iCatholic.ie launched for IEC2012

iCatholic.ie will be hosting a daily interview programme at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, Monday to Friday from 12 noon to 12.30pm. 

The programme will be streamed live on the internet on www.iCatholic.ie and also recorded for later on‐demand viewing.  The interviews will take place on the balcony of the Main Exhibition Hall in the RDS (also known as Hall 1).

The recording will provide people throughout the country, and especially those who are unable to attend the Congress with the opportunity to watch live on www.iCatholic.ie each day as three guests are interviewed. 

Planned guests include Br Alois Loiser, Prior of Taizé, Dr Maria Voce, President of Focolare, Journalist John Waters, composer and teacher Monica Brown, composer Liam Lawton.  A full listing will be available on iCatholic.ie and iec2012.ie.

Speaking about the initiative, Fr Bill Kemmy, founder of iCatholic.ie said, “We hope that the interviews will give viewers a more personal introduction to the Congress speakers and allow the speakers to give a summary of what they hope to communicate in their full workshop or talk. 

“iCatholic.ie will be where all the video recordings of the workshops will be available for later viewing.  So it will be great to have the combination of interviews and the full talks.”

He continued, “The move into live streaming of the interviews is very exciting.  It is great way of including those who cannot attend.  I would encourage people to log on to have a look not just because we will have great guests but because this is really a test or showcase of what is possible for church communications.  I hope it will open our eyes to the idea of live webcasts in terms of on‐going formation, faith sharing and the new evangelisation.  This is a platform that could be used for schools and adults and groups.”

“I would appeal particularly to primary school teachers to log on the Wednesday as our programme will be geared for younger viewers.  Again we would love to get feedback and people’s ideas about how we can continue what we are beginning here at the Congress.  People’s support, including frankly your financial support, would be more than welcome.”

The interviews will be conducted by Brenda Drumm from the Catholic Communications Office (CCO) of the Irish Bishops Conference, which is based in Maynooth.  Brenda also hosts her own radio programme on a local radio station (KFM) in Kildare.  The camera crew will consist of Irish Dominicans, headed up by Br Luuk Dominiek Jansen OP who designed the Congress app.  One of the features of that app is that it takes Congress video content from iCatholic.ie.

iCatholic.ie follows on from the pioneering work started by Tony Bolger and team of what was originally catholicireland.net – which became Church Support Group, and which expanded and deepened the foundations for digital mission in the Catholic Church. 

Through its pioneering internet television initiative, churchservices.tv, it brought local church services into the homes of the parishioners and at times, in those places where the interest extended beyond the parish, such as Clonard Monastery in Belfast (Redemptorists) and Mount Argus in Dublin (Passionists), it ‘opened’ up their services to those interested in many countries through the world.

Commenting on the iCatholic.ie development, Tony Bolger, CEO of ChurchServices.tv said that the digital mission of the church has now taken root in dioceses and parishes throughout Ireland and he congratulated Fr Kemmy on this new initiative.

www.iCatholic.ie – is a new project within the Irish Church for hosting and sharing videos.  It was started by Fr Bill Kemmy, the Chancellor in the Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin and webmaster for www.kandle.ie.   He also is a member of the Communications Council of the Irish Bishops Conference.

Asked about his hopes for the new service, Fr Kemmy, founder of iCatholic.ie, said, “In short, my hope for iCatholic.ie is that it would become the equivalent of the RTÉ player or the BBC iPlayer for the Irish Church.  You will be very welcome to come on board as a user or a viewer.”

by Gerard Bennett