New Irish gaming website, irishgamer.ie which debuted just less than a month ago has had its first bit of controversy after Zabbo over on boards.ie noted some coincidences between the sites review of Metroid Prime: Hunters for the DS and the review for the same game which previously featured in Games(TM) magazine.

The editors of the site and magazine have been in contact with each other and the review has now been pulled with an apology due to be made on the matter.
The reviewer of the piece, Dave White will no longer contribute to the site and the 7 other articles he contributed have also been removed.
This is by no means a nail in the coffin for the site however as it is only weeks old this kind of bad press cannot help, especially considering the harsh nature of the hardcore gaming community. An proper Irish games site is badly needed, especially one that is as up-to-date as its UK and US counterparts, rather than just a reflector of news that the likes of Eurogamer has already covered; hopefully this won’t damage the site too much.
Credit where it is due to the editor of Irishgamer.ie, he dealt with the matter swiftly once it was clear that the review was lifted and is offering Zabbo a game for his detective work.

Just thought I’d point out that the upcoming IRMA singles chart (Friday 7th July) will be the first Irish chart ever to include digital downloads; something I covered in the Sunday Business Post back in April. (this is not an “I told you so”, I swear!)

It’s a pretty big move for the music industry to accept digital downloads, considering the fact that they were the enemy not too long ago; of course their mainstream acceptance has now led to DRM issues which will not find easy resolution.

This is from the IRMA website announcing the “historical” event:

On 1st October 1962, the very first Irish Singles Chart was published. Elvis Presley was the first artist to chart at number one in Ireland with She’s Not You a 7” vinyl release. Since then the chart has undergone many changes and the introduction of computerised sale terminals for retail in the early 90’s led to the present position where the Irish chart is recognised as the most accurate in the world.

And now from 30th June, the biggest change in the history of the Top 50 Singles Chart will take place. The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) has announced that Digital Downloads will now be eligible for the Irish Charts, the original Top 50 singles chart will include all tracks from conventional CD sales plus any download track (single) purchased through legitimate sites. The results of the brand new Official Irish Chart will be broadcast on Friday 7th July 2006.

The charts are currently made up from CD sales in nearly 400 stores around the country. However from 1st July, online sales from Apple iTunes, Eircom Music Club, Mycokemusic, Vodafone, Sony Connect, Bleep, Wippit and easyMusic will also be used to make up the chart.

IRMA has been monitoring download track sales for the last three months prior to going live with the new charts. At present, sales for downloads in Ireland account for approx. 14% of all music sales. However when the new style charts are introduced it is expected they will follow the trend in the UK where sales of digital downloads have more than tripled in the last year and now account for over 50% of the singles market.

The popularity of the download market is highlighted by the massive hit ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley, which went straight to # 1 in the UK on digital sales alone. This release amassed an incredible 40,000 sales in its first week.

‘We have always had the most accurate chart in the world, representing over 90 per cent of weekly sales through nearly 400 stores. Consumer purchasing is changing dramatically and we intend to keep our chart fresh by introducing downloads to mirror this changing market place’. Dick Doyle, Director General IRMA.

The brand new Official Irish Chart will be officially launched on Friday 30th June and the results of the very first download chart will be broadcast and published on Friday 7th July, the start of the third quarter 2006.

Yet again I am updating the site at an un-Godly hour.

On your right you will/should see a more refined list of links in place of the various crap I had there before; I finally found some code that allowed expandable menu’s in the blog and tweaked it to fit in as well as I could, now each link is categorised into various sections.

On the plus side this allows me to add many, many more links that I avoided doing before (because if I did the sidebar would be too long to bother anyone), it also makes it easier to navigate. On the negative I was forced to categorise and pigeonhole a few bloggers into not-very-fitting generalisations but I did the best I could!

I will be adding to the existing sections and subsections over the next day or two, and then on a rolling basis; hopefully it will serve as a fairly inclusive list of media-related issues in Ireland; please drop a comment on any suggested links or tweaks.

Thanks.

Michael McDowell has published the long-awaited Defamation Bill which will lay down substantial changes to the way the press in Ireland works.

The text of the bill is so far unavailable online but according to RTÉ it lays down the foundations for a press council, scraps the tort of libel and slander in favour of the single tort of defamation, allows for the defence of ‘fair and reasonable’ publication and puts a 1 year limit on the bringing of defamation cases amongst other things.

Following the disgraceful reporting on the death of Liam Lawlor calls for a Press Council have been growing however the ease at which such a council will be established remains to be seen; many news outlets are demanding the right to self-regulation and besides this it is unclear if any press council would be optional or mandatory. The issue of powers and governance would also have to be addressed.

