Feed Mirrors (Journal.ie + Red Network)

Helper script + GitHub workflow that scrapes a few Irish left media sources and mirrors them into static RSS feeds you can host yourself (or via GitHub Pages). Each feed keeps a JSON cache so we can retain older entries and avoid duplicates.

Slug	Source URL	Output file
journal9	https://www.thejournal.ie/topic/9-at-9/	data/journal9.xml
red_articles	https://rednetwork.net/articles/	data/red_articles.xml
red_theory	https://rednetwork.net/red-theory/	data/red_theory.xml
imr_issue	https://irishmarxistreview.net/index.php/imr	data/imr_issue.xml

Setup

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

python3 journal9.py                    # refresh every feed
python3 journal9.py --source red_theory
python3 journal9.py --dry-run --source journal9
python3 journal9.py --list-sources

Key flags:

• --source <slug> (repeatable) limits the run to specific feeds; defaults to all.
• --max-items <n> overrides the per-feed history length for this run.
• --dry-run prints the generated XML instead of writing files/saving history.
• --list-sources shows the available slugs and exits.

All output XML + history JSON lives under data/.

GitHub Pages + Actions Hosting

1. Push the repo and enable GitHub Pages in Settings → Pages, choosing the main branch and /data folder. Every XML under data/ will be reachable at https://<user>.github.io/<repo>/data/<file>.xml.
2. .github/workflows/journal9.yml (legacy name) runs daily at 09:15 UTC and on manual dispatch. It installs deps, executes python3 journal9.py, and commits any changed XML/history files back with the default GITHUB_TOKEN.
3. Kick off the workflow manually once so the feeds exist before sharing URLs with your reader (Inoreader, NetNewsWire, etc.).
4. Share the Pages URLs (.../journal9.xml, .../red_articles.xml, .../red_theory.xml). Every workflow run keeps them fresh automatically.

Self-Hosted Scheduling

Prefer running it yourself? Drop a cron entry (example: every day at 09:05 local time):

5 9 * * * /usr/bin/env bash -lc 'cd /home/you/RSS-feed && source .venv/bin/activate && python3 journal9.py'

Point data/ (or symlinked files) at whatever directory your web server exposes.

Notes

• Journal.ie content is seeded from their official topic RSS feed and then we scrape the linked article to mirror the nine talking points.
• Red Network sections lack RSS, so we scrape their grid pages, follow the latest post, and mirror the intro paragraphs from .reader__content.
• Irish Marxist Review already exposes article-level RSS, but we scrape the homepage “Current Issue” block so you get one tidy notification per new issue (cover, date, contents).
• The <description> HTML is entity-escaped to keep the XML simple; mainstream feed readers render it correctly.*** End Patch