A new independent magazine, aiming to promote critical dialogue between the different strands of Irish life, will be launched by the President, Mrs Robinson, next week.
Ceide, to appear every two months and costing £2, will be edited by Father Kevin Hegarty. He previously edited Intercom, the Catholic Church's official magazine for priests.
The magazine's manager, Father Brendan Hoban, said Ceide would have "a robust respect for dissent" and intended to provide a platform for people on the margins of Irish society. It would be a review, dealing with politics, the arts, sciences, and religion, which it will treat as "another part of Irish life", he said.
Explaining the magazine's aspirations, Father Hegarty quoted the playwright Arthur Miller on a great newspaper being a nation talking to itself. Ceide would, he said, "provide a platform for the different traditions on the island of Ireland and encourage them to engage honestly with each other".
An underlying editorial imperative would be to celebrate the diversity of Irish society, he said. The magazine would seek "to divine what Seamus Heaney has called the `comfortless noises' that challenge the easy establishment consensus in Ireland", he said.
Father Hegarty referred to the magazine's geographical location "on the periphery of the periphery", quoting the President, and said Ceide would see the margins as "a useful place from which to view the wider landscape". It would have a close affinity with those on the religious, social economic and political margins of society, he said, and "will situate its concerns in the perspective of Irish involvement in Europe and the wider world".
The magazine's management committee will be chaired by Mr Oliver Maloney, former director general of RTE. The committee will include Ms Nuala Bourke, Ms Bernadette Munnelly and Father Enda McDonagh. Prof Mary McAleese will chair its education committee.
