Transcript
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Since 1928, the New York-based newspaper The Irish Echo has chronicled the lives and stories of Irish-Americans and Irish immigrants in the United States. Driven to leave by famine, colonial rule and lack of economic opportunity, waves of Irish arrived in New York, Boston and other East Coast cities over the last 150 years. As the community grew, so did the newspapers that served them. But with the economy of the Emerald Isle booming, immigrants, as well as Americans of Irish descent, are being lured back to the ancestral home. And so was the Irish Echo, which last month was printed and distributed for the first time in its history in Ireland. Sean MacCarthaigh is the editor of the Irish Echo and he joins me now. Sean, welcome to OTM.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: Thank you, Brooke.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: What exactly prompted the decision to print and distribute it in Ireland?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: Well, in a nutshell, many of our readers were going back to Ireland. But on top of that, there are lots of Irish-Americans who've been traveling to go and live and work in Ireland. If you have one grandparent who was born in Ireland, you have the right to have an Irish passport. So, and with that in mind, a lot of the multinational companies know that their employees who are of Irish descent don't have to deal with any paperwork at all if they want to switch and work anywhere in the European Union.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: So that's interesting. You started out by serving immigrant communities there. Now you're serving immigrant communities back in Ireland.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: That's right. That's right. And what we find is that our job was basically always to cover what was happening in Irish America. And we now feel that we can't properly serve Irish America unless we're available on both sides of the Atlantic.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: But given the rising cost of newsprint and the fact that Internet access is widespread in Ireland, wouldn't it have been easier to just direct Irish readers to the Echo's website?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: Sure. If they need information immediately or if they need a very, very specific type of information, they log onto the Internet and they'll find it there. And the Irish Echo has got quite a good Internet site. But the thing about the Internet is you can't read it on the bus on your way to work. You can't read it if you're sitting in a quiet corner of the pub.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Could you tell me in more detail who your readers are? I understand that they're both Irish people and immigrants from the U.S. of Irish descent. But why do they pick up the paper?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: There are the Irish-Americans who are living there. There's also a separate group of people who are business people, who've got investments on both sides of the Atlantic, and they shuttle back and forth. It's quite remarkable. And then there's another group of people who have a particular interest in New York or in Boston, and they want to know what's going on, for example, in the arts scene in New York. And there are also people who are very keen on coming to New York to shop. You'll know that the dollar Euro rate at the moment is particularly advantageous for Europeans. [LAUGHTER] So for the last three months, we've had a veritable army of inveterate shoppers coming over here.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: They land. They're extremely well-organized, Brooke. They usually have a giant limo to meet them at the airport. They'll have clubbed together. There might be five or six, usually women, and they'll hit the stores.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now, I wonder, though, did you then expand the shopping section to appeal to those people? Is the Echo different on each side of the Atlantic?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: It's exactly the same on each side of the Atlantic, but we did extend the shopping. We now do a full page every week in which we give people the up-to-date information. And it's mainly New York-focused - on where the latest sales are, where the bargains are. And we give them little tips to try and make them a sort of instant New Yorker when they arrive at JFK so they know how much to tip the cab driver, they know you how to avoid the queues and, you know, that type of thing. And we found that an awful lot of them arrived at JFK looking for the Echo, knowing that this existed. We've actually advertised the shopping section in some of the other media back in Ireland and reminded people that they can pick it up now in Ireland.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: In editorials, the Irish Echo frequently deals with Irish politics and, in particular, Northern Ireland. Irish-Americans have somewhat different views than their brethren back on the island about a lot of these issues.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: We are aware that Irish-Americans don't always share the same politics as the Irish in Ireland. Most Irish people in Ireland, they still instinctively support the Democrats on virtually everything. They can't imagine Irish-Americans voting [CHUCKLES] for Republicans. But, in fact, we reckon about half of our readers vote for the Republican party and the other half vote for the Democratic party. And we have to reflect that. We have to address that. We can't just pretend that nothing has changed since John F. Kennedy.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: So you've been distributing the Irish Echo in Ireland now for about a month. How's it going?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: It's going [LAUGHS] better than we expected. And we think some of it has to do with the number of shoppers coming over, which - [OVERTALK]
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: - which are greater than anyone [LAUGHS] anticipated.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: I don't know if you're in contact with any of the other dozen immigrant newspapers that have grown up in the last century in New York, but is anybody else thinking of starting up an edition in the home town?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: I'm not sure. We haven't really been in touch with that many. Our proud boast is that we're the oldest English-language newspaper of its type in New York City. It is - [OVERTALK]
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Immigrant newspaper.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: Yeah. Immigrant newspaper. There is one older paper, and that's the Forward, but the Forward was published in Yiddish for a long time.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: We play softball with them, in fact.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] Thank you very much, Sean.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: You're welcome.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Sean MacCarthaigh is the editor of the Irish Echo, now available on both sides of the Atlantic. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]
