Tripe + Drisheen is a quality ad-free newspaper for Cork city and county - delivered by email
Tripe+Drisheen is a reader-supported local journalism publication about Cork city and county, founded and currently edited by JJ O’Donoghue. Previously, Ellie O’Byrne was edited T+D. We started publishing in February 2021 and we publish a mixture of news, features and opinion pieces.
Our motto is “slow news is good news” - we believe people in Cork deserve detailed, in-depth reporting on the issues that impact on their lives. You can read our manifesto for local news here.
We cover a wide variety of topics including environment, local politics, culture, employment, social issues and arts. We’re also keen to add new voices to Tripe+Drisheen, such as the contributors to Our Cork 2040 series.
In the digital age we are inundated with information; we publish at a slower pace, which allows us the time to write and report and give you more in-depth journalism. Cliched as it is, quality rather than quantity is what we offer.
How it works:
If you like what you read on Tripe+Drisheen, and if you want to support us, there are three things you can do:
You can subscribe for just €8 per month or €80 per year (or just €1.50 a week). There’s even the option to become a founding member and donate any amount you want. Tripe+Drisheen members will receive everything we publish.
If you can’t or don’t want to subscribe, that’s totally fine! We’ll still keep offering you as much as we are able to, free of charge, with the help of subscribers. You can still help us, by using social media to share T+D articles that you find interesting. We’re on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And you can recommend us to others who might be interested.
Get in touch:
If you have a story that you think needs to be looked into, please get in touch and email us at tripeanddrisheen@substack.com.
Your correspondence will be treated in the strictest of confidence and we will never reveal the identity of our sources.
The T+D logo of the old Irish half penny is by Martin O’Donoghue.
Read some of our stories:
The story behind Tripe+Drisheen
T+D, as it’s known in shorthand, was launched during lockdown by me, JJ O’Donoghue. I had returned with my family from Japan to live in Cork in the summer of 2020, and I was underemployed and frustrated by the state of journalism, especially local journalism. I had lived in Japan since 2009, and before that in London where I trained and worked as a journalist. Along the way I have written for CNN, Al Jazeera, The Japan Times, The Irish Times and The Irish Independent. I was covering a few shifts at CorkBeo when I published the first long read, a two-part story on dereliction in Cork, which is still one of our most read stories on T+D.
Almost immediately freelance journalist Ellie O’Byrne came on board and we’ve been publishing every week since then. Ellie has written for the Examiner and the Echo in Cork, as well as The Sunday Business Post, The Irish Times and thejournal.ie nationally. She also works in audio and podcasting, producing and presenting Green Bites, the Irish food sustainability podcast, and introducing arts podcasting to Tripe + Drisheen.
Ellie was the acting editor at Tripe + Drisheen until April 2023.
It’s a very small team and when our finances allow us we commission local journalists as well inviting people to pen op-eds. Everyone who writes for Tripe+Drisheen is paid.
Tripe + Drisheen is our attempt to find a new business model for journalism and to see what we can do to improve local journalism. We’ve been greatly supported by family and friends, and especially by our subscribers who keep the operation going.
If you would like to subscribe and join the Tripe + Drisheen community your support would be greatly welcomed.
Ideally we would like to contine to grow and be in a position to hire local journalists and provide the type of in-depth, well written journalism that we know our readers want to keep on reading.
If you wish you can also join as a founding member by clicking the button below.
Read some of our stories
Cool mountain memories: Fred Callow’s debut book is a memoir of his attempts at self-sufficiency in rugged West Cork, and an attempt to set the record straight on an immigrant community who he says have been misrepresented.
The long life and slow death of the St. Patrick's Street 'Hut': For close on 100 years, a small kiosk at the top of St. Patrick's Street loomed large over the lives of firefighters, tram workers and bus drivers. Now, it's being left to rot.
In my own words: from Kiev to Cork: 19-year-old Alisa Salenko is a journalism student from Kiev who arrived on her own in Cork last month. She writes about leaving home and family, and the journey that got her here.
From Tokyo, in Cork, making fiddles, music, and friends: ‘Tis a long way from Sliabh Luachra Haruaki was reared.
Follow T+D on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
Get in touch
If you have a story that you think needs to be looked into, please get in touch and email us at tripeanddrisheen@substack.com.
Your correspondence will be treated in the strictest of confidence and we will never reveal the identity of our sources.
