NEWS FROM IRELAND - FROM A TRUSTED TEAM OF REGIONAL IRISH JOURNALISTS

Hello and welcome to News From Ireland — this is a website set up and operated by a group of journalists who have all been made redundant during the recent economic crisis. There are six of us involved in this venture which will upgrade to a proper news site in a few weeks time when the redundancy cheques arrive. The team is led by myself, Kevin Brady, and I am ably assisted by my team of Sile Nolan, Noirin Cawley, Thomas Kinsella, Simon Kilfeather and Deirdre Delahunty.

Here's our biogs:

Kevin Brady

28 years working with a large provincial newspaper in the Midlands. I joined straight from school and worked my way up to senior news reporter and sometimes editor whenever himself was away on holidays. I cover news, sport, politics and music. I won a McNamee Award for my GAA writing in the mid 1990s and the AT Cross Award for Outstanding Young Journalist in the mid 1980s. I'm a jovial character who is always on the lookout for a good yarn and I hope that the team I have selected around me will provide that. If you have any good yarns, you can send them to us here. I'll have all the contact details sorted later when the fella from Dell gets back to me about the server here.

Sile Nolan

Sile is a class act. She's worked in the radio and has a college degree in journalism. She is also a talented athlete having represented Meath in the Community Games finals on many times and her picture having graced the pages of our papers as well. She is very good on quiz teams and is excellent at covering meetings as she has great shorthand. When the radio let her go this year, I told her she would be on my team here at NFI and here she is.

Noirin Cawley

Noirin joined her local newspaper in the west in 1983 and won an AT Cross award like myself. She specialises in womens issues like health and welfare and entertainment and music and showbiz. Her contacts book must rival Simon Cowell's. Noirin will be bringing us the lowdown on all the happenings in the entertainment world.

Thomas Kinsella— Thomas is our sports expert. He played u-19 rugby for the province and has ben called into several development squads. He has a college degree as well in media so he knows his way around a keyboard. He got a trial with Aston Villa and Scunthorpe United three years ago and now he plys his trade with RossHill United in the local premier league. Thomas has an unique turn of phrase that will brighten up the sports stories in the coming months. He was gutted to be let go by his local paper, saying that he would never buy anything Scottish again ever. He's a gas man.

Simon Kilfeather

Simon is a real all-rounder too. He was a finalist in the Young Scientist of the Year award back in the 1980s and he will be covering all aspects of technology for us. He has a college degree as well, but not in journalism or media, but in systems analysis and computer programming. He is single and lives in the village.

Deirdre Delahunty

Deirdre is a real journalist. She could pick out a story from a mile away. She has a college Masters degree in Journalism which she got in Galway. She has worked for the national newspapers in Dublin and several of the locals. She is not too downhearted by the layoffs at her local paper and is looking forward to keeping her hand in by working for us here at NFI.

So that's the team. No doubt with the layoffs in the industry, there will be plenty out there who will be contributing to us over the next while. Please bookmark us on your browser and we will be here regularly bringing you quirky news stories from the regions.