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THE LOCAL EYE

The Local Eye - Peter O'Connor Image Name: The Local Eye - Peter O'Connor Description: The Local Eye - Peter O'Connor, sports reporter with The Clare Champion.
The Local Eye - Neil O'Neill MN Image Name: The Local Eye - Neil O'Neill MN Description: The Local Eye - Neill O'Neill, managing editor of the Mayo News.
The Local Eye  - Kieran Walsh ME Image Name: The Local Eye - Kieran Walsh ME Description: The Local Eye - Kieran Walsh, owner of the Munster Express and third generation newsman.
The Local Eye - Headline MN Image Name: The Local Eye - Headline MN Description: The Local Eye - a much disputed page design from the Mayo News.

EPISODE THREE OF SIX, RTÉ ONE, NOVEMBER 26TH AT 7PM

Clare Champion contributor Eddie Lenihan meets a prize winning bull with a questionable past while 99-year-old Maureen delivers her latest poem to editor Austin Hobbs. At the Munster Express, ad man Patrick aims to rekindle custom with an old client in the motor trade. Meanwhile, the server is down at The Mayo News, and the only man to fix it is in Portugal – can editor Neill solve this issue and make publication while his right hand man is on holiday?

SERIES OVERVIEW

“For the price of a cup of coffee, the local paper keeps you full for the week…”

Ireland’s local newspapers have been at the heart of their communities for centuries but, in a world where news is immediately disseminated on Facebook and Twitter and circulation is dwindling, they are facing serious challenges.

The Local Eye looks at some of the few remaining family-owned, traditional local newspapers weathering a new storm after surviving reccessions, wars, civil wars and rival publications.

This six-part series looks at, and celebrates, the vital role that these papers play in their local communities, embedded among their readers and reporting the news that matters to them. The editors, reporters and staff of these publications have their ears to the ground and noses for a great story with a keen sense of what matters to their readers.

Journalism, thankfully, is not always a serious business and local reporters have long derived pleasure from sourcing quirky and colourful tales. From the extraordinary to the ordinary; the sporting triumphs to the terrible tragedies; the publicity hungry local councillors to the news about neighbours, notices and events; the poems, parish news and births and deaths, this series gets inside the local newspapers and finds out what makes them tick.

From run-ins with famous GAA managers, to fighting for national recognition and dogs with their own columns, all human life is here.