Irish Times

''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper of record for Ireland.

Though formed as a Protestant nationalist paper, within two decades and under new owners it had become the voice of British unionism in Ireland. It is no longer a pro unionist paper; it presents itself politically as "liberal and progressive", as well as being centre-right on economic issues. The editorship of the newspaper from 1859 until 1986 was controlled by the Anglo-Irish Protestant minority, only gaining its first nominal Irish Catholic editor 127 years into its existence.

The paper's most prominent columnists include writer and arts commentator Fintan O'Toole and satirist Miriam Lord. The late Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald was once a columnist. Senior international figures, including Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, have written for its op-ed page. Its most prominent columns have included the political column ''Backbencher'', by John Healy, ''Drapier'' (an anonymous piece produced weekly by a politician, giving the 'insider' view of politics), ''Rite and Reason'' (a weekly religious column, edited by Patsy McGarry, the religious affairs editor) and the long-running ''An Irishman's Diary''. ''An Irishman's Diary'' was written by Patrick Campbell in the forties (under the pseudonym "Quidnunc"); by Seamus Kelly from 1949 to 1979 (also writing as "Quidnunc"); and more recently by Kevin Myers. After Myers' move to the rival ''Irish Independent'', ''An Irishman's Diary'' has usually been the work of Frank McNally. On the sports pages, Philip Reid is the paper's golf correspondent.

One of its most popular columns was the biting and humorous ''Cruiskeen Lawn'' satire column written, originally in Irish, later in English, by Myles na gCopaleen, the pen name of Brian O'Nolan (Brian Ó Nualláin) who also wrote books using the name Flann O'Brien. ''Cruiskeen Lawn'' is an anglicised spelling of the Irish words ''crúiscín lán'', meaning 'little full jug'. ''Cruiskeen Lawn'' made its debut in October 1940, and appeared with varying regularity until O'Nolan's death in 1966.

History

Origins

The first appearance of a newspaper using the name ''The Irish Times'' occurred in 1823, but this closed in 1825. The title was revived—initially as a thrice-weekly publication but soon becoming a daily—by a 22-year-old army officer, Lawrence E. Knox (later known as Major Lawrence Knox), with the first edition being published on 29 March 1859. It was founded as a moderate Protestant newspaper, reflecting the politics of Knox, who envisaged it as a "new conservative daily newspaper". Its headquarters were at 4 Lower Abbey Street in Dublin. Its main competitor in its early days was the Dublin '' Daily Express''.

The Arnotts

After Knox's death in 1873, the paper was sold to the widow of Sir John Arnott, a Member of Parliament (MP), a former Lord Mayor of Cork and owner of Arnotts, one of Dublin's major Department stores. The sale, for £35,000, led to two major changes. Its headquarters was shifted to 31 Westmoreland Street, remaining in buildings on or near that site until 2005. Its politics also shifted dramatically, becoming predominantly Unionist in outlook, and it was closely associated with the Irish Unionist Alliance. The paper, along with the ''Irish Independent'' and various regional papers, called for the execution of the leaders of the failed 1916 Easter Rising.

Though the paper became a publicly listed company in 1900, the family continued to hold a majority shareholding until the 1960s (even after the family lost control, the great-grandson of the original purchaser was the paper's London editor). The last member of the Arnott family to sit on the paper's board was Sir Lauriston Arnott, who died in 1958.

The editor during the 1930s, R. M. Smyllie, had strong anti-fascist views, and angered the Irish Catholic hierarchy by opposing General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, ''The Irish Times'', like other national newspapers, had problems with Irish Government censorship. The Times was largely pro-Allies and was opposed to the Éamon de Valera government policy of neutrality.

The Irish Times Trust

In 1974, ownership was transferred to a non-charitable trust, The Irish Times Trust. The former owner, Major Thomas McDowell, was made "president for life" of the trust which runs the paper and was paid a large dividend. However several years later the articles of the Trust were adjusted, giving Major McDowell 10 preference shares and one more vote than the combined votes of all the other directors should any move be made to remove him. Major McDowell died in 2009.
The Trust was set up in 1974 as "a company limited by guarantee" to purchase The Irish Times Limited and to ensure that ''The Irish Times'' would be published as an independent newspaper with specific editorial objectives. (See below).

The Trust is regulated by a legal document, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and controlled by a body of people (the Governors) under company law. It is not a charity and does not have charitable status. It has no beneficial shareholders and it cannot pay dividends. Any profits made by ''The Irish Times'' cannot be distributed to the Trust but must be used to strengthen the newspaper, directly or indirectly.

