Ireland, friends, is reaching an important moment. The next election remains three years over the horizon, but public discontent with the way our country is governed continues to grow.
In response, our politicians and media are not doing what you might expect: Trying to address public worries over migration, crime, housing, and the cost of living by listening and proposing alternative solutions to those that have failed.
No, instead their approach is to try to minimise and silence dissent. This week, Tipp FM and East Coast FM were in the crosshairs of the state’s hundred-million-euro regulator, Coimisiún na Meán. It won’t be long until people like us are, too.
And that’s why we’re asking for your help.
We have - across hundreds of episodes - never asked you for a penny. And to be absolutely clear, we’re not going to stop providing our content for free to everyone.
But we’d like to do more.
What do we want to do?
Well, first, we want to grow our existing audience. An average of 20,000 of you listen to us every week, presumably because you find in us a message and an attitude that just is not reflected elsewhere. We’re not going to pretend that reaching tens of thousands more people is going to single-handedly change Ireland - but it can’t hurt, can it?
So we’d like to be able to advertise. Properly.
We’d also like to be able to take our show on the road. Do events around the country. Spread the word. Meet many more of you in person. And have conversations that might expose a great many people to new ideas.
We’d like to do more episodes - interviews, panels, interrogations (if anyone is brave enough to submit to one) and so on.
We’d like to hire a producer, and a social media specialist, to get more of our content into the ecosystem.
And should you all be very generous, we’d like to maybe hire a reporter or two as well.
But that’s down the road.
For now our priorities are growth, more episodes, and events. And what do we need to do that? About 30k a year, in short. Or about 250 of you, chipping in €10 a month.
That’s just one in every 80 of our weekly listeners. One in eighty. Doesn’t seem too much to ask, does it?
So that’s what we’re asking you to do. It’s not life-changing money for either of us, and it’s not intended as an income - we are both fortunate enough to have jobs of our own. It’s specifically to help us grow this project. We’re asking you, in America-speak, to become partners with us.
If you can afford it, and you think what we’re doing is worthwhile, please consider becoming one of those 250 people. It’s €10 a month, and the link to subscribe is right below.
We hope that you will.
Thanks so much,
J&S
It's the $8 a month under ‘Pledge’ is it? Will delete this question if I'm missing something dead obvious.
Just wondering if you get more than enough people willing to subscribe why don't you accept them all. The more money you raise will allow you to do more and will also show that people who are unhappy with the current state of the nation are willing to put their money where their mouths are. Best of luck.