The defence of ‘fair and reasonable’ publication is a welcome one although it will be interesting to see how it pans out in the real world; there must be a careful balance struck between allowing the media to say what it likes and allowing those in the wrong to get away with what they do.

The Privacy Bill is also long-awaited and seems like a rational exercise overall.

The tactics of the Minister have been interesting, it is widely felt that these two bills have been a delicate balancing act to gain press support. Obviously the print media need to be in agreement on a Press Council and it would be something for McDowell to hang his hat on in next years election; if this speech is anything to go by the carrot of “Fair and Reasonable Publication” can only be snatched at by outlets registered with or adhereing to the standards of said Press Council:

Subscription to the press council and adherence to its code of standards by a publication should, in my view, strengthen the entitlement to avail in any court action, of a proposed new defence of fair and reasonable publication, which I intend to provide for in the new Defamation Bill
…
Non-members of the press council, for whatever reason, wishing to avail of the new defence of fair and reasonable publication, would be required to have in place an equivalent fairness regime or to operate an equivalent and publicised code of standards.

There is no mention at present if the bill makes specific references to the internet or blogging; more on that once the text is widely available.

Update: More information available on the respective bills here and here.

For anyone who hasn’t already spotted it, RTÉ’s critically acclaimed 4-part series on Charles Haughey is starting again tonight at 10:25 (and I assume every Monday after for the next month).

Certainly worth catching for anyone interested in Irish politics past and present.

If like me you’re starting out on your career in journalism you may find some things extremely frustrating. Freelancing comes with the baggage of working from the outside, in so that everything you do is hindered somewhat by your out-of-the-loop status and lack of affiliation with a recognised publication. Besides this being new in journalism has the added issues of a lack of opportunities: freelancing is all about the Three C’s; contributions, commissions and contacts and these are all difficult to find when you’re just finding your feet.
The Irish media has had a long history of being nepotistic but thankfully those days are behind us; that’s not to say that nepotism is dead but rather that the Irish media is now no different from its international siblings in that respect. All the same media positions, in print especially, tend to be filled from the inside so where a job becomes available an editor may know the right person, who is working elsewhere, for the position. Then again anyone getting into journalism would be foolish to presume that this is a CV and interview based industry; your education and eloquence only count for so much in a job filled with other demands.

The real problem facing a young journalist is finding stories; unless you have personal contacts any kind of bountiful sources are hard to come by at first, after all who on earth would trust you with confidential information if you have no proven track record?

Then there is the etiquette; if you have an article should you e-mail it and follow it up with a phone call? Perhaps a call first to suggest it? Maybe it is better to pitch an idea before you waste your time working on something nobody wants? And just how open are editors to outside contributions (especially those made by small-fry journalists)? The real frustration comes from the fact that there is no one answer.

In reality you just have to keep hammering away at it until something comes good, at least that’s what I keep telling myself. Keep sending in pieces and suggestions as long as you believe they have a place in that publication (and even if you know they’re unlikely to find one in spite of this). Starting out in any new job or field is difficult, no matter what the area or complexity. Just like the rest of the working world your first steps in journalism are likely to be a baptism of fire; it’s just in this case that the difficult part is usually getting the work rather than dealing with the large quantity of it presented to you.

Since I finished college I’ve had some good runs and plenty of bad ones; at times I feel like I’m getting nowhere. Being more optimistic about it I’d like to think that I’m getting somewhere very slowly, just like I imagined it would be in the “real world”. I hate to use an old cliché but each pitch, suggestion and/or rejection is a learning experience of sorts; like how best to approach something the next time, how best to approach somebody too.

It’s just about hammering away and reminding yourself that you knew it was going to be this tough!

Last Monday night the unprecedented happened; Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein councillors worked together to block Fine Gael and Labour’s attempt at voting in Labour candidate Paddy Bourke as the Lord Mayor of Dublin. As a result of the unpredicted union Independent Councillor Vincent Jackson was instead elected. Intentionally or not this move, which came at a very significant time in the immediate future of Sinn Fein and Northern Ireland, is sure to bode well for Gerry Adams and co. With an eye on next year’s general election the party is now sure to rate its chances as a potential coalition partner higher than ever before.

Sinn Fein, first by their own abstention and more recently due to continued doubts over criminality has remained on the outskirts of Irish politics since the 1920’s. While most of the recent news about the party has been in the context of the North there is still no doubt that since their return to Dáil Eireann in the 80’s the party has harboured an interest in Cabinet positions south of the border; even more so now that the potential exists to legislate and influence legislation for the entire island, albeit from two very separate buildings.

