The Future of Journalism in Irish?

30Jun09

Note: The following post has been translated into English by the writer. The original article in Irish can be read here.

I’ve noticed two things about myself recently;

1. 1: I can’t properly keep two blogs updated regularly when I also try to juggle a summer job, a voluntary job and a social/love life.
2. 2: I find it harder to do when the two blogs are in different languages – i.e. this blog in English, and my Irish-language blog.

I received good news today; an article of mine is due to be published this week in Polari, a gay magazine in the UK. This is the first time that my writing has been published and made available in a country outside of Ireland, and I’m very proud of that. It is because of this recent success, however, that I have realised that I must start to give my writing in Irish and in English equal attention, as I have not written this blog for some weeks.

With the end of the Irish-language newspaper, Foinse, the world of print journalism and column-writing in Irish seems to have gone into a state of shock. With no more support from any newspaper, all that is left to provide a platform for journalism in Irish is magazines (Nós* and Comhar), Saol (a newsletter published by Conradh na Gaeilge) and various blogs. I hope that there are enough for readers of Irish while a new newspaper emerges.

This whole situation reminds me of the recent Y Byd campaign in Wales, which was to establish a daily Welsh-language newspaper – something similar to what Lá Nua once provided for Irish-speakers. The campaign failed for various reasons (funding being the main problem) but at least the Welsh still have their weekly newspaper, Golwg.

I am hopeful that column writing in Irish will continue despite recent events, just like it has done during past hardships. One columnist whom I admire is Alex Hijmans, a Dutch journalist who wrote a column in Foinse called ‘Na Ceithre hAirde’ (The Four Heights). It is a great loss to journalism in Ireland that this column alone is no longer to be published, as his level of Irish was as accessible and enjoyable as his topics were.

The only thing that I can do is to continue writing. I have seen from both the gay magazine’s interest and from the Irish-language magazines here that it is beneficial to my career for me to write in both languages, even though I am much more comfortable with writing in Irish. That, however, seems to be the challenge I must tackle if I intend to advance my career in the media.

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