Newspaper coverage in Ireland for L.O.I

**superfrank** · 10/01/2008, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by BohDiddley

My belief is that large swathes of Irish sporting media do not passively neglect Irish football: they are positively hostile to it.

I imagine they are just ignorant of it.

**Kingdom** · 10/01/2008, 2:30 PM

Originally Posted by stann

Emmet Malone is one of the best hacks covering the eL, just a pity his paper doesn't follow suit. It is my paper of choice and all that, but the eL coverage is pathetic, apart from the (all too scarce) decent opinion and/or background pieces Malone does.
I've kind of gone away from papers a bit recently but, despite what ye variously may make of it, isn't The Star still the best national paper for eL coverage?

Going back over the years the Examiner was always the best for match reports when the league got going, but with the few decent websites up and running in latter times that's become less important.

Are we related somehow? I read that piece and other posts of yours on music and think
"Hmmm, I didn't write that"

**Keen2win** · 10/01/2008, 7:56 PM

Maybe if you get a paper you could post in to say if or if not there is any loi coverage on it.

**hedderman** · 10/01/2008, 8:28 PM

Regarding the Irish Times, Tom Humphries, excellent sports writer that he is, likes to occassionally mention that he went to a few Bohs games in the 70s and therefore he's interested in the league while exhibiting strong bias towards the GAA.

In the Hot Press Annual 2008, they have the Casa awards from Tony Cascarino. His awards include best owners (The Glazer family), best supporters (tie btwn Portsmouth, West Ham and Derby County) and best ground (White Hart Lane). This instead of the odd mention of the eL in the magazine? The mind boggles.

**neutrino** · 11/01/2008, 12:42 PM

Ah media coverage.I remember chatting about this over 10 years ago. Fact is alot of people in this country like supporting clubs in a different country instead of travelling a few miles to support their own team and we will never get away from it.Sure in 10 years time we'll all be struggling to gauge our national identity. There is alot more wrong with the league than media coverage. The league will improve but only by virtue of the clubs doing it themselves.

**KianD** · 11/01/2008, 3:45 PM

My local rag -used to- cover Kildare County, now they don't, and I've never quite figured out why. Paper is a small editor-is-the-owner operation that only recently discovered colour, mind.

For us, the Finn Valley Post actually seem to care quite a bit and theres decent coverage in the News and Democrat too.

**stann** · 11/01/2008, 6:26 PM

Originally Posted by Kingdom

Are we related somehow? I read that piece and other posts of yours on music and think
"Hmmm, I didn't write that"

And I notice you never see the two of us in the same room at the same time....

Just as regards local papers, I'd be surprised if there's more than a couple of locals ('cos there is always one or two) that don't give at least reasonable coverage to the resident eL sides, especially in the provinces. For one thing it's a cheap and easy way to fill out the sports sections. An opinion piece on how the local eL side is doing half-way through the campaign written at a comfy newsdesk would be a lot more appealling to your average local hack than travelling to the far side of the mountain in force 9s and sideways rain to see Ballinabuinnamuicka Rangers U-14s beat seven shades out of the auld enemy AFC Knocknahoolaboola. I'd imagine.

**bray boy** · 11/01/2008, 6:43 PM

wicklow times do very good coverage on bray.....
the irish times has to be the most pathetic newspaper ive read in regards el coverage
was reading about jayson byrne in the metro on the way to school.....had a picture of ollie cahill i think......didnt know he chaged his name !!!!ha

**superfrank** · 12/01/2008, 1:54 PM

As sports editor of the DIT News, I do try and cover the el.

In the two issues we've done so far I've had a piece on student promotions in the el and an interview with Shay Kelly.

I don't know how much impact this has on the students though.

**sadloserkid** · 12/01/2008, 5:36 PM

Wrote my undergrad thesis under the title 'Has The Irish Media Failed The eircom League?' a few years back (2005 I think now). At the time The Star's coverage was the best by some distance but still pretty shocking compared to that afforded to the English and Scottish games. Compared to a paper like the Daily Record whose coverage of all four tiers of Scottish senior football is excellent the Irish print media do a lousy job.

**osarusan** · 13/01/2008, 3:34 AM

Originally Posted by sadloserkid

Wrote my undergrad thesis under the title 'Has The Irish Media Failed The eircom League?' a few years back (2005 I think now). At the time The Star's coverage was the best by some distance but still pretty shocking compared to that afforded to the English and Scottish games. Compared to a paper like the Daily Record whose coverage of all four tiers of Scottish senior football is excellent the Irish print media do a lousy job.

Is there any place I could find this thesis? It sounds interesting.

**DRDoc** · 13/01/2008, 2:15 PM

i would like to read this thesis also

is it available at all?

**stann** · 14/01/2008, 7:29 AM

I wouldn't mind a read of it either SLK. It already looks to be much more insightful than 'Who Stole Our Game'.

**BohDiddley** · 14/01/2008, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by sadloserkid

Wrote my undergrad thesis under the title 'Has The Irish Media Failed The eircom League?' a few years back (2005 I think now). At the time The Star's coverage was the best by some distance ...

And the worst?

**fergalr** · 14/01/2008, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by BohDiddley

And the worst?

Sunday Tribune.

**fergalr** · 14/01/2008, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by hedderman

Regarding the Irish Times, Tom Humphries, excellent sports writer that he is, likes to occassionally mention that he went to a few Bohs games in the 70s and therefore he's interested in the league while exhibiting strong bias towards the GAA.

On the contrary, Tom the (fat) gom is a sworn enemy of the LOI and is happy to attack it in print (most recently with his infamous Tallaght stadium diatribe).

**nijboyle** · 14/01/2008, 3:51 PM

The Star is quite spot on, and the sun apart from that i find most other nationals shocking..your better sticking with an EL site

**sadloserkid** · 14/01/2008, 4:10 PM

In the process of moving at the moment so while I'm sure that the old thesis is floating around in a box somewhere it could be a coupla weeks before I can dig it out again. If anybody who's interested in reading it drops me a PM I will get back to you about it again though it could be a little while...

And for the guy who asked which paper was the worst I only examined the The Star, The Mirror and the Independent in any real detail. The Indo was the worst of these three by some distance IIRC.

**Sniffer** · 14/01/2008, 4:46 PM

The Star probably is best; although it's all relative. Our brethren up North are much better served in print than we are. 10 colour pages in yesterday's Sunday Life.

**LukeO** · 14/01/2008, 5:23 PM

Originally Posted by Sniffer

The Star probably is best; although it's all relative. Our brethren up North are much better served in print than we are. 10 colour pages in yesterday's Sunday Life.

Never understood why up north, the Sunday World give the Irish league 4/5 pages yet down here we're lucky if they give the LOI a small side column.