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September 02, 2005
Kilkenny Voice
JOHN'S GATE in Kilkenny was on my map for three things when I lived down the road. I rented my first Irish lawn mower there. I drank my first Scotch whiskey there. And I bought my first Kilkenny People there. Now the place where my rental mower once sat houses the offices of the Kilkenny Voice, a 96-page newspaper selling for EUR 1.65 in parts of southeast Ireland.
It competes head-first with the rival Kilkenny People and it has some heavy hitters including guest columns from Kilkenny hurling legends DJ Carey and Eddie Keher.
John Sheils, former managing editor of the Sunday World is behind the project. Other shareholders include Jim Rhatigan, editor, Seán Hurley, former editor of the Kilkenny People and David Haugh, former senior executive with WPP plc, one of the largest communications and marketing groups in the world.
The Kilkenny People long enjoyed robust sales, suggesting the local area can actually sustain two newspapers. We will know whether that is true by Christmas.
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September 2, 2005 | Permalink
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Comments
Kilkenny People will CRUSH Kilkenny Voice!!
Posted by: Irv | Sep 8, 2005 3:26:15 PM
I worked with John Sheils at the Sunday World for many years. He is an immensely talented man with a great energy for the newspaper industry. The people of Kilkenny as opposed to the Kilkenny People are lucky to have have him
Posted by: hugh jordan | Sep 16, 2005 12:20:27 PM
Would dearly love to get a copy of that article you wrote about Joe Murphy last week.
Posted by: Kay Kavanagh | Oct 21, 2005 6:50:10 PM
I think the Voice has proven themselves by christmas alright, they proved they are nothing but a glorified red top with a bad editor, overworked staff and questionable ethics. They should be closed down, its a disgrace the way they dealt with the Castle Gardens story over the last two weeks. A disgrace to this ounty.
Posted by: sam mccarthy | Jan 20, 2006 11:23:23 AM
The Kilkenny Voice has achieved a circulation of only 3,500 to date so it shouldn't be around for long more.
From the very start it had the wrong editor, not necessarily 'a bad editor'.
He had been sheltered in the Kilkenny people for 35 years, reporter Carmel Hayes had also been sheltered there for many years, so they were the wrong people to spearhead kilkenny's new weekly.
As a result of having a lifelong Kilkenny People man as editor the Voice became a poor copy of the Kilkenny People, 'Big Brother's Little Brother'.
It failed to provide the radical alternative newspaper that Kilkenny desperately needs, it failed to find that niche.
And that's why, unfortunately, it will close. It simply can't go on losing a fortune every week no matter how well it is bankrolled.
This has nothing at all got to do with their infamous front page story, which was actually a last desperate attempt to gain circulation.
Expect it to go into administration shortly.
Posted by: Free Stater | Feb 3, 2006 8:15:48 PM
Do any of the Kilkenny papers know what's about to hit them?
Posted by: Abby | Feb 13, 2006 1:28:48 PM
The voice will shortly be going into recievership I think. You heard it hear first.
Posted by: sarah | May 5, 2006 1:53:18 PM
just giving comment about today paper about sean walsh family . print today saying that their windows are being broken and that there are load of people outside their house calling them name.but you go ask the gardai did the get any report of this there are up here dont like them so what i cant evening let 4 year outside the back with them.im very unhappy u listen to one side of this story.im looking for some kind of comment thank maryellen
Posted by: maryellen kavanagh | May 17, 2006 9:44:50 PM
When I want to read news of Kilkenny I now buy the Kilkenny Voice. They write real stories that are down to earth and are not afraid to take on contraversial issues
Posted by: Margaret | Jun 19, 2006 12:21:39 AM
It will appear that Rudkins Mill in Bagenalstown is up for Restoration.
Anyone know anything about this.
see www.RudkinsMill.com
Posted by: John Badi | Oct 25, 2006 8:20:46 PM
By far the biggest newspaper in Kilkenny now - and the Best to my mind -
is the new Kilkenny Advertiser, with a weekly circulation of over 25,000.
The Kilkenny People Weekender is in there too. When launched in September 2005 (with D.J. Carey's money) The Voice was bankrolled for the first two years until it finds its own feet. Since then Deputy John McGuinness
has been helping out with the finances - after all it's his very own re-election paper!
The Voice will limp on until Summer 2007 (when John won't need it for his campaign).
The Advertiser, when coupled with local radio, give me all the news I want, so I don't buy the Kilkenny People or the Voice
anymore - I have all the money I spare saved up for a great Xmas.
The People is, as always, the greatest rag of them all!
