Abdul Haseeb: 'I'm learning as I go'

Abdul Haseeb Editor of 'The Irish Muslim'. First issue came out last September


Initially the target audience are Muslims. Obviously. We're selling it in halal shops all over the country – not all, but we've covered as much as we could. Because this is the first of its kind, we're just testing the waters. We haven't invested a lot of money in it – we're just moving from issue to issue costs, kind of thing. It's my money, and a loan from some friends.


We're trying to give a voice to the grassroots. We don't have the imam of this mosque, the imam of that mosque as writers. We might have a student in Trinity College, or a doctor in some hospital – just normal people. We're trying to stay away from the normal points of contact for the media. We're trying to fill that gap for the Muslim common person – who just goes to his or her job, comes back, looks after the children, runs the house, goes to the mosque and prays.


From an ideological point of view, we would take our direction from the Koran and the Sunnah. We're not inclined to any particular group – Shias or Sunnis or anybody else would have access to publish an article. As Muslims, we have a history of 1400 years. We've had economies, we've fought wars, and so on. So Islam does teach us about everything, really, we have an opinion about everything. Not that we look at everything through the glasses of religion. But sometimes we do.


We have non-Muslim readers, too. In the third issue we have an article about Christmas, written by a Christian. She's not a priest or anything, just a devout Christian. So she got in touch and said 'I want to write an article about Christmas'and I said, 'OK, fine.' This magazine is called Irish Muslim, and it's for Irish people as well.


In our first issue, you'll find a lot of typos, a lot of this and that. Part of it is my own fault because we just rushed it. The second issue there's a lot of improvement, but there's a lot of problems. The third issue we wanted to get just right. My background is not in journalism or anything – I studied hotel management – but I'm learning as I go.


The magazine isn't paying me any wages at the moment. But I know that if we do it properly, I should be able to get a wage out of it. At the moment I do graphic design for other clients, but as such I'm unemployed. In the next five or ten years, I hope that we'll set a trend. Financially, we hope to be able to sustain a staff member or two. I'm not hoping for something big, like Rupert Murdoch or anything like that.


Read all about it... the Irish Muslim


Readers: 1,000 – "Because this is the first of its kind, we're just testing the waters"


Typical story: "Nama – An Islamic viewpoint"


Staff members: Abdul Haseed is both editor and designer. "There are a few other people, contributors. Otherwise it's only myself"


Cost: €2.99


Frequency: Monthly


Format: 40-page colour magazine


Mission statement: "Our ambition is to make this a healthy and positive experience, rather than a clash of civilisations"

Anna Pas´ Editor of 'Polski Express'. A Polish lifestyle and culture magazine


There were three of us, in the beginning. Myself and two others. We didn't have a proper business plan. When the magazine was launched three and a half years ago, we just jumped into this river and were taken by it. With no experience, no contacts, no nothing. At the beginning we were using our own savings.


When the Polish community appears in the Irish media, usually it's "Polish worker..." Blah blah blah. Always Polish workers. Rather than Polish people. They see us as people who are coming here short term, not really interested in integrating, not going out, just working, saving their money.


So I'd say there were very strong emotional and personal reasons why we decided to publish this magazine. Because we felt that there's a huge group of Polish people who came here as a choice. They were happy to be here, happy to stay in this country for a long while, maybe forever, maybe not. Happy to meet people, take part in the cultural life, going out, socialising.


And we thought – all these people are completely forgotten. Nobody's speaking to them, nobody's addressing their needs – which are more than just buying food in Lidl.
So we knew all these people were very active, but nobody was writing about it. And we just wanted to spread the word about all these fabulous, great things happening.


At the beginning it was probably 3,000 copies. Then it was 7,000 and at its peak it was 10,000 copies. And after three-and-a-half years Polski Express is well known and well respected. And I couldn't dream of more. Except the hard copy still existing. Since October, we haven't published a hard copy of the magazine, it's just online. That's the reality nowadays.


I came to Ireland just after finishing my studies – I was studying philosophy and art history, and the very next day after my graduation I came to Ireland. Everything was happening back then, it was 2004-5, Poland had just joined the EU, the job market opened up for us, so everyone was going either to the UK or Ireland. So I felt I might be part of something bigger.


If we have achieved to change someone's opinion, even, let's say, five people, then I couldn't wish for more. I know it's very idealistic, but that was the idea behind the magazine as well – it was very naïve and idealistic but somehow it worked out.



Read all about it... Polski Express


Readers: 10,000 online subscribers


Typical story: "Polish artist breaks into Irish market"


Staff members: Anna Pas´, editor, "and my business partner Tomasz Grzes´ko who handles the marketing"


Cost: Free


Frequency: Updated regularly


Format: Online (formerly 32-page glossy magazine)


Mission statement: "We're working towards integration. And also showing that there are things to do in life other than work"


Fr Brian McKevitt Editor, subeditor and distributor of 'Alive!' Catholic monthly tabloid


I would be trying to offer a Catholic view on contemporary issues. I'm not saying the Catholic view, but a Catholic view. It's also to try and fan into flame the faith of Catholics who are lapsed, or whatever it might be – who are on the margins – to try and reawaken their faith. I believe that God can bring joy and hope into people's lives, and certainly at the present time people need both of those.


