Agus mé ag dul a aghaidh le mo chuid Ghaeilge...

I am loathe to get involved in poisonous internal Irish disputes but I must address the following:

As I was not brought up in Ireland I do not possess a natural compass when delving through the various Irish websites but I have been looking at the Irish Independent recently. Maybe this paper is good in certain ways as regards its tabloidic directness, but overall it tends to depress me.

Their commentators, for example, rail on about the statue of some guy called Russell - never heard of hime before - and that his supporters are fascists but their own delivery on topics is not far away from the F-style - do they not realize this?.

One article I read recently by a man called Kevin Myers about the Irish language put a shiver up my spine because it reminded me of those rants you can hear in YouTube by Goebbels concerning the Jewish culture - and he is obviously a British Empire romanticist of sorts who is proud of the fight against Nazism! The tone of the article I was reading was basically that the Irish people should - as my cousin in Dublin would say - cop on, dump Irish and become British.

Looking things up in Wikipedia I see that the Indo was the Irish nationalist newspaper originally.

Ní thuigim!

Irish Independent, two words, two lies!

I don't understand either how it became the widest circulation paper.

Kevin Myers has a chip on his shoulder about Ireland and Irish. He has some cause - Irish was used to deprive his father of a job because he was not in with the right people. The family moved to the UK, and Kevin Myers only came back when he went to college.

But he is also an contrarian.

The situation is that there is a small vocal minority on either side of the argument on Irish language. And the great bulk of people don't really care much either way.

Kevin Myers and his rantings are a joke to most Irish people. Don't concern yourself about him :)

GRm agaibh gur chuir sibh mé an eolas. John Birch on the paper, as my Dad would say.

I almost never bought the Indo when I lived in Ireland. I prefer the Irish Times, although it too has it's own reputation. Namely that it's the paper of choice for smug, wealthy people from south county Dublin. Anyway...

The Indo has a clear, consistent tone regarding Irish. They pretty much refuse to use fadas even. At least the Irish Times prints columns in Irish by people like Alan Titley, Pól Ó Muirí etc

Seán Russell was an IRA fanatic who died on a Nazi u-boat around 1940. He fought in the Easter Rising in 1916 and was one of the few veterans still active in the IRA at the beginning of World War II. He took the idea that 'England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity' to extremes. He had approached the Soviets some years earlier for assistance so it shows he would approach any regime if he thought they could help drive the British out of Ireland. No matter what their ideology was.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with the quality of Irish newspapers. Half are little more than tabloids. Filled with sport and topless women on the first couple pages. Trash. Many are just 'Irish editions' of British papers.

Filled with sport and topless women on the first couple pages.

Well, that's one redeemeing quality. Which one, is up to your judgment. For me, it's the latter. I never understood sports, only a bit about women's sports.

Ireland is a very small market. 15 years ago the English tabloids and broadsheeets were even sold here without the pretense of having an Irish edition.

To have three main broadsheets - Times, Independent & Examiner - is some kind of success. (There are others in the six counties, but I know nothing about them) Outside dublin, local weeklies seems to do quite well (and are sold to people from those areas in Dublin).

And newspapers worldwide are in decline anyway.

Ignore Kevin Myers, everybody else does.

"The Irish Press" was more of a Nationalistic newspaper. Then it became a Tabloid, and that was the end of it. People weren't left with much choice but to buy "The Independent". "The Examiner" wasn't available nationally at the time, Cork only.

Níor cheart aon airgead a thabhairt do na nuachtáin Bhéarla dar liom. Coinnigh do chuid airgid i do phóca. Ceannaigh úll nó banana nó rud éigin fiúntach ina áit! Is féidir na liarlóga sin a léamh saor in aisce ag an leabharlann, má bhuailtear le ráig de ghalar an Bhéarla thú!

Ní féidir - leis na ciorruithe, níl airgead ag na leabharlann níos mó! Ach táid ar fáil ar líne don gcuid is mó.

Faraor, ní féidir neamhaird iomlán a dhéanamh den gceathrú eastáit. Is ann a déantar na réamhchinntí sa tír seo.

Chuirfinn sa chúigiú nó sa séú áit anois iad a Aonghuis, laistiar de na meáin eile.

Tá muintir Shligigh in ann na liarlóga a choinneáil ag imeacht sa leabharlann agus bhí Foinse ar an tseilf acu go dtí an nóiméad tubaisteach deiridh.

N'fheadar.

