A former weekly newspaper editor awarded the MBE for services to journalism has died aged 87.

Tributes have been paid to Mervyn Dane, left, who spent almost 50 years in the industry and edited the Impartial Reporter.

Mervyn spent 47 of his 49 years in journalism with the Reporter, which is based in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.

During his career, he covered some of the most difficult periods in the history of the Reporter’s County Fermanagh patch, including the Troubles.

Mervyn was given the MBE in 2003.

Willy Clingan, the managing editor of The Irish Times, first met Mervyn when he joined the Reporter as a trainee reporter 43 years ago.

He told his former newspaper: “I knew nothing about journalism; he knew everything; how to build a network of contacts, how to find a story and how to write it.

“But his professionalism went so much further; in everything he wrote, he was fair, kind and decent to people without compromising accuracy and the whole story.

“That’s quite a trick to pull off, week after week and year after year.”

Mervyn was married to Betty and had four children – Noelle, Caroline, Tommy and Lilly, who is a journalist with the Reporter.

His funeral will take place at St. Macartin’s Cathedral, in Enniskillen, at 2pm on Thursday with interment afterwards at Sydare Cemetery.