Massive response to Drogheda’s free media training!

Aug 20, 2025

There were 20 free places up for grabs on EurAV’s digital media creation course – and within 24 hours of them being announced on TikTok, 128 people had applied.

The course, funded by Coimisiún na Meán and EurAV, has been designed and is being facilitated by Oscar-qualified film maker Declan Cassidy.

“I’m delighted by the response,” he said. “As a former journalist and a social film maker, I’ve been very concerned to see the growing amount of fake news out there. We believe that that helping people to tell their own story is the best way to ensure that the information is ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’. That’s the reason behind this training. Even the promotion of this course was evidence that people need to be able to tell their own story. We got no local media coverage and had to rely on the very digital media skills that we’re teaching on this course to get the word out.”

That proved very successful indeed. Declan, with over 20,000 followers on TikTok had over 24,000 people view the announcement, and the applications flew in.

“It’s not simply a matter of ‘first come, first served’,” the film maker stressed. “A key factor for us is the motivation behind people wanting to do the course as well as practical considerations such as location and availability, so applications are still open for a few days.

Of the 128 applicants to date, over half come from within 20km of Drogheda and more than a quarter come from within 5km.

“It’s great to see this level of interest from the local area,” said Declan. “The more local people equipped with the skills to get their message out, the more robust our media landscape will be.”

The training will be held over five workshops with a focus on ‘hands-on’ learning. The course runs with 10 people in September and then, again, with a further 10 people in October. Those wishing to apply can fill out the short application form here.