be/yM_ISHt2A7g

  • Former scout leader charged (CBC News Toronto)

    http://youtu.be/CcGjD5-N9GA Another former Scouts Canada leader is facing charges after a Toronto man came forward alleging sexual abuse he says happened more than 37 years ago.

  • Scarborough transit debate (CBC News Toronto)

    http://youtu.be/2SbRAeu8UL0 Tempers are high at a town hall meeting about competing transit plans in Scarborough, Toronto.

  • Why police don’t have to pick up horse poop (CBC News Toronto)

    Why police don’t have to pick up horse poop (CBC News Toronto)

    http://youtu.be/h_j4RSoBmfc Dog owners face fines for not picking up after their pet. So why don’t mounted police officers have to do the same for their horses?

  • Triple Taliban bombing in Pakistan (CBC Around The World)

    Three bombings kill at least 27 people in Pakistan on October 23, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9-8SXoWtyQ

  • Kabul Indian Embassy attack, 2009 (CBC Around The World)

    A suicide bomb kills 17 people at the Indian Embassy in Kabul on October 8, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izk7mYm2tEE

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