Net success for Sinn Féin

BY JOANNE CORCORAN

As the dust settles on last week's victory, most Sinn Féin members will have noticed that one of the most significant events to occur over the elections was not simply the return of 24 seats. We knew they were coming - the work had been put in. What we couldn't expect, or hope for, was the favourable commentary being dished out by a usually hostile media.

We can't deny that we've made massive strides in the publicity arena since the lifting of Section 31, multiplied tenfold by the excellent work of the current Publicity Department. But there is still an undeniable element of censorship operating throughout the island in the mainstream media. So nobody was ready for the praise that was lavished on us last week, on everything from our vote management to our army of canvassers, our campaign strategy and our publicity machine.

Not left to chance

However, the friendly media reception given to the party was not a result of pure chance. The Publicity Department, North and South began preparing for this election well in advance of 26 November.

And its attention to detail went further than the immediate public gaze, showing even more professionalism than we were being openly praised for.

One of these details was the Irish Republican Media (IRM) service.

Most people know that early in the year the party launched a new website, a glossy, comprehensive, modern, internet-based guide to the party and republicanism. This technological development was a reflection of how far the party had come in terms of publicity. But what many people don't know is that a new subscription service was produced in tandem with the official site, the IRM, which I was given the reluctant pleasure of managing. Launched initially as a tri-weekly newsletter, the service quickly began to take over as the main site for republican news, picking up most of its subscribers from America. Exclusive interviews were posted with Adams, McLaughlin, Cahill and other renowned republicans. Videos from the Ard Fheis, footage of candidates out canvassing in their constituencies, and several other clips, available only on the IRM, began to appear in the Audio/Video section of the site. The subscription list began to grow, slowly but surely.

Last week the IRM came into its own. While I stayed in Dublin with a laptop, two phones, and access to the telly, Eric Eckhart and Mark Joyce from the Dublin press office, under the watchful, all-seeing eye of Director of Publicity, Dawn Doyle, went to Belfast with a video-camera, and a mission to be first with the results from all the count centres.

The new Sinn Féin Assembly site had provided all the news and information in the run-up to the election, but for the day itself, and the aftermath, the IRM was taking over. The front page of the site was transformed into an election table and constituency map, with links to more detailed analysis of each area.

Having provided news alerts every day for two and a half weeks solid, you can imagine how thrilled I was at the prospect of working on the site all day, for two, possibly three days. And then there was the promise we had made to our subscribers of bringing live results from each centre, as well as video footage of candidates being elected and giving interviews afterwards. No pressure, so. But the IRM pulled it off, and in the spirit of keeping you informed (or gloating, some call it), here is a brief look at how we managed to go from a tiny new site to another success story from the elections.

An easy start

Much to my relief, Wednesday's coverage started easily enough. There wasn't an incredible amount of news coming out of the North, so all I had to worry about was a few bulletins.

The camera-wielding amateur Steven Spielbergs were up to their tonsils in Belfast though, following candidates all over the city, being mistaken for stalkers more than once.

Clips flew up all day, and I know they were going up in a hurry, because I was sent a text message to send out an email alert every five minutes at one point. Exclusive footage of Adams canvassing in Belfast, footage of Alex Maskey and Caitríona Ruane predicting results, a clip of Marylou McDonald discussing the all-Ireland imput into the election - the list grew and grew. By Wednesday evening, we were tired, but proud of a hard day's work. And the feeling on the ground was that Sinn Féin would do well when the votes were counted. Little did we know how Thursday was going to go.

D-day

Thursday started very early for the IRM team up North, but results weren't due in until the afternoon, so an early morning bulletin sufficed from my end, along with a few alerts for new video clips. However, come two o'clock I was typing results into the computer so fast my fingers had turned into a whirring blur. As an indication of how professional the site looked, it has to be pointed out that we had results up on our election table faster than many of the other web-based news services. Our coverage was so good, we began to get an influx of subscribers there and then, all eager to receive the speedy updates and video footage of what was going on behind the scenes.

The intensity of the work didn't bother us though. Like everyone else in the party, we were totally distracted by the amazing results coming in. First Kelly took a seat, then Adams, and as the day progressed there was a palpable buzz of excitement as it became obvious the party was going to outdo its own expectations. Phone calls were flying back and forward - "It looks like Meehan might take South Antrim", "McGuigan's definitely taking North Antrim"... But we took real joy in knowing that we were getting this information out on our website, our fledgling, minimally staffed site, faster than the major sites.

By 11pm we had all the day's results up and analysis of what had happened throughout the day, and what should happen the following day. But no celebrating was allowed yet. Tomorrow was going to be just as busy.

An end in sight

This should be a shorter day, I promised myself when I fell out of bed on Friday morning, with the thoughts of a possible evening in the pub at the end of it. But it wasn't that shorter, and by now I'd realised the publicity department doesn't stop when everyone else is already celebrating. Towards the end of the day, all the 24 Sinn Féin seats had been returned, but we had promised to bring all the results, hence me sitting in front of my laptop at some time around 10pm filing the remaining few DUP and UUP seats onto our front-page. More than once I thought, "For the love of God, I should be in a pub right now, with everyone else".

The dust settles

By Saturday, the IRM's job was finished. I had promised an analysis for Monday - it seemed so far away on Friday night - and thanked our subscribers for contributing to the election. The IRM has returned to normal this week (please God let there be an Assembly set up, and no more elections until the locals next year!), but in the heat of the moment I promised subscribers exclusive interviews with all the newly elected MLAs in the next few months.

So if you haven't subscribed yet, and you enjoy the thought of having the publicity department slog their guts out so you can have the latest news updates and reams and reams of interviews, it's time you clicked on to www.irishrepublicanmedia.com. Last week proved that when it comes to Internet media, Sinn Féin has a service that can compete with, and in many cases surpass the major sites. So take advantage of it.

And if you're one of the newly elected MLAs, could you give me a ring? I sort of made this promise...