It’s been a mental few weeks here at the Irish Echo. For me, it was something of a baptism of fire. Our editor, Billy, headed for the homeland for a month, leaving yours truly in the hotseat. On a normal issue, I might lay out and design, at most, five pages of the 40 in each issue.

For the two issues, I was laying out stories on 30 pages or so. Something of a leap in workload, but a great experience.

A blank page is an intimidating thing if you’re not used to it. A blank newspaper, well, that’s something else entirely. A lot of credit for the issues going out goes to Joe from Tomango Graphics (yes, named after that Tomangos), our graphic designer, who reached in to keep me afloat when my head slipped below the surface.

I sent copies of the two issues home to the family in Ireland, so they could see what I’m up to over here. The response from my sister was “Wow, it’s actually a real paper”, which was simultaneously an endorsement and an insult. So ‘Thanks, you little wench’, is probably an appropriate response.

We put out two good issues in any case, and this week we’re back to normal service. Only we’re actually stepping things up.

Formerly, our website was a clunker, and still is in many regards. But as of today we’re trialling new page-reader software, which means no more downloading plugins to read the paper online, and for one issue only IT’S FREE.

To log on an have a peek, just click the cover pic. And let us know what you think: newsdesk[at]irishecho[dot]com[dot[au]
Markham

PS: As is the style:

Listening to: ‘Bitches ain’t shit’ – Ben Folds

Currently reading: ‘Glamorama’ – Brett Easton Ellis, and an article on Hunter recommended by Una Rocks

Coming down from: Last night’s Frames concert in Sydney. Massive.