Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Some people seem to think that the Dublin riots is some kind of pivotal moment for Irish blogs as they supposedly brought the story and the pictures to the Irish public. In reality it did nothing more, but highlight the line between the mainstream media and citizen reporters.
While RTE radio should be criticised for [...]

I was meant to go into Dublin City Centre to see a movie in the Jameson Dublin Film Festival today. By the sounds of things I was better off staying at home, having slept it out this morning and not getting caught up in the riots in Dublin city today.
Instead of being a landmark [...]

It has to be said that Spin FM, a Dublin based radio station, is the best media organisation for freebies. They put a smile on the staff here in Drury Communications today after sending in some extra large pizzas after the JNLR results were released last week.
When you’re operating in a highly competitive marketplace, [...]

The latest JNLR figures have been released and they indicate a couple of growing trends. The big winners again are regional and commercial stations, whereas RTE, the national broadcaster, continues to lose listeners. In terms of the Irish context, the figures show that 85% of adults listen to radio daily, a statistic which [...]

The Sunday Times appears to have been offering free DVDs for some time now, or so I believe according to the copy of Howards End that has been sitting unwatched in my DVD collection from a few weeks ago. This week’s edition really caught my attention though as they were giving out [...]

A new website for the Master of Arts in Public Relations programme at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) has been launched. The website acts as a student resource and provides employers with direct access to potential employees.
The site gives a course overview,a short bio on each of the students and some discussion topics in [...]

The Sunday Times has an interesting front page article about Naomi McElroy, a journalist with the Sunday Mirror, who is going on trial tomorrow for faking prescriptions and buying drugs with them as part of an expose.
It will be a very interesting case to watch and would obviously have huge repercussions if McElroy is found [...]

The Daily Mail launched its Irish edition today as copies of Ireland’s newest paper were distributed on the streets for free. Another newspaper launch and cue the inevitable comparisons to the Irish Independent. The same arguments that the Mail will lead to the demise of the Indo were heard only a few short [...]

Women in business constantly appeal to the media yet we don’t see enough of them profiled in the press. Journalists and producers are always on the lookout for female entrepreneurs, but they don’t seem to be as good at promoting themselves as their male counterparts. It is a shame really because the resulting [...]

The Dublin Tourism Office has begun to offer audio podcast guides for Dublin (via Damien Mulley and Smart Mobs). The first in the series, Georgian Dublin, is available now, and will be follwed by nine other titles with accompanying brochures. This is something along the lines of what I hope to do if [...]

The best things in life are free, but sooner or later the government will find a way to tax them - Author Unknown
There is lots of talk about the continuing battle of the freesheets in Dublin between the Metro and Herald AM. The most decisive moments will probably be when CIE (the Irish rail [...]

Irish Permanent has announced that it is giving up its sponsorship of the Irish rugby team, which makes perfect sense to be honest because the company has scaled down over recent years. It will be interesting to see who snaps up their spot on the green jerseys, but it does throw up a few [...]

It looks like Irish politicians are finally starting to embrace the web, albeit for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, politicians like Liz McManus TD of the Labour Party and Councillor Damien Blake of Fianna Fail both have websites so that they can actively engage with the public. On the other [...]

John Collins has a really interesting review of Irish tech media marketplace in 2005 on his site. If there’s any one sector that is feeling the impact of the war between paper media and electronic media, it has to be Irish technology journalism.
2005 was quite interesting for me because it was my first [...]

Press Release Irelandoffers free online press release services to Irish companies, organisations and Govt. bodies.”
I haven’t used it yet, but will try it out shortly. The website claims that it is easy to add press releases via their content management system.
Obviously it is aimed at delivering content to journalists who can subscribe to email [...]

The Golden Pages is Ireland’s leading business directory. For years it has stagnated somewhat. I occasionally use their website, but the majority of copies of the directory are used to prop things up in the office or bundled into the corner.
However they’ve redesigned the website and are hiring a whole array of staff. [...]

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives - Robert Maynard Hutchins
I have written an Introduction to Blogs for Irish PR practitioners (PDF). The document is going to be made available to all PR students in Ireland thanks to Carmel Doyle, my lecturer when I was in [...]

Advertising is the art of making whole lies out of half truths - Edgar A. Shoaff
I heard that Eddie Hobbs had launched a blog, but a quick trip over to his site shows that he has duly been misinformed. For those unfamiliar with Hobbs, he is immensely popular in Ireland for his Rip-off Republic [...]

War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man - Napoleon Hill
The figures are out and Herald AM has drawn first blood. Independent Newspapers’ freesheet distributed 66,047 copies, while Metro Ireland only gave out 55,196 copies. While Herald AM may be claiming a [...]

I love using quotes. I don’t know about you, but using a line or two to encapsulate a bigger idea always resonates with me. It’s also a good way of connecting with your audience.
The budget speeches at Dail Eireann, Ireland’s parliment, offered a perfect example of this in action. Richard Bruton, the [...]

A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation - James Freeman Clarke
I was rather excited to read that Fingal County Council have started to offer webcasts of their meetings, especially because it’s my local county council.
In my opinion it’s a fantastic way to learn about politics. Politicians are [...]

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery - Anais Nin
I forgot to mention that I signed up to James Corbett’s OPML directory and became the node manager for Public Relations. Over the weekend I compiled a list of Irish Public Relations Consultancies, representative [...]

Anybody remotely interesting is mad, in some way or another
The ‘In fact ah‘ website has posted a video clip of Eamonn Dunphy’s rant on RTE about the Roy Keane saga. It’s a riveting watch as one of Ireland’s leading broadcast journalists loses the plot over the course of fifteen minutes.
Instant Punditry also points out [...]

Publicity is the life of this culture - in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive - and at the same time publicity is its dream - John Berger
The Limerick Leader, an Irish regional paper, pulled off a publicity masterstroke yesterday when the publication paid €31,000 for a winners’ medal from the first [...]

Find a job you like and you add five days to every week - H. Jackson Browne
Four positions have become available at work. The firm I work for, Drury Communications, are hiring two client executives and two junior executives. The client executives are for our Corporate and Public Affairs teams respectively.
Please note that [...]