New York's latest newspaper, the 'Irish Voice' to cover the news and issues relevant to the Irish American community.
Niall O’Dowd is the publisher of the successful magazine ‘Irish America’. With the influx of young Irish immigrants to the United States over the last five years, he started thinking about the need for a new type of publication which would focus on current issues such as immigration and Northern Ireland. In addition, he wanted it to examine local issues important to the Irish American community itself.
There seems to be a tremendous lack of impetus in the community over the fact that we have approximately 100,000 young Irish illegals here. We wanted to take an advocacy position on that. We wanted to go out and deal with this issue and call for immigration reform.
These new immigrants are hungry for news, and with an estimated half a million Irish-born and Irish-Americans in New York city alone, O’Dowd believes that the market is there for another newspaper,
We feel that the time is right for a new approach.
O’Dowd feels very strongly that people in the United States are poorly informed when it comes to issues such as Northern Ireland. When people are provided with information, it is then up to them to make up their own minds.
We’ve interviewed major political figures from all across the political spectrum, and we feel that its information that is needed as a tool for people to make up their minds, not just the old shibboleths and the catch-cries that we are all used to.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 11 April 1988. The reporter is Jim Dougal.
