Series 1 Episode 1 – Michael MacGinty speaks to Oliver McBride

The Fishing Daily Podcast  Series 1 Episode 1 – Michael MacGinty speaks to editor Oliver McBride

Oliver McBride: Welcome to The Fishing Daily Podcast. Your podcast for the fishing industry news and views. My name is Oliver McBride, and this is the first podcast of our series. And for the first podcast, I have Michael MacGinty here and he will be asking me a few questions about why I started The Fishing Daily and what we hoping to do in the future.

So over to you Michael.

Michael MacGinty:  Oliver, that is a good question. So the fishing daily, why start it?

Oliver McBride: I noticed that there wasn’t really a dedicated website out there for the fishing industry and having worked as a journalist and a news reporter for different magazines and for different websites, I decided that it was about time that the fishing industry got one platform that was dedicated to the fishing industry alone and would look at the industry as a whole, rather than as being a part of aquaculture or any other [00:01:00] sector to do with seafood.

Okay.  And can you give us some more background on yourself? I mean, what qualifies you to talk about the fishing industry?

I’m from a small fishing village here in Donegal and the north part of Ireland.  We grew up with fishing boats here when I was young. My father was a boatbuilder and my uncle was a boatbuilder . My uncle also designed boats in Mevagh Boatyard when the yard was going well, and I can trace back generations and generations of my family who has been involved in the industry.

Michael MacGinty: So that’s the salt water part of this taking care of it. What makes you qualified to be there editor?

Oliver McBride: I had worked fishing a little when I was young and in my teens during the summertime and I tried my hand at seine-netting and trawling as well as a bit of salmon fishing and pot fishing. So I have the basic inside knowledge of how the fishing operates.

Having worked with my father fixing and repairing boats, I traveled all over the country, getting to [00:02:00] know people in the industry. So  when I progressed from being a journalist with the Letterkenny Post and Donegal Now to The Skipper, it was sort of a natural flow for me to get back to where I started and that was on the fishing industry.

Michael MacGinty: Very good. What do you hope to achieve by publishing The Fishing Daily?

Oliver McBride: I’d like to see the fishing industry have a platform that they can bring to the attention of politicians and other groups and organizations out there. And to be able to show people the good work and the hard work and the unseen work that the fishing industry does because everything happens in the fishing industry, out at sea.

The public, doesn’t see the real hardships and the real work and real dedication it takes to be a person and the fishing industry.

Michael MacGinty: So you’re basically publishing the news as it happens, but who’s the target audience. Who are you expecting is going to [00:03:00] be reading the articles that you’re publishing?

Oliver McBride:  The Fishing Daily is aimed at everyone who’s involved in the fishing industry, whether you’re in a small boat or you’re in a large, super trawler  it doesn’t matter. , we treat everybody equally. We treat everybody’s concerns equally, and we want to let people know that we are here so that they can voice their concerns and they can read and learn about the industry. There’s others out there doing the same thing, experiencing the same thing and that if we all work together, then we can achieve a lot more.

Technology has changed. We need to move forward with the technology. Our news is changing the way we deliever our news is changing and the way that we have to approach dealing with all the problems.

It’s very easy for the industry to get pushed to one side. We see at the moment there is a battleground out there on Brexit and fisheries has been used as part of that fight.  Really-and truely, right across [00:04:00] the board ,fishers should be united and they should share their problems and their concerns because it’s only a matter of time before fishing goes back into the box again, when the politicians get their way w ith what they’re using the fishing industry for, at the moment.

Michael MacGinty: As well as publishing news every day on The Fishing Daily you have now launched The Fishing daily podcast. So who do you want to interview on this podcast?

Oliver McBride: Well, we’d like to hear from everybody right across the fishing industry.  We’d like to get some of our politicians on here as well. If they’d like to ever grace us with their presence.

The industry has a lot of interesting stories. The industry also has a lot of interesting things happening in it, and we would like people in the industry to feel that they can come here or they can listen to their representatives or even a politician.  You can get a fair hearin  with The Fishing Daily podcast.

Michael MacGinty: And how can listeners to the podcast find out more about The Fishing Daily?

Oliver McBride: You [00:05:00] can visit our website on www.thefishingdaily.com and there you’ll find news, features and reviews.  You will find that our news is kept up-to-date daily, so that. right across the fishing industry people will know what’s happening as soon as we know it, when it’s happening.

Michael MacGinty: Oliver, thank you for your time. And your honest answers, the fishing industry news is in good hands on. I look forward to your upcoming podcast.

Oliver McBride:  Thank you, Michael.