Posted by: Free Stater | Nov 20, 2006 8:49:55 AM
The Voice owes many of its (ex-)contributors serious four-figure sums. Hence the rather slim nature of its sports pages in recent times.
Far from being a smart cookie, John Sheils is actually a fool. It was his call that put the Castle Gardens story on the front page that time, in quite a brutal manner. Carmel Hayes advised him against it, but Jim Rhatigan was too weak to stand up to Sheils, who is a bully. Advertising has yet to recover from Sheils' stupidity.
Sheils now appears to think that having Tipperary figures -- Denis Leamy, Eoin Kelly -- writing in a Kilkenny paper is going to endear the paper to Kilkenny GAA fans. Hardly. What a brain. He is now stuck with the inanities of Eddie O'Connor as his flagship contributor. Quite some mess. Charlie Keegan has been put on a two-day week and so the future looks black for the Voice. Expanding into Laois and Tipperary may well be two steps too far.
Sheils' managerial abilities can be summed up in how he sacked a subeditor last autumn in severe fashion and subsequently had to fly in subs from London from the Evening Standard to do work. The man is a nose-picking buffoon, albeit a nose-picking buffoon in a suit.
People in Kilkenny got wise to Sheils reasonably quickly. He is a knacker with a tabloid mentality. Not really the thing in Ye Faire Citie, as he is finding out.
Posted by: Gallah | Mar 12, 2007 10:37:49 PM
Don’t rate the Kilkenny Voice these days. Thought it was more competitive last year. Used to enjoy reading journalist Christina Holt's column. She was a great investigative journalist and not afraid to expose injustices. Wonder why she is not writing for the Voice anymore!!!!! Do know she has published two books. Truth Behold…. a novel about the abuse in the Industrial Schools of Ireland and Life’s Final Furlong, a story of a father and daughter both challenging cancer. The Voice needs more journalists like Holt if they intend to keep their heads above water and survive the cutthroat business of the media.
Jack
Posted by: Jack White | May 14, 2008 9:36:28 PM
Latest chapter in the ongoing Kilkenny media saga is that Jimmy Rhatigan , former Editor of the former " Kilkenny Voice " , together with Sean Hurley, former Editor of the " Kilkenny People " and former Voice man too, have launched " The Kilkenny Reporter " today as a free newspaper in Kilkenny .
I haven't seen a copy of it yet, with the Rhatigan-Hurley combo in command , together with veteran Kilkenny People Advertising Manager Peter Seaver on board ( lovely fellow ! ) it should pose stiff opposition for advertising to the " Kilkenny Advertiser " and sure there's no harm in that as the Advertiser is really a Galway newspaper in disguise .
They have my fellow Photog Donal Foley of Hugginstown aboard too - the quality of the photographs in the Kilkenny People is dreadful - Donal is better than that !
And all this as D-Day looms for the Kilkenny People as three consortia shortlisted by owners Johnson Press UK bid for that newspaper , as it sells all its Irish titles in one basket next month .
I can only wish Jimmy, Sean, Peter, Donal and Co every success, they're the nicest fellows you could meet in Kilkenny , they've got ink in the blood, and deserve to continue to be gainfully employed in the business they love best .
Michael McGrath
PhotographerOfKilkenny@gmail.com
( The Studio,
18 Dominic Street,
Kilkenny City
( near Kilkenny Garda Station ) .
Mobile 0879145714 .
Posted by: Michael McGrath Kilkenny | Apr 7, 2010 4:11:37 PM
WHO'S AFRAID OF SEAN KEANE ?
A lot of interesting things happening since . Deputy Editor of the Kilkenny People came up the street gunning for me one fine Monday morning , with a big fellow in tow . I thought he was Keane's hired gun , at first , couldn't believe it when this big thick-looking fellow informed me , with a sneer out of the side of his mouth , that he was Editor of the Kilkenny People ! Still can't believe it . And that criticism of the People is an unhealthy lifestyle to choose . I pleaded with him : " Don't shoot me - I'm only the photographer ! "
Keane has retaliated by threatening the local politicians that the next time they'll see their names in the People will be their In Memoriam entries , if they're found talking to me , can't say as I miss them , heheheh .
( Malcolm went real shy all of a sudden ! ) .
Sadly , The Kilkenny Reporter is down to 32 pages , little ads ,bright though it is it could more deservedly be titled " The Hometown Chronicle " .
Maybe they're afraid of Sean Keane and his new sidekick as well ?
And I have to take out a magnifying glass to view the photos on the Advertiser .
C'mon Naoise , give Pat a full page photo ! It's Pat Moore's own fault , he's so slick with that new Canon 7D of his that he deserves to be on the Times or Indo , or at least De Paper down south .
