WorldIrish.com merges with IrishCentral.com

IrishCentral.com and WorldIrish.com, the two largest Irish diaspora sites have today announced a decision to merge.

The new entity which will continue as IrishCentral.com will have offices in New York and Dublin.

The combined entity will have over 2 million unique visitors monthly making it by far the biggest Irish diaspora website. The merger will take full effect from September 15.

"We are delighted to join with John McColgan and the team at WorldIrish," IrishCentral founder Niall O'Dowd said. "We believe the potential to create a super site worldwide for the Irish is very real."

John McColgan, founder of WorldIrish.com, will be a director of and advisor to the new merged entity.

"John has proven through Riverdance and WorldIrish that he has a deep and important understanding of the Irish Diaspora and he has never been afraid to put voice to that vision. We look forward to working with his vision at IrishCentral," Niall added.

Noting that the Irish Post in Britain also recently bought in to Irish America Magazine and Irish Voice newspaper, sister publications of Irish Central, Mr O'Dowd stated: "Clearly there is enormous potential in this area to create a super site for the 70 million Irish worldwide in U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, Asia and Ireland."

John McColgan said: "This is a truly exciting opportunity for WorldIrish to grow and develop under the IrishCentral.com brand.

"In a relatively short period WorldIrish.com has established a successful platform and this merger is a logical development to achieve greater global traction for the Irish diaspora," he added.