skip to main content

HOME NEWS *New Series*

Brian O'Connell Image Name: Brian O'Connell Description: Brian O'Connell presents Home News on RTÉ Radio 1.

From Shoreditch to Sydney and New York to Newry, Home News is a new five part series in which journalist and broadcaster Brian O’Connell travels the world looking at how Irish newspapers outside the Republic are trying to keep Irish communities connected.

Along the way he meets new and past emigrants, Pulitzer prize-winning journalists, men on the run, elderly choirs and Pakistani newsagents, and also looks at how communities of the future might stay in touch with home.

We hear from the editors and journalists of newspapers such as the Irish Voice and the Irish Post, both of which have been a voice for their communities for decades. We go inside the newsrooms of these and other newspapers and hear about some of their best stories and campaigns, and also ask how they can remain relevant in an age when emigrants are now more connected with home digitally than ever. We also hear from a new generation of Irish emigrants who are redefining their sense of Irishness and experience abroad.

 

Programme 1: The Irish News, Belfast.

TX Saturday 24 Nov, 7.30pm

The first programme of the series begins in Belfast with the Irish News, a newspaper traditionally seen as having a mainly nationalist readership. It has now gained a level of cross community appeal and we hear how some Loyalist communities are beginning to engage in a different way with the Irish News. Ex-UDA member Frankie Gallagher tells us how during the Troubles paramilitaries used newspapers as a means of gathering intelligence. We hear the views of republicans such as Danny Morrison, who feels the Irish News was too pro-British. Along the way, we’ll also hear first hand from seasoned journalists how news reporting has changed in Northern Ireland since the Troubles.

 

About Brian O’Connell

Brian O’Connell is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster. He is a weekly reporter on Today With Pat Kenny on RTE Radio 1, and has made a number of documentaries for the RTE Radio 1 Documentary on One strand. His documentary ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ was shortlisted for a Celtic Media Award. Brian is also a regular on Irish television has appeared on The Daily Show, Tonight with Craig Doyle, The Late Late Show and also co-presented The Reel Deal. He is a weekly contributor to RTE’s new afternoon show, RTE Today. Brian writes for the Irish Times, and his book, Wasted: A Sober Journey Through Drunken Ireland, published in 2009, examined Ireland’s alcohol culture. Much to his wife’s annoyance, Brian likes to tweet. @oconnellbrian

This programme was made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Presented and produced by Brian O’Connell

Executive Producer Garret Daly

Research Roisin O’Dea

Title Music Raymond Scannell