Alive! began in early 1996. I think the first issue we did about 17,000 copies. Now we're round about 380,000. And I would double that circulation tomorrow if I had the volunteers. Basically the whole thing depends on volunteers – it goes into churches, into supermarkets, into some shops, but it's really people just taking it and delivering it door to door.


I suppose I've been surprised at the range of people that have read it. Because it goes in door to door, it's lying in the house and anybody can pick it up – or it can go straight into the green bin. Whatever. But I see it as my job to get it into the homes. After that it's up to the Holy Spirit.


A lot of young Catholics that are committed are reading it. Obviously older people with their faith are reading it. I've had emails from atheists backing some of the stuff I've said. I've had emails from people who I suppose would be anti-Catholic. Not agreeing with what's in it – but at least they're reading it. It was attacked by the minister for justice, so obviously it's having some kind of an impact. We've been attacked by a number of politicians.


It's very time consuming. I work on it full time. More than full time. I would be the editor, the subeditor, the distributor – I load up the van and I drive to different parts of the country with it. It's a labour of love. But I see it as a form of preaching, and I love that. My life is preaching.


One of the major problems in the media in Ireland is that on practically every issue – whether it's scandals in the church, or the Lisbon treaty, or global warming, or the EU – they are all singing from the same hymn sheet. And that is a sheet with a very limited number of hymns, let me put it that way. People read a story in Alive! and they say, 'Why are we not reading this in the national media?' At one point during the Lisbon treaty, I was joking with a colleague that we would put a subheading on our paper – "The Paper They Don't Want You To Read".


My policy is: Stop defending the faith. Stop defending the church. Let us move out of our own territory with the good news – let us move into their territory. Let them go on the defensive. Now, if we're going to do that, then of course you've got to expect war.


Read all about it... Alive!


Readers: 385,000 copies delivered – "The rest is up to God"


Typical story: "Pope urges young people to deepen their hope of eternal life"


Staff members: Three – Fr Brian McKevitt, editor and distributor, plus "one paid secretary, and then there's a lady for the circulation"


Cost: Free


Frequency: Monthly


Format: 16-page tabloid


Mission statement: "It's trying to give people a different perspective on things"


Liam Ferrie Editor of 'The Irish Emigrant'. Weekly home news bulletin for the diaspora


I worked for Digital Equipment, the computer company in Galway, for 20 years. So we were on the internet there before most people knew about the internet. And in 1987, somebody in the US asked would somebody in Galway do a summary of the news and send it out by email. And I just took it upon myself to do it – because I was big into computers, and big into news. And it's still going.


We send to over 20,000 email addresses. Over the years, we've been read in 171 countries that we know about. Sometimes it's only one or two people in strange places like Kyrgyzstan or the Cocos Islands. People like aid workers and missionaries – we've always got priests in strange places. And there's a hard-copy version in Boston and New York.


People value what we're doing, a digest of the week's news. I listen to every news bulletin that goes, and I read all the newspapers. Then I keep them close by, and I just rewrite, and try and summarise the story as best I can. Something we find is, people who read it will know as much about what's happening in Ireland as somebody they're talking to on the phone at home. And sometimes more.


We're not as important as we once were. If people want news in Ireland now they can go about it other ways. But for the first eight or nine years of what I was doing, if you wanted to find out what was happening in Ireland – you only had me. So it was hugely important to people. There were lots of great stories. There was one girl from Killarney who went off on a trekking holiday in Tasmania. And out in the wilderness she bumped into a couple who were also trekking, and also Irish. And they sat down, they were chatting, and your man started rummaging through his rucksack. He took out this bit of paper and handed it to her, and said, 'Oh, you might want to read this.' It was the Irish Emigrant, and actually she'd already read it. There was a pub in Geneva at one stage that used to have a copy, when nobody had the internet, and all the Irish employees of the UN in Geneva used to visit this pub on a Monday night to have a read at it.


I do enjoy it. I was up until two o'clock this morning trying to get it complete, so I'd rather get to bed if I could. But if I wasn't doing it I'm not sure what I would do. It's become part of my life.


I think what we've done for a lot of people over the years is give them the feeling that there's somebody back home that's worried about them. And I get a kick out of that.


Read all about it... The Irish Emigrant


Readers: Sent to 20,000 email addresses all over the world


Typical story: "Unemployment total continues to increase"


Staff members: Husband-and-wife duo Liam and Pauline Ferrie. "Pauline's definitely the proofreader... and the censor. I write most of the stories"


Cost: Free


Frequency: Weekly


Format: 20-page PDF printout, plus daily updates online


Mission statement: "We're just trying to give people an honest-to-goodness review of what the week's been like in Ireland"