The ''Freeman's Journal'', which was published continuously in
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
from 1763 to 1924, was in the nineteenth century Ireland's leading
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
newspaper.
History
Patriot journal
It was founded in 1763 by
Charles Lucas and was identified with radical 18th-century
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
patriot politicians
Henry Grattan and
Henry Flood
Henry Flood (1732 – 2 December 1791) was an Irish people, Irish politician, statesman and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he becam ...
. This changed from 1784 when it passed to
Francis Higgins (better known as the "Sham Squire") and took a more
unionist and pro-
Dublin Castle administration
Dublin Castle was the centre of the government of Ireland under English and later British rule. "Dublin Castle" is used metonymically to describe British rule in Ireland. The Castle held only the executive branch of government and the Privy Cou ...
view. Higgins is mentioned in the Secret Service Money Book as having been paid £1,000 for supplying information which led to
Lord Edward FitzGerald's arrest.
Voice of constitutional nationalism
In the 19th century it became more nationalist in tone, particularly under the control and inspiration of
Sir John Gray (1815–75).
''The Journal'', as it was widely known as, was the leading newspaper in Ireland throughout the 19th century. Contemporary sources record it being read to the largely illiterate population by priests and local teachers gathering in homes. It was mentioned in contemporary literature and was seen as symbolising
Irish newspapers for most of its time. By the 1880s it had become the primary media supporter of
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1875 to 1891, Leader of the Home Rule Leag ...
and the
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nati ...
(IPP). The weekend edition of the paper was known as ''The Weekly Freeman'', which began featuring large format political cartoons in the 1870s.
It was challenged on all sides by rivals. On the nationalist side some preferred ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
'' founded by
Thomas Davis while others, including radical supporters of Parnell, read the ''
United Irishman''. The
Anglo-Irish establishment in contrast read the historically
Irish unionist
Unionism in Ireland is a political tradition that professes loyalty to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, crown of the United Kingdom and to the union it represents with England, Scotland and Wales. The overwhelming sentiment of Ireland's Pro ...
''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
''. With the split in the IPP over Parnell's relationship with
Katharine O'Shea
Katharine Parnell (née Wood; 30 January 1846 – 5 February 1921), known before her second marriage as Katharine O'Shea and popularly as Kitty O'Shea, was an English woman of aristocratic background whose adulterous relationship with Irish ...
, its readership split too. While ''The Journal'' in September 1891 eventually went with the majority in
opposing Parnell, a minority moved to read the ''
Daily Irish Independent''. It was also challenged from the turn of the century by
William O'Brien
William O'Brien (2 October 1852 – 25 February 1928) was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of ...
's ''Irish People'' and the ''
Cork Free Press''. With
Thomas Sexton becoming Chairman of the Board of Directors (1893–1911), the Journal languished under his spartanic management.
Superseded by the ''Irish Independent''
The collapse of the IPP in 1918, and the electoral success of
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...
, saw a more radical nationalism appear that increasingly was out of step with the moderation of the Journal. The ''
Irish Independent
The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...
'', the successor to the ''Daily Irish Independent'', was more aggressively marketed. Just prior to the outbreak of the
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...
in March 1922, the Freeman's Journal printing machinery was destroyed by
Anti-Treaty IRA men under
Rory O'Connor for its support of the
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain an ...
. It did not resume publication until after the outbreak of civil war, when the Irish Free State re-asserted its authority over the country.
''The Freeman's Journal'' ceased publication in 1924, when it was merged with the ''
Irish Independent
The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...
''. Until the 1990s, the Irish Independent included the words 'Incorporating the Freeman's Journal' in its mast-head over its editorials.
Offices
The newspaper's head office was located at 4-6 Prince Street North until its destruction during the Easter Rising of 1916.
After its destruction, the newspaper refurbished buildings at 6-8 Townsend Street incorporating the former Dublin Coffee Palace however these were ultimately ransacked by anti-treaty forces in March 1922.
It also developed other alternative offices at 27
Westmoreland Street in 1917 while carrying out extensive renovations there in 1921-22.
In fiction
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
drew on his recollection of his visits to the Freeman’s office in 1909 in his novel ''
Ulysses''. As the place of
Leopold Bloom
Leopold Paula Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in Homer's ...
's employment, the depiction of the paper's offices in the Aeolus chapter has been deemed "an authentic portrait" at a time when the newspaper was "moribund – the ''Irish Independent'' having supplanted it as the most popular daily newspaper in Dublin." Its decline is reflected in "the anxious question posed in Aeolus about the Freeman’s editor, WH Brayden: 'But can he save the circulation?'"
Leading proprietors, editors and contributors
*
Matthias McDonnell Bodkin
*
Henry Brooke
*
Edward 'Doc' Byrne
*
Wilson Gray
*
Sir John Gray
*
Charles Lucas
*
James Winder Good
*
William O'Brien
William O'Brien (2 October 1852 – 25 February 1928) was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of ...
*
Thomas Sexton
See also
*
Pádraig Ó Domhnaill
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1763 establishments in Ireland
1924 disestablishments in Ireland
Daily newspapers published in Ireland
Defunct newspapers published in Ireland
Newspapers published in Ireland
Publications established in 1763
Publications disestablished in 1924