While the temporary alliance of Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein is far from a resounding endorsement of the party, in the context of last Thursday’s big push for devolution from Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair, it may offer a glimmer of hope for the times ahead and some in Sinn Fein are sure to see it as an olive branch in disguise.

Iain Paisley has long challenged Ahern by saying that he will be willing to share power with Sinn Fein when Fianna Fail is, pointing out the hypocrisy of the Taoiseach’s stance. Using Dublin City Council as an example perhaps Ahern can suggest that his party is indeed ready and the differences between the two are now on policies rather than policing.

In public and so close to a general election Ahern would not be so candid however. While the party may be less critical of Sinn Fein it is unlikely that they will be quick to consider them fit for Government, even in the shadow of a working Stormont. To state that the party has an open mind to such a coalition would also play firmly into the hands of the opposition; Sinn Fein’s policies are not the kind that sits well with Fianna Fail’s wealthier supporters. Besides this many voters would have problems forgiving the party and many of its candidates for their suspected involvement in recent controversies such as Robert McCartney’s murder and the Northern Bank robbery.

What the Dublin Council vote does signal is the growing acceptance of Sinn Fein within political circles, even if it just as a tool to thwart the opposition. The increasingly normalised nature of the party may be enough, however to increase the urgency for movement in the run up to November 24^th.

The truth of the matter is that with an operational assembly it will be even harder for the bigger parties to ignore Sinn Fein next year; especially if the split is to be as close as some polls predict. Adams and McGuinness are sure to take some joy in the fact that they are now seen at least as a tactical advantage, which is an improvement on the ‘untouchable’ status they have held up until now.

Should issues like policing be resolved and devolution restarted in time it is impossible to predict Fianna Fail or even perhaps Fine Gael/Labour’s stance on Sinn Fein should their seats hold the key to a majority government after the next election. The question would then shift to a completely new arena for the party; namely how far Sinn Fein is willing to bend on its economic and domestic policies which are largely incompatible with the existing and more successful approach. Unless the party can begin to move more to the centre, or the public appetite changes dramatically any position of power Sinn Fein find themselves in next year may be extremely short lived.

It is difficult to over-emphasise the importance of today’s Somme Commemorations in Dublin; while this event is something that should not have taken 90 years to come to fruition it does not take away from the fact that this country is reaching a level of international maturity that has held relations on this island back for decades.

Irrelevant of the grandstanding and to/fro politics of Northern Irelands elected representatives on both sides of the community this belated recognition of the role Irishmen played in the battle of the Somme is the most public embodiment of the movement within the Republic towards a greater relationship with Unionists.

Interestingly it seemed to take some negative events, the Northern Bank robbery and murder of Robert McCartney in particular for Unionist politicians to finally realise that their real enemy is not the Republic, its Government or its people and it is not even the forward-thinking Nationalist community represented by peaceful politics.

It was at this point that parties like the DUP, who generally seemed to have nothing but a disregard for the Irish state, realised that a working relationship between the entire island was not a step towards re-unification but instead a rational and sensible part of inter-national co-operations.

From the DUP recognising North/South bodies, showing encouraging signs towards greater trade links and even avoiding the potential to trash Ireland after the Dublin riots and instead offer it praise; all of these moments showed that the ice was thawing.

Today’s commemoration, attended by an Taoiseach, the President as well as representatives of the DUP is a huge moment for this country. Finally we are stepping out of our denial and our ignorance and finally we are being mature members of the international community. Unionists have become less sceptical of the benefits of a closer relationship and thankfully Ireland has so far done what it can to encourage this. While the 1916 Rising celebrations have been and are sure to remain a bone of contention between the two sides perhaps the way that event passed may make things less controversial next time; although that is another matter.
It is worth pointing out that on another level of maturity Ireland seems to be making these advances for the right reasons; it is growing up and respecting this islands history in the fullest, it is not trying to pay lip service to anyone in the hope that it will lure them into something they currently oppose. Éamon Ó Cuív has fielded the idea of Ireland re-joining the Commonwealth as a sign of goodwill to Unionists; as such a move holds no other benefit for this country at all this is the kind of glad-handing that is best avoided.

While being cautious of sounding over-dramatic this day is a vitally important one in the future of the entire island, regardless of what November 24th brings. With or without devolution in the near future at least we can hold greater hope of a more positive, honest and open one, regardless of your political or national affiliation.