The Irish media abroad

Downtown Manhattan: two rival newspapers roll off the presses, competing for the same influential audience in the melting pot of cultures that is New York. The pressure brought to bear from their coverage of a certain foreign conflict was enough to secure the direct involvement of the President of the United States and has catapulted the politics of a small island to an international platform.

Welcome to Irish-America and world of the Irish Echo and the Irish Voice. Thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, the people of Ireland are largely unaware of the existence and influence of such Irish media.

The Irish Echo is the longest-established Irish newspaper in America. Reporting news to the newly arrived and settled communities of Irish emigrants since 1928, the weekly Echo has witnessed the slow progress of the Irish community to middle-class America. Readership now stands at 180,000 and senior editor at The Irish Echo and ex-Irish Press journalist Ray O'Hanlon reflects that "the Echo considers itself to be Irish America's paper of record. I like to think we're a newspaper that happens to serve a particular community rather than a community newspaper. It's a subtle difference, but its important to retain that independent edge."

The Irish Voice is a more recent arrival on the avenues of New York. Established in 1987 at the time of a huge flood of Irish illegal immigrants to the US, this quickly became the campaigning issue of the new publication.

"The Irish Voice has evolved to cover more stories of Irish America as against Irish-born interest. We see ourselves as a local paper for the Irish of New York and Boston, in the same way that an Irish provincial newspaper might see itself, except that we are based in New York," says Irish journalist and publisher Niall O'Dowd. "The Echo and the Voice remain very competitive to this day."

There is a long tradition of Irish newspapers in America, from the arrival of the Hibernian Chronicle in 1810 right through the Emerald to the present-day titles. The story of the rise of the Irish media abroad is the story of Irish emigration, and the lives of those who left Ireland in the last 150 years.

The Irish "Diaspora" has created a unique Irish global culture. While five million people live on this island, there are many times that number around the world. Some 70 million people in all corners of the globe claim Irish descent - either they were born in Ireland or can trace their roots back through generations - and 40 million of those live in the US.

Boston has long been renowned for its Irishness and the Boston Irish Reporter has been on the news stands since 1990. This monthly publication has a readership of 60,000 and reports on stories and events for an Irish-American community. "Liam Ferrie of the Irish Emigrant supplies us with content from Ireland. Our audiences love his `32 Counties' round-up - it's local Irish news that you can't get here," says publisher Ed Forry.

The Irish Emigrant is Galway-based and has a global readership figure of 18,000 people who subscribe to the weekly Internet publication. A county-by-county round-up, sports news and results and a well established business section are regularly read by Irish living in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and the Gulf States.

On the west coast of the US, the San Francisco-based Irish Herald caters to a large Irish audience, while the Irish Echo is flying the Irish flag in Sydney. Front page stories on all these publications are similar and are a mix of local-Irish and Ireland-Irish news - from the scandals emerging from the tribunals to a local fire that killed Irish immigrants.

According to Niall O'Dowd: "The role of the Irish Voice is to reflect and influence the community we cover. We take stands on issues such as the right of gays to march in the St Patrick's Day Parade or an American role in the Irish peace process - which everyone accepts now but which was highly controversial when we first pushed it."

Britain, our nearest neighbour, has long been the destination for a large proportion of Ireland's emigrants, and the Irish Post has been publishing for nearly 30 years. Based in Hammersmith in London, the Post now has a weekly readership of nearly a quarter of a million.

Breaking into the British market was not an easy task, and Norah Casey, chief executive of its publisher, Smurfit Media UK, says: "We are now ranked at 14 on the top regional weeklies." The news coverage of the Irish Post is in-depth, and like all Irish media abroad it has a host of well known Irish columnists and writers.

Following on from the success of the Irish Post, Smurfit now publishes a monthly magazine aimed at the 18- to 30-year-old market. Ri Ra provides news, reviews, features, listings and interviews to the young Irish community in London, and with no shortage of Irish celebrities to interview, the magazine has developed a fashionable following.

Irish publications abroad have, at times, embraced political controversy. "We were the first to break the censorship ban on Gerry Adams when he wrote a column for us," O'Dowd says. The Irish Post campaigned on a strong justice platform for years, advocating the release of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four. Northern Ireland has dominated the front pages of the Irish media abroad for as long as they have existed.

"Our editorial policy on Northern Ireland is in favour of a negotiated solution," says Ray O'Hanlon of the Echo. If a majority wills it, we would be delighted to see the coming about of a united Ireland. We make an effort to accommodate all sides of the North argument. Unionists, including David Trimble, have written op-eds. the Irish Echo works the North like a newspaper should. Obviously it's a major story just about every week."

Irish television has found niche audiences across both the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Tara TV screens Irish television throughout Britain. Part of SkyDigital's Family Package, the station is also available on cable in areas of Britain, and viewers can watch RTE programmes like Fair City, Prime Time and the main evening news live. Celtic Vision is a Boston-based channel, offering a similar line up of Irish programmes, and is in the throes of preparing for a national rollout which will see audiences in all the major American cities able to watch the service.

Such programmers, publishers and journalists help to keep large communities informed of national issues, to keep "Oirish" stereotypes at bay and to report the news of the Irish communities abroad.