The revolution will be televised

It's no secret that Ireland is changing. Over the past few years, a significant influx of non-nationals has attracted plenty of media attention. That attention, however, has focused almost exclusively on problems. In some cases, this has meant near-hysterical coverage bandying about terms like 'floods of immigrants'; in other instances, the racism experienced by ethnic minorities has been examined.

To date, there has been little notice paid to the potential upside of Irish society becoming more diverse - the idea that native Irish people have something to gain from the different cultures beginning to take root here has gone almost unremarked on.

That is set to change. MONO is a new ten-part TV series which will begin its RTE1 run on Wednesday, April 4th. An intercultural magazine show that has entertainment as its prime objective, it aims to achieve a balanced view of the reality of life for new immigrants and non-white Irish-born people alike.

Its presenters are Bisi Adigun, a Nigerian with stints as a radio presenter, drummer and film studies student under his belt, and Shalini Sinha, an Indian college lecturer who was brought up in Canada and who currently works in the Women's Studies department at UCD.

Both are keen to nip potential misconceptions in the bud. The show is not to be a worthy-but-dull addition to the RTE schedule.

"There is an assumption that we're going to go up to people and say to them, 'tell us how bad things have been', or that the programme is going to be like a bulletin board-type thing, going 'The Islamic Foundation will be having meetings on Tuesdays…'," Shalini comments with a rueful laugh.

"The idea is to make entertaining television," she continues. "People's lives are complex: yes, they experience racism, and we've both experienced racism, but that will never be the whole of our lives. One of the ways I think the programme will challenge racism is just to show for half an hour, once a week, how human people are: how intelligent, how creative and, also, what sort of mad things they're involved with, just like anybody else."

Each show will comprise three or four disparate items. A report about the exponential growth of non-Irish Christian churches in Dublin is already in the can; so are interviews with Kevin Sharkey, the first black Irish TV presenter, and the Irish monopoly champion, Ekundayo O'Badamus.

The presenters themselves have been surprised by some of the stories they have explored. Bisi refers to a report he did on the Chinese community in the north.

"Personally, I was amazed," he says. "You're looking at a Chinese person who is speaking in a northern Irish accent, and claiming to be both as Chinese and as Northern Irish as possible. A lot of people don't even know about the Chinese community there, yet these people were born in Northern Ireland. These are the kind of questions we are looking at."

One of the key elements to the show will be its exploration of Irish identity. Bisi and Shalini believe that the definition of Irishness has to change, becoming broader and including people who do not fit the white Catholic stereotype. Shalini emphasises that there were always Irish people who fell outside those narrow boundaries.

"There is an assumption that whiteness and Irishness are inextricably linked. That's not true," she says. "There has been a black experience in Ireland for a long time, without a voice. People laugh about the idea that there could be a black Irish person. Look at The Shawshank Redemption: Morgan Freeman's character is called Red. Someone says to him, 'why Red?' and he says, 'because I'm Irish'. But it's a joke, y'know?"

MONO is intended to celebrate the different backgrounds and histories of people currently living in Ireland. To that end, its presenters insist its theme is not multiculturalism but interculturalism. Shalini explains the difference:

"A lot of people think multiculturalism is the goal. It's not. Multiculturalism has a history of being based on the idea that 'we're going to recognise all these different minority groups', and it also has connotations of 'we're going to tolerate this'. In interculturalism, we are talking about a dialogue, not a toleration or an acknowledgement, but an interaction."

MONO hopes to provide a three-dimensional portrait of life in Ireland's ethnic minority communities. Bisi and Shalini relish the challenge ahead of them.

"This is the first time I've done anything like this, so I hope I get better as I go along," Shalini laughs. "But I think the effectiveness of the programme lies in how entertaining we can be. Not tabloid, not sensational, but genuinely engaging, capturing people's imaginations."

"We are not trying to preach," Bisi states. "And the only other thing I would add is this: we hope you like it!"