The Irish News has celebrated the launch of its new-look paper by recognising two of its oldest readers.
Catherine 'Kitty' Harriott (neé McMahon) and James 'Jim' Dundas are both 99 years old and have been reading The Irish News for most of their lives.
Catherine grew up on the Falls Road in Belfast, attending St Catherine's school before leaving to work in the mills in Belfast as a winder, including Linfield mill.
Growing up, The Irish News was always present in the McMahon household.
"My mother always got The Irish News" said Catherine.
"My mother started reading it and then it was passed down through the generations."
The tradition continues on as Catherine's son, David, buys her a copy of the paper and brings it to her every week from Monday to Friday.
"The new paper is very nice. I can remember when the paper was much bigger than it is now though."
The Irish News first switched from being a broadsheet newspaper in March 2000 and is now published in compact form.
Catherine was born in 1924, and the media has changed significantly since the generation she grew up in.
"At that time, the newspaper was the centre of the community, it's how people would find out what was going on because there were no phones and no internet," said Rachael Harriot, Catherine's granddaughter.
Catherine passed down her tradition to her six children; Michael, Patrick, David, Tony, Eileen and Billy, who died in 2013.
She is also a grandmother of 17, a great-grandmother of 19 and a two-time great-great-grandmother.
The Irish News also thanked ex-Fermanagh Gaelic footballer Jim Dundas for his loyal readership over the years.
A proud Lisneskea Emmets clubman, Jim has been reading The Irish News since he was 15 years old.
As an avid Gaelic football fan, Jim always picked up the paper to read the sports news for reports of games around the country, keeping a special eye out for any mention of himself or his fellow Emmets players.
"When I was growing up there were two papers in our house, the Fermanagh Herald and The Irish News," said Jim.
"The family always read the paper; my mother started me reading it when I was 15 because she always read it.
"I'd pass my copies on to my children as well, we share my copy of the paper, otherwise I'd be throwing it in the bin," joked Jim.
"I mainly bought the paper for the sports pages because my own name was in it a few times as I played for Lisneskea Emmets and the Fermanagh county team in the 1940s.
"I started out as a forward but the goalkeeper at the time was injured and they stuck me in goals and they kept me there afterwards.
"It was great getting the newspaper and seeing the reports of Sunday's games."
Jim remembered one match report in particular, in a game between his Lisneskea Emmets, who were champions of Fermanagh and Mullaghoran, county champions of Cavan at the time.
"Mullaghoran had four of the best Cavan county players in the team, and we beat them and at the time we had a run of 40 matches without defeat," said Jim proudly.
Jim has devoted a lot of his time to his club over the years, winning 15 league and championship medals with the side when he played and becoming an honorary member of the Lisneskea Emmets in 2022 for his service to the club.
A builder by trade, Jim moved to Belfast for work after World War II, where he met his wife Maureen, originally from Crossmaglen, and stayed there.
After his weekly search for the latest GAA updates, Jim would still enjoy reading the rest of the paper front-to-back.
"I like to see the everyday news as well as the latest football, I can remember reading through what happened throughout the war."
As well as reading about it, Jim loved to make the yearly trip down to Croke Park to watch the All-Ireland semi-finals and final.
"I used to go every year, except for these last ten years. We used to go up on a Saturday night, stay in Dublin and then go watch the football in Croke Park."
Jim also touched on how much the news has changed since he started reading The Irish News.
"There are things now that you wouldn't have got years ago, such as news from all over the world.
"There would only have been major global events such as the Titanic being discovered etc."
The pair were presented yesterday with gift boxes from The Irish News to thank them for their continued support.
Irish News editor Noel Doran said: "It's fantastic that we have readers approaching their 100th birthday who are so committed to the paper and determined to keep it at the centre of their daily lives.
"The rebrand of The Irish News has been a major initiative for us and I'm delighted that it has won the approval of these two very important individuals."