The bombshell which changed my working life for ever came in  early December when cash strapped Johnston Press announced a restructuring of its Northern Ireland Division.

This basically meant a loss of editorial jobs. The office in which I worked - the Lisburn based Ulster Star which also produces the website - www.lisburntoday.co.uk - had to lose one journalist.

I made a successful application for voluntary redundancy and left my staff position in early March.

I am now in the process of building a career as a freelance journalist/writer/researcher and I am actively seeking both writing and research commissions.

I have already been accepted as a Contributing Writer by the online magazine Suite 101 and currently have 14 live articles in the UK and Ireland Travel Section. 

I intend to make travel writing a part of the new direction my career has taken. My interest in this field developed when I became responsible for gathering content to appear on the travel pages of www.lisburntoday.co.uk

However, I am by no means limiting myself to this subject. During my 26 year newspaper career I wrote about a wide range of topics including retail development, transport, local government, health issues, housing and of course the Northern Ireland situation.

I also covered a number of civil aviation issues as the circulation area of The Ulster Star lies directly beneath the flight paths from both of Belfast's airports.

The biggest and most harrowing story of this nature was the Kegworth bmi crash which claimed the lives of a number of people from the Lisburn area.

However, the job also had its lighter side and I enjoyed meeting a number of celebrities including Lesley Joseph, Gary Wilmot, Rula Lenska and Marti Webb.

I have interviewed the President of the Irish Republic Mary McAleese, been present at numerous royal visits to Northern Ireland and like many Northern Ireland based journalists of my generation I am very happy to say I met the redoubtable Mo Mowlam several times.

For most of my time as a newspaper reporter I was in daily contact with all shades of Northern Ireland political opinion ranging from representatives of Sinn Fein to members of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party.

At local government level I have witnessed first hand the softening of attitudes which made possible the Peace Process and the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

When my career as a reporter began it would have been unthinkable for politicians from the two parties mentioned above to work together in any way.

Now they sit side by side on Lisburn Council and its committees. They also travel around the world. together in a bid to present Lisburn in a positive light to potential investors.

Lisburn is the local government division I have had most experience of during the past 26 years.  However, the situation is similar in most of Northern Ireland's other council areas.