Broadcasting legend to be honoured at star-studded ceremony in London
GLORIA HUNNIFORD is to receive one of the Irish community's highest honours after being named recipient of The Irish Post Community Award, to be presented this November.
The much-loved broadcaster will be celebrated at this year's Irish Post Awards ceremony, hosted by Ryan Tubridy, in recognition of a remarkable career that has made her one of the most familiar and admired Irish faces in British broadcasting.
And this coming week the Portadown-born presenter, now 86, will receive the Freedom of the City of London at a ceremony in Guildhall. The event on May 14 will see Gloria receive one of the capital's oldest and most prestigious civic honours.
The Freedom has previously been awarded to figures including Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Florence Nightingale, Dame Judi Dench, Ian Wright and Harry Kane.
Gloria will be able to add the honour to her Freedom of the Borough of Armagh.
In the meantime she has said she is "absolutely thrilled" to be receiving The Irish Post Award. It is her decades-long bond with the Irish community in Britain that lies behind the honour.
From BBC Radio 2 and Sunday, Sunday to Rip-Off Britain, Loose Women, This Morning and The One Show, Gloria has remained one of the most trusted and enduring personalities on British television and radio for more than half a century.
Irish Post owner and publisher Elgin Loane praised Gloria's contribution to Irish life in Britain.
Gloria Hunniford is one of the most trusted and enduring personalities on British television and radio (Image: Alan Olley)"Gloria Hunniford represents the very finest qualities of the Irish diaspora — warmth, resilience, humour and enormous generosity of spirit," he said.
"For generations of Irish people in Britain, she has been a familiar and reassuring presence in their homes and lives. Her contribution to broadcasting and to charitable causes has been immense, and we are delighted to honour her with this year's Community Award.
"And of course we have many other major names from across the Irish community who will be honoured on the night. It looks like a truly glittering evening!"
Gloria said she was "very humbled" by the recognition.
"As a wee girl from Portadown, I could never have imagined any of this," she said ahead of next week's ceremony, and the award in November. "I'm really looking forward to the Irish Post event, meeting old friends, having the craic. It's one of the great nights of the year for the Irish in Britain."
The veteran broadcaster has long been admired not only for her broadcasting achievements but also for her charity work, particularly her support for cancer charities and breast screening awareness campaigns. In 2017 she was awarded an OBE for services to charity.
Her broadcasting career has repeatedly broken barriers. In 1982 she became the first woman to host a daily show on BBC Radio 2, presenting it for 13 years, while also becoming one of the first female presenters to front her own major television chat show.
Even today, her popularity continues unabated. The recent re-release of her 1979 album A Taste of Hunni became an unexpected chart success among fans old and new.
The Irish Post Awards venue
The Irish Post Awards will return on Thursday, November 26 at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House London hotel.
The evening will pay tribute to Irish success and achievement in business, community, sport, film, music, entertainment, politics — in short, almost every sector of life in Britain.
Located on Park Lane in the heart of Mayfair, the 5-star hotel is well used to hosting royalty, showbusiness icons, international celebrities, captains of industry and the movers and shakers of the film world.
The event will be held in the Grosvenor's spectacular Great Room, one of the largest ballrooms in Europe, and certainly one of the most stylish and impressive.
The hall, which has a history dating back almost 100 years as a venue, is ideal for banqueting and utterly glitzy events.
The Irish Post Awards
Thursday, November 26
Grosvenor House London
theirishpostawards.com/
See More: Gloria Hunniford, The Irish Post Awards
