New Irish voice for immigrants

Metro Eireann, the paper devoted to issues affecting Ireland's immigrants, became a weekly just over a year ago. BBC NI's Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison looks at its impact.

Metro Eireann bills itself as Ireland's only multicultural weekly

Every Tuesday around lunchtime in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Metro Eireann's printing presses roll.

Ten thousand papers are published and most of those copies that aren't sold will be given away as free advertising for the paper.

Chinedu Onyejelem, a Nigerian-born reporter who had been with the Irish Times website and the Irish Catholic newspaper, co-founded Metro Eireann seven years ago as a monthly journal.

He says there were two reasons for setting up the paper.

"One, to provide information for Irish people as well as immigrants; for Irish people to know more about immigrants coming to Ireland and for immigrants to know more about the society they have come to live in.

"And the second thing was to provide employment for ourselves."

'Many voices'

For more than a century, Ireland was a country associated with emigration, but with the last 10 years of economic growth there has been a big influx of immigrants.

About one in 10 of the Republic's population was born abroad.

So, Metro Eireann's guiding philosophy is: "many voices but one Ireland".

And that means pages in the paper are devoted to African, Muslim, Polish, Filipino, and Chinese issues among others.

It can boast of a number of scoops, including the story that went worldwide about how a would-be Sikh reserve garda could not wear his turban on-duty because it was not part of the uniform.

It flags up issues that are affecting immigrants in a very forceful way, so it is required reading for me Conor Lenihan Immigration minister

Catherine Reilly, the paper's news and deputy editor, says it has some very important readers.

"We know that on our subscribers' list there are many, if not all, government departments.

"We know that the minister for integration reads our paper from front to back every week."

With immigration such a recent development, Conor Lenihan is Ireland's first integration minister and is himself a regular contributor to Metro Eireann.

"It's the one cross-ethnic and cross-nationality publication that acts as a reference point for the migration community.

Its readership includes influential figures in government

"And, yes, it flags up issues that are affecting immigrants in a very forceful way, so it is required reading for me."

Metro Eireann is not yet profitable.

It's having problems attracting advertising, though Mr Onyejelem, who is also the editor, stresses that he doesn't think there's any racist undertone to that.

He believes the paper, which is based in the heart of Dublin not far from busy O'Connell Street, can and will be successful.

"If we make more money from advertising then we can develop it further.

"We want to increase the circulation - it's currently 10,000 every week, and I can think we can do much more with more resources."

Metro Eireann is in many ways a sign of the changing times, reflecting an Ireland that has gone from massive emigration to massive immigration.

The country that gave the Irish Post to Britain and the Irish Echo to America is now getting its own ethnic press.