Posts from — January 2009

Had a chat with my old boss in the Irish Echo newspaper (Australia’s Irish newspaper) yesterday, who could well be one of the few to benefit from this recession and Ireland’s growing emigration flow to Australia. The paper was 21 years old last year, and on a fortnightly basis and a tiny budget keeps the Irish expat community informed on what’s going on back home and what’s happening within the Irish community in Australia. And that community is growing by the day.

Visa applications are going through the roof. The number of Irish people being sponsored to stay on in Australia (up to four years, initially, on a 457 business visa) has risen by 50% in the last year, according to stats from the Echo. Backpackers are beginning to find it harder to find the easy work that sustained them for so long, but going by the figures, those willing to commit to the sunburnt country for more than an extended holiday are doing alright. Going by the flood of my friends heading to Melbourne, I don’t know what I’m doing here at all.

The demographic of the Irish in Australia, as a result, must be shifting slightly. The gulf between the transient backpackers and the long-stay expats is being filled by the medium-term emigrant, the highly-skilled twentysomethings and thirtysomethings who are settling on a more regular basis now for between two and five years. I’ve written about them for the Sunday Business Post recently.

To help out the backpackers, and pave the way for further on-site innovations to follow, the Echo has put in place a new free ad section to help incoming Irish jobseekers. I was due to be with the Echo for two years, and we had just started on the first incarnation of a new website, incorporating two blogs, when I was wrenched back to Ireland unexpectedly.  Literally, it was all just going live the week I left to come home, and I was looking forward to getting really stuck in to making the site a core part of the Echo”s offering. Aaron, who capably filled my seat, and Billy, who runs the show, have done well with the site since then.They’ve also added some RSS feeds to their news blog and sports blog, making them more worthwhile reads on the whole. The update frequency is getting better, too, but needs to approach ‘daily update’ status, I reckon, to really generate regular return readers.

The paper had gone for 20 years with its only web presence being a clunker of a site that demanded a hefty plugin and a subscription to view their online reader. The new site offers some free content, an upgraded reader, and more free info.  Judging by the conversation with Billy, the initial toe-dipping has gone well for the Echo, and phase two is imminent, which I think is great. The Echo has a strong hold in the long-term expat market, and is distributed free in Irish pubs, clubs and hostels across Australia, where it often goes head to head with the other Irish fortnightly, the low-brow What’s the Craic, which is pointed firmly at backpackers and pub crawlers, often aiming squarely for the crotch.

The Echo’s jobs pages alone make it worth picking up for Irish emigrants, and its sports pages split their attention between sport at home, the Irish abroad, and the slew of GAA stars now playing AFL. And the potential for an even greater web presence and more besides, the Irish Echo could well increase its status as Australia’s most important portal for Irish arrivals, both new and old.

Today was the first day I’ve heard Morning Ireland refer to new Washington correspondent, Charlie Bird, on a wire from the US capital.

Out with the (relatively) new, in with the old, which means it’s a quiet farewell to four-year veteran of the Yankee beat, Robert Shortt. Regardless of what motivated the move (Bird said the opportunity presented itself, indicating Shortt was keen to leave), it’s a horrible time to be leaving the States, journalistically speaking.

Obama arrives at the White House in six days time, like Santa Claus driving a sleigh full of the people’s hopes and dreams, with Hillary Clinton riding shotgun. Whether he succeeds or fails, it’s going to be an interesting four years.

Bird has a wealth of experience overseas (Arctic Bird/Amazon Bird/Tsunami Bird and, of course, Dublin Riot Bird), but is not immune to being star-struck, as evinced by his giggling excitement at being sat next to ‘big boy’ Kenny Egan during Bird’s stint as host of The Panel on RTE One.

Best wishes to Shortt on whatever beat he inherits next.

Originally uploaded by Laurie York

The 2009 Blog Awards are just five weeks away. I swore I wouldn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions, but I don’t want to fritter away the opportunity to connect this year as I have done in the past. 2009, for me, is a year of new connections.

I’ve been to two blog awards so far, and met a few good people, but not enough. I hesitate to say that it’s a ‘networking opportunity’, which seems too commercial/clinical, preferring a term along the lines of a ‘community realisation event’, where online acquaintances are rendered real, Pinnochio-like.

So I’m making a list, like a page full of bingo numbers, and I intend to try and tick it off during the night until I have a full house. It’s the Blog Awards Bingo.  For people like me, who arrive at these things alone and leave without saying enough hellos, hopefully it’ll provide people with a means to break the ice.

My own list is comprised mostly of people with whom I’ve communicated online but never met in the flesh, with a smattering of people who I read/respect/enjoy online too.

I’d urge others to do the same, and if anyone out there has a nifty techie/design way of making this happen/making it more fun (Say, natty sponsored bingo cards in the goodie bags on the night?) speak now. And if it’s been done before, apologies. It’s still a good idea.

My non-exhaustive list, in Twitter style, includes but is not limited to: @gavinsblog, @redmum, @lexia, @ TrustTommy, @niallharbison, @mcawilliams, @micheleneylon, @docaoimh, @rymus, @gingerpixel, @SabrinaDent,

If you’re not on it, I’ve already met you or will likely add you later. Right now I have shit to be getting on with.

Originally uploaded by ninahale

Totting up your list of books read in one year is aking to Adrian Mole whipping the ruler out. It’ a little narcissistic and a bit sad.

Which is why I’ve done it. The books, that is. I’m a sad narcissist (read: blogger).The list includes only books I completed, and not the few that I started but failed to finish. Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown was one of those, which was a massive disappointment after the likes of Midnight’s Children and Fury, by turns complex and eminently accessible, and both share a common brilliance.

The 17 books I got through this year are compiled in a handy wishlist for you here, and also in the left-hand sidebar.

Three (King of the World, Musicophilia and White Gold) I got through in a week on holidays.

Two (Ivor Browne’s ‘Music and Madness’ and Philip Gourevitch’s Standard Operating Procedure) were review/interview reads for the Sunday Business Post and Wangari Maathai’s autobiography, Unbowed, is partly research for a book I’m hoping to write.

The rest were personal choices. Reading 17 books in a year is a slow year for me, just one every three weeks, but it has been a busy year. I bought probably three times that, and started another 12 or so books that never got past the first chapter. Hopefully 2009 will be a 30+ year.