Irish Media
If "media" was strictly defined as direct communication, then the Irish are hardly experts. In fact, at one particular drawn out committee meeting in a small town, a wry comment came from the floor: "Bull batters brains... eventually". It was fairly common for pubs in the winters of yore to run a Liar Of The Year competition to draw in business. Storytelling has always had a great Irish tradition; the longer the yarn the better, so it should comes as no surprise that the Irish marry well with the channels of modern communication, such as newspapers, radio and television and that some of our journalists should gain significant international reputation. The history of communication in Ireland has been well documented in book form, and biographies and memoirs of her more prominent journalists abound on both a regional and national level.
A memoir by Godfrey Graham of his 40 Years Behind the Lens at RTE is both entertaining and informative, giving the reader a glimpse of what went on both behind and in front of the lens, as well as giving an interesting record of the early days of television and public service broadcasting in Ireland. Another is Stephen Price's bestselling Monkey Man - a hillarious debut novel based on Dublin's Media scene.
