World of Politics with Harry McGee

I was down in Galway on Tuesday for a seminar organised by Coimisiún na Meán and discussing the Digital News Report Ireland 2025.

I know, right off the bat, it sounds as dry as a stick but stay with me.

Anyway, the seminar was in the Porter Shed in Market Street. During my time in Galway, it was where I worked, the offices of the Connacht Tribune.

The paradox didn’t escape anybody who was speaking at the seminar: Dave O’Connell, the editor, our colleague Bernie Ní Fhlatharta and Prof Tom Felle of the University of Galway, who started his journalism career there.

Felle spoke about working in the newsroom when the large printing press in the back of the building clattered into action and the vibrations that could be felt in the newsroom.

For me, that dusty brown newsroom on the first floor was my incubation chamber as a journalist.

There were so many talented journalists working for the Connacht Tribune. I can remember reading through the back copies which were kept on a table in the far corner and being stunned at the quality of writing from present and former colleagues.

Back then, there were three papers: the Sentinel on a Tuesday, the country edition on a Thursday and the City Tribune on a Friday. There were some early deadlines, but everything built up to the printing presses beginning to roll on the morning of publication.

The Tribune was a technologically advanced publication at the time. All of the journalists used Apple Macintosh computers (as they were called then) as did the printers.

We were no longer using hot metal. What happened was that the articles were printed out in columns and then pasted onto the page that would go into the printing press.

If the article was too long the typesetter would take out a scalpel and literally excise a paragraph, or a sentence, or a clause from the printed column. It was a real skill that is now gone.

Today, it’s a completely different world. Over the past decade newspaper companies have changed their self-description to media organisations.

While they all still print newspapers (the legacy business), it now forms only part of a wider organisation that produces video; audio (mainly in the form of podcasts); live digital coverage; and provides news and interviews across social media channels.

Sinead Crowley from Coimisiún na Meán chats with Harry McGee at the launch of the Digital News Report Ireland 2025.  Photo: Aengus McMahon.