The Voice of the Irish : Radio: The L.A. on-air host broadcasts news of his country to Emerald Isle natives who now live in Southern California.

In most metropolitan cities with large native Irish populations like Boston, New York and Chicago, there are well-established Irish centers and newspapers, way stations for new immigrants and critical sociocultural connectors.

Neither newspaper nor center exists in Los Angeles County, which has a population of at least 13,500 native Irish. The latest figure for Irish-Americans in Los Angeles County is 369,868. But if the Irish diaspora in Southern California has a nucleus, it is in Tom McConville, a.k.a. “The Voice of the Irish.”

For 21 years, McConville, 61, has been the host of “The Irish Hour” (KIEV 870-AM), the only radio broadcast dedicated to the native Irish community in Southern California. When it airs at 3:05 to 4 p.m. every Sunday, Irish listeners from Ventura County to San Diego County lean into their radios to hear McConville’s basso profundo voice booming all the Irish news that fits.

“My goal is to keep the Irish culture alive,” says McConville, a married father of six, who was named “Irishman of the Year” on St. Patrick’s Day, 1982, by the Los Angeles City Council in honor of his involvement in the Irish community. “There are a lot of Irish who come here, make their money and never do anything for the Irish working class. This is my contribution. With the Irish community so far apart here, the program is really a bit of the homeland, a little connection.”

That connection is not taken lightly by the native Irish who live here, many of whom maintain dual citizenship, but consider Ireland home . The 1980 census estimated about 5,500 native Irish live in Los Angeles County. The 1990 census figures, believed to be much higher, are not available yet. Additionally, there are the illegal Irish, estimated at about 8,000 in Southern California by Roman Catholic outreach groups, who listen to and contact McConville for advice about survival in Los Angeles. That advice ranges from something as mundane as where to find good Irish tea to how to work in Los Angeles without a green card. The recent folding of the 5-year-old Irish-American Press in Santa Monica leaves no other news medium that delivers what McConville does: live news from Dublin with Gaelic football scores and general news from Ireland, including things that affect the community here, such as the recent postal strike.

On the show, which is listener-supported, McConville also interviews Irish notables, reads off a calendar of events and plays musical favorites such as Clancy Brothers’ “Beer Galore” and music by Tommy Makem, The Chieftains, Enya and The Young Dubliners.

McConville and his wife, Joan, immigrated legally in 1958. He managed the electronics department at Sears, Roebuck & Co. in North Hollywood until he took early retirement with a year’s pay in 1985 and opened Harp Graphics, a small graphics business that brings in extra money. It is not unusual for McConville to use his company’s facilities to print flyers about Irish community events.

After working for years to bring the Irish community together in Los Angeles, McConville did not hesitate when the opportunity to take over “The Shamrock Show” on KIEV in 1969 presented itself. He expanded the half-hour program to an hour that has since become the central connector of Irish life and communication in the city. The Irish Hotline, a recording of McConville reading any news relevant to the Irish community, is a new addition to the information phenom single-handedly propagated by McConville.

A Northern Irelander, McConville was born and raised in Portadown, County Armagh, a small village 20 miles south of Belfast, where much of the sectarian violence of the last 20 years has occurred. His feelings are clear about his homeland when, with hand over his heart, he says: “You won’t hear about the Catholics killed in my hometown from newspapers, but they will tell you about the IRA bombings.”

Suffice it to say that McConville objects to the troubles in Northern Ireland, loathes the violence and is an Irishman through and through.

Palms resident Liam McCarthy, “a Corkman” who has listened to “The Irish Hour” religiously since its inception, says: “Without Tom, we would be lost, he’s that important. He keeps us in touch with the ould sod , with news from home. I tape it when I am away. He is an exemplary Irishman and a bit of a rebel. He still plays some of the rebel songs (“A Nation Once Again”). He has done a lot to further the Irish cause here. He is real down to earth. He also has a great deal of dignity.”

Another Corkman, Tom Kelly, 32, now of North Hollywood who recently helped publish a Los Angeles guidebook for fellow immigrant countryman, says: “Tom is the source of information. In a survey, we found most Irish immigrants said they got information about what was going on in L.A. from ‘The Irish Hour.’ And he has huge fans and he remembers all their names.

“Younger fans listen for the football scores and for news from home. Older fans listen for news and music.” During a postal strike in early June, Kelly said, “it was hard to get any information. If you come here from Ireland, you listen to Tom and realize that there is a huge Irish community here that can help.”

But McConville is more than just a conduit of information. He is the Irish esprit de corps . He can be seen at all the Irish haunts such as Ireland’s 32, a pub on Burbank Boulevard in Van Nuys, or Tom Bergin’s on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. But there will be no bottle of Harp in hand; he will be nursing a cup of Barry’s tea. “I am one of about four oddball Irishmen in Los Angeles,” says McConville, who belongs to an abstinence club signified by a pin of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Roman Catholic symbol given to adolescents after confirmation in the faith.

McConville explains the code of abstinence he took at the age of 13 in Ireland this way: “My father took his first drink at 30, and at the end of his life I just remember a drunk Dan McConville.”

Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and wakes, McConville attends them all, remembers names, does the hornpipe, an Irish dance, and then moves on to the next.

As a result of that tragic experience and others, McConville founded an organization called the Irish Relief Fund to help with future tragedies. The group, now an independent North Hollywood-based organization, continues to help native Irish people in Los Angeles.

“When it comes to the Irish, I can’t say no. I feel I am the Irish representative,” says McConville.

Every week McConville closes his radio program with a signature, “God Bless,” then follows it with the Irish blessing, with yet a trace of his Northern Irish accent:

May the road rise to up to meet you,

May the wind always be at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

And until we meet again at 3:05 next Sunday, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

Where And When

What: “The Irish Hour.”

When: 3:05-4 p.m. every Sunday KIEV-870 AM.

Call: (818) 244-8483; McConville’s Irish Information line: (818) 764-7741.