The Trust is composed of a maximum of 11 Governors. The Trust appoints Governors who are required to be "representative broadly of the community throughout the whole of Ireland".

As of June 2012, Ruth Barrington is the chair of the trust, and the governors are Tom Arnold, David Begg, Noel Dorr, Margaret Elliott, Rosemary Kelly, Eoin O'Driscoll, Fergus O'Ferrall, Judith Woodworth, Barry Smyth, and Caitriona Murphy.

In 2015, ''The Irish Times Trust Limited'' joined as a member organization of the European Press Prize.

Recent history

In 1969, the longest-serving editor of ''The Irish Times'', Douglas Gageby, was allegedly called a "white nigger" by company chairman Thomas Bleakley McDowell, because of the newspaper's coverage of Northern Ireland at the outset of the Troubles, which was supportive of Irish nationalism.

The paper established its first bureau in Asia when foreign correspondent Conor O'Clery moved to Beijing in 1996.

The paper suffered considerable financial difficulty in 2002 when a drop in advertising revenue coincided with a decision by the company to invest its reserves in the building of a new printing plant. None of the journalists were laid off, but many took a voluntary redundancy package when the paper was greatly restructured. Some foreign bureaux were closed and it also stopped publishing "colour" pages devoted to Irish regions, with regional coverage now merged with news. The paper's problems stemmed partly from internal strife which led to McDowells's daughter, Karen Erwin, not being made chief executive. The reorganisation had the desired effect; after posting losses of almost €3 million in 2002, the paper returned to profit in 2003.

John Waters, a columnist who spoke out about the perceived vast salaries of the editor, managing director and deputy editor, was sacked and re-hired a week later, in November 2003. Former editor Geraldine Kennedy was paid more than the editor of the UK's top non-tabloid newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'', which has a circulation of about nine times that of ''The Irish Times''. Later, columnist Fintan O'Toole told the '' Sunday Independent'': "We as a paper are not shy of preaching about corporate pay and fat cats but with this there is a sense of excess. Some of the sums mentioned are disturbing. This is not an attack on Ms Kennedy, it is an attack on the executive level of pay. There is double-standard of seeking more job cuts while paying these vast salaries.

On 23 December 2004, ''The Irish Times'' ran a front-page story on the Provisional IRA's denial of involvement in the Northern Bank robbery, one of Europe's largest ever, and on the same day refused to print a column by Kevin Myers which said that the Provisional IRA was responsible. Myers was reported to be shocked by the spiking of his column. Some two weeks later, the paper printed a report that there might, after all, be a "nationalist" connection. Myers later left the paper.

The following May, the paper launched a new international edition, which was available in London and southeast England at the same time as other daily newspapers (previously, copies of the Irish edition were flown from Dublin to major cities in Britain on passenger flights, arriving around lunchtime). It was printed at the Newsfax plant in Hackney, and uses the ''Financial Times'' distribution network.

The Irish Times tended to support the Lisbon Treaty. However, opposing views were also printed, including articles by Declan Ganley of Libertas Ireland, and other anti-Lisbon campaigners.

The Central Bank of Ireland fined ''The Irish Times'' in 2008 after it admitted breaking market abuse rules.

In 2009, the Supreme Court ordered the paper to pay €600,000 in costs despite winning its case about the importance of protecting journalistic sources, and called its destruction of evidence "reprehensible conduct".

The newspaper has been criticized for its perceived support of the British Army. An article in '' The Phoenix'' magazine examined an article in ''The Irish Times'' published in August 2010 on Irish nationals serving in the British Army. According to ''The Phoenix'', the article romanticized the war in Afghanistan and was little more than a recruitment advertisement for the British Army. The magazine accused the editor Geraldine Kennedy and the Irish Times board of violating the Defence Act which prohibits any kind of advertising for recruitment for a foreign army and article 15.6.1 of the Constitution of Ireland which states "The right to raise and maintain military or armed forces is vested exclusively in the Oireachtas".

On 9 September 2011, the paper published a pseudonymous article by Kate Fitzgerald. Unknown to the paper, she had taken her life on 22 August 2011. The revelation sparked a nationwide debate on suicide with her parents appearing on television to discuss suicide and depression. The article criticised the reaction to her illness by her employer, The Communications Clinic, although it was only after she was identified as the author that her employer became known. The article was later removed from the paper's website, causing controversy online. The editor later told her parents that sections of her article were factually incorrect, but could not say which ones. Kate's parents complained to the Office of the Press Ombudsman about an apology made to The Communications Clinic, their complaint was upheld.

In September 2019, the paper reprinted an article from the ''New York Times'' by William Broad

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases