The Mark Sinclair Internship is an annual award offered to a law and journalism faculties of a designated third level institution in Ireland. It was set up in memory of Mark Sinclair, the former editorial legal counsel at News Ireland, who passed away in 2013. In 2019 the internship competition was hosted by the School of Law at the University of Limerick and coordinated by Co-Director of Clinical Legal Education Dr Norah Burns.

The two students were selected for internships following a competitive process which included an interview and the submission of a short article on a designated topic. News UK and Ireland were very impressed with the standard of student opinion pieces and offered two students the opportunity to intern in their Dublin offices in January 2020. Siobhan is currently completing an MA in Journalism and studies Media Law and Dara is a Law Plus student. 

Dara’s internship focused on familiarising himself with Irish media law and he had the opportunity to attend court and legal consultations during his week in the office. Siobhan spent time with the Irish Sun’s features desk and Wireless’ FM104. She also submitted a number of travel pieces to The Sunday Times.

Each year, the Mark Sinclair Internship allows students interested in media law and journalism gain some experience around the publication of daily and weekend newspaper titles.