BOB GARFIELD: Coming up, a computer program helps you write a best-selling book - title, and books that sticky fingers can't resist.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media from NPR.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: Thank you, Brooke.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: What exactly prompted the decision to print and distribute it in Ireland?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: Well, in a nutshell, many of our readers were going back to Ireland. But on top of that, there are lots of Irish-Americans who've been traveling to go and live and work in Ireland. If you have one grandparent who was born in Ireland, you have the right to have an Irish passport. So, and with that in mind, a lot of the multinational companies know that their employees who are of Irish descent don't have to deal with any paperwork at all if they want to switch and work anywhere in the European Union.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: So that's interesting. You started out by serving immigrant communities there. Now you're serving immigrant communities back in Ireland.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: That's right. That's right. And what we find is that our job was basically always to cover what was happening in Irish America. And we now feel that we can't properly serve Irish America unless we're available on both sides of the Atlantic.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: But given the rising cost of newsprint and the fact that Internet access is widespread in Ireland, wouldn't it have been easier to just direct Irish readers to the Echo's website?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: Sure. If they need information immediately or if they need a very, very specific type of information, they log onto the Internet and they'll find it there. And the Irish Echo has got quite a good Internet site. But the thing about the Internet is you can't read it on the bus on your way to work. You can't read it if you're sitting in a quiet corner of the pub.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Could you tell me in more detail who your readers are? I understand that they're both Irish people and immigrants from the U.S. of Irish descent. But why do they pick up the paper?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: There are the Irish-Americans who are living there. There's also a separate group of people who are business people, who've got investments on both sides of the Atlantic, and they shuttle back and forth. It's quite remarkable. And then there's another group of people who have a particular interest in New York or in Boston, and they want to know what's going on, for example, in the arts scene in New York. And there are also people who are very keen on coming to New York to shop. You'll know that the dollar Euro rate at the moment is particularly advantageous for Europeans. [LAUGHTER] So for the last three months, we've had a veritable army of inveterate shoppers coming over here.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: They land. They're extremely well-organized, Brooke. They usually have a giant limo to meet them at the airport. They'll have clubbed together. There might be five or six, usually women, and they'll hit the stores.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now, I wonder, though, did you then expand the shopping section to appeal to those people? Is the Echo different on each side of the Atlantic?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: It's exactly the same on each side of the Atlantic, but we did extend the shopping. We now do a full page every week in which we give people the up-to-date information. And it's mainly New York-focused - on where the latest sales are, where the bargains are. And we give them little tips to try and make them a sort of instant New Yorker when they arrive at JFK so they know how much to tip the cab driver, they know you how to avoid the queues and, you know, that type of thing. And we found that an awful lot of them arrived at JFK looking for the Echo, knowing that this existed. We've actually advertised the shopping section in some of the other media back in Ireland and reminded people that they can pick it up now in Ireland.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: In editorials, the Irish Echo frequently deals with Irish politics and, in particular, Northern Ireland. Irish-Americans have somewhat different views than their brethren back on the island about a lot of these issues.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: We are aware that Irish-Americans don't always share the same politics as the Irish in Ireland. Most Irish people in Ireland, they still instinctively support the Democrats on virtually everything. They can't imagine Irish-Americans voting [CHUCKLES] for Republicans. But, in fact, we reckon about half of our readers vote for the Republican party and the other half vote for the Democratic party. And we have to reflect that. We have to address that. We can't just pretend that nothing has changed since John F. Kennedy.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: So you've been distributing the Irish Echo in Ireland now for about a month. How's it going?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: It's going [LAUGHS] better than we expected. And we think some of it has to do with the number of shoppers coming over, which - [OVERTALK]
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: - which are greater than anyone [LAUGHS] anticipated.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: I don't know if you're in contact with any of the other dozen immigrant newspapers that have grown up in the last century in New York, but is anybody else thinking of starting up an edition in the home town?
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: I'm not sure. We haven't really been in touch with that many. Our proud boast is that we're the oldest English-language newspaper of its type in New York City. It is - [OVERTALK]
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Immigrant newspaper.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: Yeah. Immigrant newspaper. There is one older paper, and that's the Forward, but the Forward was published in Yiddish for a long time.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: We play softball with them, in fact.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] Thank you very much, Sean.
SEAN MacCARTHAIGH: You're welcome.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Sean MacCarthaigh is the editor of the Irish Echo, now available on both sides of the Atlantic. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]
BOB GARFIELD: Coming up, a computer program helps you write a best-selling book - title, and books that sticky fingers can't resist.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media from NPR.