Except perhaps Trevor Ringland who has a column in today's editiion on page 5....or John Coulter whose articles have been featured on Slugger...

There's a damn sight more space for unionist viewpoints in Daily Ireland than there is republican or nationalist viewpoints in the likes of the Newsletter or the Telegraph or, for that matter, the Irish Times, the Irish Indo....

Is Daily Ireland up on the net, or is it subscription only like most of the ATN papers?

Oilbhear, the queue was too long in the shop this morning for me to get a copy yet, but I will have one before lunch. Looks like a good professional design job.

Although I note that Ringland has not yet been informed of his 'columnist status' in the paper.

Coulter says there is nothing in there from him either.

But good to luck to Daily Ireland in attracting good quality Unionist comment.

Mick,

I have seen John Coulter's name mentioned as one of the columnists in the company's press releases- he may not be in today's edition but there are four other editions this week! I can wait...

Like you I only read the paper this morning and I read Trevor Ringland's piece. It didn't say whether it was a one off or a regular column or even if different contributors would be filling that slot. It doesn't say in the paper either whether he's unionist or not - I know that he's involved in unionism - Reform etc - but that's about it. I hope there'll be many more like him.

I'm interested however to see whether you think republicans would get as much space in unionist publications?

Mick,

I have seen John Coulter's name mentioned as one of the columnists in the company's press releases- he may not be in today's edition but there are four other editions this week! I can wait...

Like you I only read the paper this morning and I read Trevor Ringland's piece. It didn't say whether it was a one off or a regular column or even if different contributors would be filling that slot. It doesn't say in the paper either whether he's unionist or not - I know that he's involved in unionism - Reform etc - but that's about it. I hope there'll be many more like him.

I'm interested however to see whether you think republicans would get as much space in unionist publications?

I thought John Coulter had secured a regular column courtesy of the People's Press Printing Society Ltd. Coulter wrote two articles for the Morning Star rag and he hasn't written for them since.

this is not a newspaper in the normal meaning of the word - it may have pages, headlines, photos and by-lines but there the resemblance with a real newspaper ends - the reality is that this is a sinn fein propaganda sheet financed by the british government as part of some squalid deal in the peace process, no doubt negotiated by the naive idiot's emissary jonathan powell during one of his furtive little trips to west belfast.

this is not a newspaper in the normal meaning of the word - it may have pages, headlines, photos and by-lines but there the resemblance with a real newspaper ends - the reality is that this is a sinn fein propaganda sheet financed by the british government as part of some squalid deal in the peace process, no doubt negotiated by the naive idiot's emissary jonathan powell during one of his furtive little trips to west belfast.

this is not a newspaper in the normal meaning of the word - it may have pages, headlines, photos and by-lines but there the resemblance with a real newspaper ends - the reality is that this is a sinn fein propaganda sheet financed by the british government as part of some squalid deal in the peace process, no doubt negotiated by the naive idiot's emissary jonathan powell during one of his furtive little trips to west belfast.

this is not a newspaper in the normal meaning of the word - it may have pages, headlines, photos and by-lines but there the resemblance with a real newspaper ends - the reality is that this is a sinn fein propaganda sheet financed by the british government as part of some squalid deal in the peace process, no doubt negotiated by the naive idiot's emissary jonathan powell during one of his furtive little trips to west belfast - the inclusion of the odd unionist or non-sinn fein-linked commentator is there only to take the bad look off it all.

No doubt tom you can provide evidence for your ramblings.

yes pat
the fact that you have taken umbrage is enough for me!

Tom

What would your definition of a real newspaper be?

Tom what is that offends you is it the fact that a newspaper with a pro nationalist opinion is printed or is the fact that people with these views can even write or speak.

Many if not all new business ventures in places like west Belfast get government support of some kind or another so the fact that a newspaper gets the same help is no big news story.

'the fact that you have taken umbrage is enough for me!'

That fact that you have deduced that from my last post indicates a foresworn belief to rubbish whatever was printed.

God, they're really taking a chance there aren't they. Trevor "why can't everybody just get on" Ringland and John "who the hell is he" Coulter representing the unionist viewpoint.
They'll shift some copies in unionist quarters, eh.
Why don't they go the whole hog and pinch Roy "back in the early 1960s" Garland from the Irish News.
Talk about tokenism.

