Every cloud has a silver lining

On Friday, to the dismay of many and the joy of a few, the daily Irish Language Newspaper Lá Nua will appear on the shelves for the final time, the Belfast Media Group having decided that they had no option but to close the paper following the decision by the Foras na Gaeilge board to withdraw financial support and to fund only a single weekly newspaper in the future. Alas, Lá Nua can expect no reprieve.

On a personal note, I will miss the paper a lot, I simply found it necessary reading for work and highly informative. I have being getting it since I was sixteen, back when it was weekly. I must confess to have always preferred the weekly edition.

Nevertheless, every cloud has a silver lining and that ray of hope in this case comes from journalist (and original co-founder of Lá), Eoghan Ó Néill, Raidió Fáilte’s anchorman.

Eoghan may not be that well known in the English Language media but he is certainly up there with the best journalists working through Irish.

Following the announcement of Lá Nua’s closure, the consensus quickly went in favour of developing an online media service in order to avoid the costs associated with printing, Eoghan has taken the jump and set up his site – andrumamornuacht.blogspot.com.

One would have thought that you would need something a bit more sophisticated than blogspot but he is certainly getting more out of it than I would have considered possible.

I for one think he is doing an incredible job and I am looking forward to seeing what other writers he can attract and to see how the site develops.

One confession however, I don’t like the name, An Druma Mór (the big drum) I think it is a ‘blog name’ rather than an online media service title, which the site can most certainly claim to be.

Ciarán Dunbar

Freelance journalist, working mostly in Irish.

Have my own independent news website – antuairisceoir.com – which is in constant need of material.

I am the former editor of the newspaper Gaelscéal, www.gaelsceal.ie