Cinnte tá tionchar an raidió agus teilifís ann (bhíos ag cuir gach rud san áireamh san ceathrú eastáit). Ach is sna meáin clóite a tharlaíonn cuid mhór den scagadh fós, dar liom.

Agus siad leathanaigh na litreacha (agus leithéidí livewhine) ceann des na bealaí chun cuisle an phobail a mheas.

Mholfainn do dhaoine go leor imeacht as an saol sain. Fág saol an Bhéarla, níos mó de réir a chéile. Beidh an saol níos fearr agat.

D'fhágas féin go leor den saol 'éireannach' i mo dhiaidh é agus níl aon easpa eolais orm, measaim. Amharcaim isteach ar cúpla suíomh idirlín, sin an méid. Ghearr mé cuaillí gutháin ar mo thalamh féin anseo leis an radharc amach a fheabhsú. Tá an áit thar cinn dá bharr. Is leor guthán beag so-iompar. Ba mhaith liom na cuaillí aibhléise a leagan am éigin eile, ach mo chumacht féin a ghineadh anseo ar ndóigh. Beidh an radharc níos fearr arís. Thig an t-idirlíon isteach ar an aeróg ó shliabh naoi míle uaim ar eitilt an éin. Níl cailleadh ar bith air.

D'imigh an Leitrim Post agus imeoidh roinnt eile roimh i bhfad. Is féidir leis na hiriseoirí obair ar an líon chomh maith céanna agus obair as a dteach féin in áit tiomáint isteach chuig an oifig. Sílim go bhfuil saol níos fearr ar tí tosaigh. Cuid den saol sain, go mbeidh daoine níos cúramaí agus níos cinnte gan tacú le lucht na seafóide. Ná tabhair cianóg rua do fhoras páipéir, nó eile, a imreos an cam in áit na córa. Is rud an-tromchúiseach an siarionsaí ar an nGaeilg atá ar bun ag an Indpnt. Ba cheart seasamh glan amach uathu. Droim a iompú leo agus gan dul ar ais ina ngaobhar go brách.

Is é mo mheas go bhfuil siad i ndroch-chaoi agus gur iarraidh aird agus líon léitheoirí dá réir a tharraingt atáid.

Is féidir go bhfuil an cheart agat. Nuair a bhínn ag ceannach nuachtán Bhéarla, an Times a cheannaíonn. Níor bhac mé riamh leis an Indo.

Táim éirithe as sin ar chúinsí airgeadais...

A lot of papers in the USA are dying mostly because they almost always act as mouthpieces for the government with very little outside of the received "wisdom". I think a lot people get very little from their papers here. You can go on the Internet and read news sites from other places and it is like a stranglehold of knowledge out here. OR they focus on things that don't matter in relation to the HUGE things happening in the world right now (= bread & circuses). A recent distraction was Obama "moderating" the dispute with a Cambridge professor. Earlier was Michael Jackson worship and Obama's "mommy" pants. I assume there is somewhat of an underground/alternative news movement in Ireland. A good question is if newspapers/sites in Irish provide independent objective news instead of propaganda news or fluff?

I'm all for entertainment focused magazines, etc., but when newspapers claim to be broad and just feed fluff piece after fluff piece, it makes me ask why they're not reporting on things that will affect much more lives than whether Obama drinks beer or wine. Believe it or not, I found the big Irish papers to be much more substantive than the main US ones.

D'éirigh mise as an nuachtán a léamh ar bhonn laethúil thart ar deich mbliana ó shin; is leor dom na giotaí beaga ar an idirlíon nó ar an teilifís. Roimhe sin bhíodh dhá shíntiús agam fiú (nuachtán laethúil agus irisleabhar seachtainiúil).

Chaithfainn a admháil, áfach, go bhfuil tionchar ag aois an duine ar an gceist. Tar éis dó na mílte nuachtán a bheith léite ag an duine is deacair don té machnamhach éalú ón tuairim go bhfuil na plotaí, na comhchealga agus na bréaga go léir de ghlanmheabhar aige nach mór. Mura bhfuil an duine féin ag baint tairbhe nithiúla as a bhfuil á chraobhscaoileadh iontu is dóigh liom go gcaillfeadh sé an tsuim iontu le himeacht na hama.

Seachas nuachtán (IT) nó dhó is ábhar gruaime dom na nuachtáin i ndeisceart na hÉireann.

it stopped printing articles in irish - doesnt use fadas


what more can i say?


http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/who-took-away-mr-myersrsquo-teddy-1842326.html

(Message edited by conchubhar1 on August 03, 2009)