Irish Press
The Irish Press was a Dublin daily founded in 1931 and was the mouthpiece of the Fianna Fáil party. Its readership was mainly the nationalist, i. H. anti-British, circles.
history
The first edition of the Irish Press appeared on September 5, 1931. The party chairman and Taoiseach Éamon de Valera from 1932 , the politically dominant figure in his country until his death, was a director of the company and was happy to personally tell the editors what how they had to report about him and his government. Foreign diplomats viewed the paper as an official government body.
In the late 1930s, the newspaper had the second highest circulation of Irish daily newspapers after the Irish Independent . The lawyer William Sweetman was the editor at the time . In 1942, 108,000 copies were sold daily.
Censorship 1939-1945
After censorship had already existed in the conservative Śaorstat Éireann from 1922 to 1938, the freedom of the press was abolished after the rapid passage of the Emergency Powers Act on September 3, 1939 and the implementing regulations. Initially, the Irish "Pravda" (James Dillon) practiced self-censorship and presented little material to the censorship authority. Chief press censor Michael Knightley , however, was at odds with Sweetman and took advantage of his position, leading to harassment charges by the Irish Press. Some of the journalists who were considered pro-German were monitored by the G2 military intelligence service . From October 12, 1944, all photos had to be submitted for preliminary censorship at times, followed by the film reviews from January 1945. After the censorship was lifted on May 12, 1945, the Irish Press was, again entirely a party newspaper, the only daily newspaper to defend censorship as a measure that had helped prevent defeatism.
post war period
After the editor was Seán Lemass from 1948 , he was succeeded when Lemass became Taoiseach, the son of the president, Vivion de Valera , from 1959 to 1981. The last editor was from 1987 Hugh Lambert († 2005).
Douglas Gageby reported for the press from post-war Germany. One of the most important features was New Irish Writings, founded by David Marcus . The editorial course was again pro-Catholic and conservative.
The Sunday Press was published as the Sunday paper from 1949 to 1995 , which at its prime in 1967/68 had a circulation of 457,000 copies.
Another offshoot was the Evening Press; it appeared from September 1, 1954 to 1995. The highest circulation achieved in the 1960s was 175,000. The cartoons by Till ( George O'Callaghan ) were very popular , of which over 10,000 appeared between 1956 and 1992.
The publisher Irish Press Ltd. went bankrupt on May 25, 1995; all three sheets were discontinued. 600 employees lost their jobs. The restructured company now holds shares in the local radio.
literature
- Ó Drisceoil, Donal; Censorship in Ireland, 1939-45; Cork 1996; ISBN 1-85918-073-6 ; (Cork University Diss. 1996)
Individual evidence
- ↑ This was expressed by the German envoy Eduard Hempel : Aide-Mémoire December 13, 1941. in: Irish National Archives, Dept. Foreign Affairs: P51
- ↑ a b c Ó Drisceeoil, Donal; Censorship in Ireland, 1939-45; Cork 1996; ISBN 1-85918-073-6 ; Pp. 169-174.
- ↑ The war-related “emergency” continued on a changed legal basis from 1976 until 1995!
- ↑ September 13, 1939: Emergency Powers (No. 5) Order 1939, tightened August 15, 1942 (full text in Ó Drisceoil (1996), app. January 3, January 28, 1941: ... No. 67 also included foreign journalists.
- ↑ Irish Press reports loss of over € 800,000 [The Irish Times] Tuesday September 9, 2008