It’s been confirmed on Politics.ie that the Examiner’s political correspondent Harry McGee is heading to the Irish Times at the start of ’08.
The big question – will he do a post-election Mark Hennessy on it and give up his blogging habit, or will he join the ranks of Messrs Hegarty and Carroll in becoming even more prolific online than ever before?

While the Examiner will certainly feel his loss, it’s certainly a further string to the Times’ bow. McGee’s writing (on the blog) is infused with a sense of humour that is rare for decent political commentators, and his little behind-the-scene insights and personal observations that colour the news which, particularly in the Irish Times, is very black and white.

Congrats, Harry, just don’t forget us online readers. Tell ‘er upstairs we like your style.

From the pages of the Christmas edition of the Irish Echo comes one of the few op/ed pieces I get to do (below the fold), and it’s a critical look at the what the coverage of Katy French’s death means for Ireland. Far from being immune to the whole media mania that has surrounded it in Ireland, the Irish in Australia have been busy talking about it, about her, and have been busy asking the same question as everyone back home: Who is (was) Katy French?

If you were returning to Ireland after a lengthy absence, you’d have been baffled by the outpouring of grief seen in the national papers. And if you’ve been watching it from afar, as I have, you might be forced to think deeply about your country.

And if said news emerges at the same time as does the film version of PS: I Love You, forcing you, as a journalist, to read PS: I Love You and make arrangements to go to a preview screening to compare the two (I never made it to the screening, as it happens), and considering that those two wrongs most certainly don’t make a right, you might consider Ireland in a darker light than ever before.

BY THE WAY: For an article in this issue, I jumped out of a perfectly good aeroplane. At the end of the op/ed there’s a login for the paper that lasts until the end of December. Check out page 15 to see my graceful groundward glide.

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