Is this paper going to be on sale south of the border?

Congrats to everyone involved in the new paper, I for one will give it a couple of weeks to see where its going. Couple of points: 1) 50% of the letters page was written by priests (gulp) 2) A full page advertorial for a lapdancing club in Dundalk! That wont go down too well in some places. 3) On the plus side theres a great story about Paddy Monaghan and Muhammad Ali, and the picture of Alderdice pointing at Berties 'Securocrat tool' is priceless

Hope it's a failure. We don't need another Provo rag

Why not just call the rag, The Adams Voice.

A rag like this is a disgrace. Hopefully its backers will soon realise the error of their ways and it will be but another rag to join the long litany of Papal noonsense in Ulster.

Off course the IRA has 26 million pounds so I suppose we can expect more rubbish like this to be printed.

God Save The Queen.

Am I alone in finding Ulsterman's posts hilarious? :-D

Willowfield,
nonsense.

What's nonsense, George?

"God, they're really taking a chance there aren't they. Trevor "why can't everybody just get on" Ringland and John "who the hell is he" Coulter representing the unionist viewpoint.
They'll shift some copies in unionist quarters, eh.
Why don't they go the whole hog and pinch Roy "back in the early 1960s" Garland from the Irish News.
Talk about tokenism."

Absolutely spot on!

"Danny Morrison, Tom McGurk and Jude Collins"

Good grief, it'll be like reading the minutes from the Provo Ard Fheis. All that'll be missing from the bottom of the columns will be the signature - P O'Neill.

Of course they could offer young Stalford a column?

After all he didn’t mind the piece the South Belfast news done on him ;)

I have an excellent working relationship with the South Belfast News - they always give me fair and balanced coverage, even if they are horribly biased against the DUP in general (particularaly so in Castlereagh).

I don't think much of the cartoonist in the SBN - very hit and miss - unlike Ian Knox, who's usually a garaunteed chuckle!

All of this talk is irrelevant, everyone knows the News Letter's the best paper in the world anyhow!

A couple of things.

I for one welcome the increase in competition. Daily Ireland has the potential for the ATN to return to the high news values of its earlier days.

It does have some serious news talent on board - Ciaran Barnes' handling of the Magennis's killing was as far as it went, good straightforward and honest reporting.

That's what made ATN in the eighties a must read for anyone wanting to know what was going on in Belfast, and what people in West Belfast were thinking.

However, the paper will have its work cut out to find a regular Unionist contributor. Coulter was asked by the paper to contribute a column, but when asked by Slugger, told us he could not because he had a prior committment to the Irish Daily Star.

Ringland wrote his piece in response to a request from John Laird PR, who handle the One Small Step Campaign. He was somewhat puzzled when we asked him about his newfound status as columnist for the paper.

I'm disappointed in the lack of a decent website. It's kind of understandable, but websites and content management systems are getting cheaper. Cost cannot have been the main reason - unless they were copnsidering an unwarrantably costly solution.

It would also give them a head start on the net over the Irish News, which once dominated the online readership on Northern Ireland.

In the meantime, I hope their columnists will use the Newshound to get the higher value content out on the net.

Given the pressure their political allies are currently under for their economy with the truth, it does not bode well that they are starting their paper with the same economic values. A paper's content may be economical with many things but for journalistic integrity to remain high truth is not something to be tight with.

A daily newspaper with a strong nationalist/republican slant is well overdue. Up until recently when Danny Morrison was invited to partake in BBC's "If you ask me" the only republican perspective offered to protestants was from hostile interviews from beligerent journalists asking pointed questions and not even waiting on a reply before embarking on the next pointed question. As previous posters have already pointed out there was no complaints about the strong Unionist slant carried by the Telegraph and the Newsletter not to mention BBC and UTV Live local television news broadcasts. As far as Unionist columnist are concerned I hope that through time a unionist perspective would be offered this I feel would provide for healthy political debate. We have to co-exist in this island it is home to both our traditions there is no way of getting round that now.