Daily IRISH Mail
The Guardian's Roy Greenslade has some comments on the Daily IRISH Mail:
"None of that understanding of the culture, politics and genuine interests of the Irish people is evident in the pages of the Irish Daily Mail. I'm no fan of the Indo's politics but I know where it's coming from and I'm aware of the way it represents a large section of the Irish population. It is one of them, while the Mail is a mere interloper, a foreign publication pretending to be something it isn't. It is professionally produced, of course. It looks like a proper newspaper, as you would expect from the Mail. But a bit of green in the masthead doesn't make it Irish. It is as authentic as one of those terrible Irish theme pubs that have emerged in every capital city across Britain. It's a pretence. It doesn't belong."We particularly like this recent effort by the Oirish Mail to cash in on the 1916 anniversary, which was certainly a trip down the rabbit-hole for anyone familiar with the Mail's historically rabid anti-Irish views.
What would Middle England think?
(via Maman Poulet)
Postscript: of course, the Greenslade article was prompted by a recent blog post by Adam Maguire, of which the most interesting part is:
Emmet Oliver in today’s Irish Times reports on a massive dive in sales figures for the (Irish) Daily Mail. This follows on from the recent news of huge loses made in the company’s Irish operations.We'd suggest that they can start with taking more care in future with the quality of their 'Oirish' hires. Really, Mary Ellen Synon?
The newspaper, which launched in February 2006 had figures of over 82,000 in March but this has now dropped down to 54,641 for June.
Interestingly Oliver states that advertisers are looking for a greater emphasis on Ireland before they are willing to part with their cash; something that I suggested is a big part of the problem for the publication last week.
Update 25/07/06 0930:
There's a disagreeing voice in the comments on that last remark. A recent Mary Ellen Synon article was devoted to passing on fashion tips for men... from some dinner party she'd had with Enoch Powell (surprise, surprise). If they had decent regulars, good content would naturally follow. But they don't. The regulars were obviously ideological hires chosen for their ultra-Catholic, pro-Anglo-American outlook. Quality suffered as a result.
The Sunday Business Post clawed its way up to a decent circulation by means of having good reportage and editorial, despite having a somewhat schizophrenic identity as a Republican and Socialist-tinged pro-business paper with a division on the Catholic Church (in many ways, they hit the modern Fianna Fáil demographic). And they did this without having access to the fortunes available to (and wasted by, so far) Associated Papers. Will AP take that lesson to heart, or do they really believe the fashionable revionist notion in recent years that Irish people are naturally Redmondite neo-Unionists?
Are the owners of the Mail fundamentally unable to take off the ideological blinders when it comes to Ireland?
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