Naw, he's afraid of Keane as well , so he'd never cope with Gangland , looks like the whole of Kilkenny is .
Posted by: Michael McGrath | Jul 25, 2010 7:54:29 AM
Last October Sean Keane told a cousin of mine that he is in charge of drawing up the ' A - List ' of the more important citizens of Kilkenny to be invited to the important civic events held in this city .
So if you're living in Assumption Place, Newpark, Ossory Park , the Butts , Kennyswell , Fiacre's Place, Larchfield , etc etc etc , you haven't a chance , you're a second-class citizen as omitted from this list by Sean Keane at the behest of his masters .
Ah but we have our own little freemasonry centred around the Kilkenny People and City Hall , haven't we - at least Sean Keane was honest enough to admit that .
The sooner, therefore that this centre of snobbery, Kilkenny Borough Council , is abolished the better for all the citizens of Kilkenny .
Posted by: Michael McGrath | Jul 26, 2010 11:19:33 AM
The Kilkenny Reporter shows a marked turnaround this week with a 100 % increase in advertising , while the Kilkenny People continues to get even worse , if that be possible , mmust be worrying for the folks in High Street , think they should consider a couple of free transfers out ,and need a new striker badly if they are to once again escape relegation this season .
While The Kilkenny Reporter Team look like an outside ber for the Premiership in the new season if they can shake off the Galway-owned Kilkenny Advertiser , it's all up for grabs now !
C'mon fans , support a big Rhatigan comeback !
Posted by: Michael McGrath | Jul 31, 2010 7:29:01 AM
WOMAN SMUDGER OPERATING IN KILKENNY .
There is a woman in Kilkenny , a housewife, who takes photographs of weddings to earn some money for herself outside the home .
Some photos she takes turn out , many others don't .
It is therefore suggested to her that she finds some other line of business in fairness to future brides and grooms and their wedding photography .
Not saying that she is a fraud, or that she is intentionally doing wrong , rather it is a case that she is somewhat deluded concerning the level of her ability as a photographer .
No , she shall not be named , not even condemned , it is left up to herself to think it out .
Perhaps she might consider training for the job with an experienced professional photographer ?
Until then she can only be described as a Smudger .
Posted by: Michael McGrath | Aug 2, 2010 10:41:36 AM
Latest News from the Kilkenny Reporter online :
KIlkenny Photographer Michael McGrath Slandered as Drunk !
Irish Photographer Still Slandered as Drunk !
KIlkenny City Photographer Michael McGrath is still slandered daily today as a drunk by envious competitor photographers in Kilkenny , Ireland - though he has not touched alcohol for ten years !!!
And in fact Michael says that he was never drunk in his life , but suffered from a nervous condition that was treated successfully by doctors back in the year 2000 .
The condition , that can result in involuntary shouting in public, was a great embarrassment to him all his life up to then .
But local competitors , especially in wedding photography , still put about the story that he is drunk , because they cannot possibly compete with the Pro Photographer's sheer talent on a level playing pitch .
And in fact Michael points out that it is physically impossible for him to drink alcohol anyway as he suffers all his life from gastric ulcers as well .
" I can stand the physical suffering " , Michael McGrath told The Kilkenny Reporter , " but it's hard to live with the lies and slanders - especially when I do not drink at all and have not touched an alcoholic drink since the turn of the century . "
We wonder how the liars and slanderers of Kilkenny live with themselves , and , yes , you guessed it , the slanderers are the worst photographers around , we would certainly not want people like that at our weddings !
Posted by: Michael McGrath | Aug 26, 2010 4:21:23 AM
Nice fellow Brian Keyes!
He's the new hard-working Editor of the "Kilkenny People".
and the great thing about Brian is that he gives the best photographers a chance to display their best work.
I know, maybe a single photo published now and then, but it's definitely a step in the right direction for the Kilkenny People.
Brian is happy that the Old Lady of High Street now has a circulation of 5000 in the city and 7,500 in the county throughout Kilkenny - that's the healthiest position that the KP has seen in the past several years.
Yes, the Voice was good while it lasted - nothing near its precursor the old Kilkenny Standard though under the intellectual but down to earth Sean Courtney. The Standard had great columnists and photogs too.
Best thing that can be said for the two freebies circulating in Kilkenny now is that they're free!
Nobody begrudges two Euro a week for the KP, it's great value when you come to think of it for a really good local newspaper these days - it's the best place to be for an advertiser!
A pro photographer who puts a photo into the KP now and then told me that Brian Keyes is a gentleman amongst editors - yes, it looks that way.
Welcome to Kilkenny, Brian!
Posted by: Michael McGrath | Jun 10, 2011 1:58:57 AM
