Papers spreading across the world

From Shoreditch to Sydney and New York to Newry, Home News is a new series, that sees Ennis native, journalist and broadcaster Brian O’Connell examine how Irish newspapers outside the Republic keep Irish communities connected.
In the RTE Radio 1 series O’Connell, who hails from the Kildysart Road, but now lives in Cork, meets with new and past emigrants, Pulitzer prize-winning journalists, men on the run, elderly choirs and Pakistani newsagents to find out how future communities might stay in touch with home.
Speaking about how the show came about, Brian explained that, like a lot of people he spent a summer or two in America as a student and while there, he got copies of The Irish Emigrant newspaper.
“You’d pick it up in bars around Irish communities in Boston or wherever. It gave an outline of the main stories and had some very good comment pieces. A year or so ago I learned it was the oldest online publication in the world, published from Galway by Liam Ferrie and it had just ceased publication.
“I began to think about how other newspapers like the Irish Voice and the Irish Post were faring out given the digital revolution. I also thought that spending time with some of these newspapers in places like London and Sydney would also be a good way to explore and meet the new generation of Irish emigrants. So I proposed the idea to RTÉ Radio1 and luckily I received funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to be able to go ahead and make the series,” he said.
“It was fascinating to hear emigrants in Sydney talk about how they could listen to RTÉ’s Drivetime on their way home from work in the car, or how people from Clare, who read The Clare Champion online every week, were as well informed with what was happening locally as I was. What interested me was that some of the Irish newspapers outside Ireland believe the sole focus for them should be online.
“Take Niall O’Dowd’s Irish Voice. He talks in the series about how the print product for them is not as important and they are now focusing more and more on their website, Irish Central, which has 1.6 million visitors a month. I think people will also be interested when they hear what the 1980s emigrants think of the current generation and visa versa and there was definitely a sense that while forced emigration is happening, many emigrants I met were having a ball and could stay as connected with Ireland as much as they wanted,” he revealed.
The main themes coming through the series include how it was a relief to be away from Ireland for a time. However Brian said some people resented the fact they had to move abroad.
“I spoke to several people in Sydney, for example, who were still trying to pay a mortgage at home, even though the house was in huge negative equity. The first programme in Belfast was one that really surprised me, because I spent time with The Irish News, which is a paper traditionally seen as having a nationalist readership. When I interviewed ex-UDA member Frankie Gallagher, he praised aspects of the paper, while republican Danny Morrison said many in his community wouldn’t buy it. I had expected the exact opposite,” he added.
On his travels for his research, Brian met several Clare people and two in particular are doing very well. In the third programme, on December 8, he features his neighbour John Normoyle, who went from college in UL to working in Bill Clinton’s office in Harlem and now works in advertising.
“He was telling me he rarely buys newspapers like the Irish Voice, as all he has to do is pull out his iPhone and he can be instantly connected to whatever news from home he wants. In Sydney, I meet with Tony Corcoran, originally from Ballyalla, who helps to run a large landscaping company. Both of them talk about what it is like to be long term emigrants,” Brian said.
He outlined what he has explored in the five programmes of the series. 
“I wanted to compare the experience of emigrants of today to past generations and was wondering how these papers will survive in an age when emigrants can stay in touch in a variety of new ways.
“We hear from the editors and journalists from newspapers such as the Irish Voice in New York, The Irish News in Belfast, The Irish Post in London and the Irish Echo in Sydney, all of whom have been a voice for their communities for decades.
“We go inside these and other newspapers, such as The Irish Times, and hear about some of their best stories and campaigns and also ask how they can remain relevant in an age when emigrants are now more connected with home than ever. We also hear from a new generation of Irish emigrants, who are redefining their sense of Irishness and experience abroad.
“We hear about a new online community, World Irish, set up by John McColgan, attempting to connect the Irish abroad and we ask what does the future hold for some of these newspapers,” Brian said.
The new five-part series will be first aired this Saturday at 7.30pm and begins in Belfast with the Irish News.
Seasoned journalists contribute on how news reporting has changed in Northern Ireland since the Troubles and how the Irish News is helping families with social issues.
“It was a privilege to get to travel to these places and meet a whole new generation of Irish emigrants. I think there’s not a family in the country that doesn’t know someone who has had to emigrate so hopefully the series will strike a chord,” he concluded.
Brian is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster, is a weekly reporter on Today with Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1 and has made a number of documentaries for the RTÉ Radio 1 Documentary on One Strand. He writes for the Irish Times and is also a regular contributor on Irish television, appearing on The Daily Show, Tonight with Craig Doyle, The Late Late Show and co-presented The Reel Deal.
Brian is working on many other projects and will appear each Thursday on the new television programme RTÉ Today.
On Friday he and his father, Declan are headed for Calcutta with the Hope Foundation, where they will be reporting on child trafficking and labour for the RTÉ Today show and The Irish Times. While there, they will be visiting orphanages, slums and looking at the kind of life some street children in India have and the work the Cork-based charity do.