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First published in January 1905, the Irish Independent is widely acknowledged as having been influenced by developments in journalism first associated, almost a decade earlier, with the Daily Mail in Britain. However, this article argues that while the Irish Independent adopted many elements of New Journalism its proprietor, William Martin Murphy was strategically selective in how elements were incorporated within his new venture. The success of the Irish Independent can be viewed as the outcome of two processes: the selection and adaption of some aspects of New Journalism to create a successful commercial newspaper but also the exclusion of what were considered the less desirable elements of New Journalism that may have damaged the title’s circulation in a country where the power of the Roman Catholic Church was strong. Murphy, in effect, ‘shopped’ for aspects of New Journalism as practiced elsewhere that he felt were most suitable to the local Irish market. In the latter respect, this article highlights the importance of considering the local context when discussing the universality of journalism practice.

In a profile piece in the Review of Reviews in 1901 Emile Joseph Dillon was described as 'an artist in temperament, a journalist by instinct, a scholar and philosopher by choice, a statesman in ambition'. Dillon was never destined to become one of Ireland's finest foreign correspondents. His father planned a life in the priesthood for his son who was born in Dublin on 21 March 1854. John Baddeley suggested Dillon apply for the vacant post of correspondent with the Daily Telegraph in St Petersburg. Henry Baerlein spent time with Dillon in Bulgaria prior to the outbreak of World War I having made his acquaintance in London in 1903. The possibility of war in the Balkans region had attracted many correspondents including Dillon, and Baerlein seems to have accompanied him as an observer.

Much of the focus on the closure of the News of the World in 2011 was in the context of the newspaper as a national publication in the United Kingdom. The News of the World, however, had a significant history in Ireland. This article focuses on one aspect of that history culminating in the banning of the newspaper in 1930 at a time when it was the best selling title in the Irish market. The prohibition followed an almost two decade campaign against ‘dirty’ publications led by the Catholic Church and its supporters so as to safeguard sexual morality in Ireland against ‘alien’ influences. Understanding the rationale for targeting the News of the World and other popular British newspapers is central to fully considering the censorship campaign as well as the work of the government-appointed Committee on Evil Literature in 1927. Given the emboldened outlook of the Catholic Church following independence from the United Kingdom in 1922 the highly effective censorship campaign met little public or political resistance despite the popularity of the News of the World. Along with offering a deeper understanding of this specific censorship campaign against the press, this article also explores the role of British newspapers beyond their core domestic market.

What the Irvine Foundation has learned over the past six years about performance assessment., Stanford Social Innovation Review, 10(3), A20-A23

The framing of elections represents the most overt instance of the media’s power to influence politics. We content analysed twelve newspapers’ coverage of the 2011 general election in Ireland. Ireland’s newspaper market has some special advantages for social scientists, as it allows us to separate the newspaper types/formats (tabloid versus broadsheet) from their commercial basis (vulnerability or otherwise to short-term sales and profits). Therefore, we are able to make a particular contribution to the long-standing debate about the interaction of free market capitalism and the media. Our results do not find a homogeneous general election frame in Ireland. The variation in framing across Irish newspapers was much greater than that between the five countries for which we can find strictly comparable results. The different commercial statuses of the newspapers do seem to be related to different dominant frames of election coverage, but only after we develop a new measure which takes account of the relative overall prominence of election coverage in the newspapers examined.

Media coverage of elections in Europe and North America has increasingly tended to focus on the horse-race and the campaign as a game rather than the policy debate pertinent to the election. This is often explained by the changes in media pressures. It may also make sense given the narrowing of policy space between left and right and the comparative prosperity enjoyed in Europe and North America. But the relevance of politics varies. The economic crisis in the west might have led to an increased interest in policy among voters and focus on it by media. Ireland experienced both extremes of boom and crisis between the late 1990s and 2011. The Irish case allows us use a quasi-experimental approach to test the impact of crisis on media framing of elections. This article uses original data from Ireland’s last three elections, and with a design that shows when other pertinent variables are held constant, we find empirical support for the theoretical expectation that the context of the election affects the relative focus on campaign or horserace versus substantive policy issues.

Magill magazine was an influential current affairs magazine which was first published in Dublin in October 1977. The magazine was owned by journalist Vincent Browne, who was also its first editor. Having worked in Belfast in the early 1970s Browne saw the conflict in Northern Ireland as one of the main concerns of the news agenda. This article examines Magill’s coverage of Northern Ireland which was largely driven by an interest in exploring thinking within the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The magazine’s coverage was comprehensive but narrow. Exclusive interviews with republican paramilitaries, who were banned from the broadcast airwaves, were a regular feature as was an interest in hard-line unionist leader, Rev. Ian Paisley. The magazine’s journalism in this period has proven to be a valuable historical record of the emergence of the Irish peace process.

Revised text of two lectures presented as part of the seminar series “The path to peace: negotiating and implementing the Belfast agreement”, organised jointly by Co-Operation Ireland and the Institute for British-Irish Studies. The lectures were presented in UCD on 12 December 2002. A Political Perspective: This paper explores the role of the Irish government in advancing the peace process in the years leading up to the ceasefires of 1994. As Taoiseach since 1992, Albert Reynolds had brought his own familiarity with Northern Ireland as a businessman to bear on efforts to resolve the problem. A positive working relationship with British prime minister John Major and with US President Bill Clinton helped to ease the path towards a ceasefire, and to provide the outline of a political settlement (as summarised in the Downing St Declaration of 1993, on which the later Framework Document was built). The paper discusses the role of the Irish government, and in particular of the Taoiseach, his advisors and intermediaries, in persuading republican and loyalist paramilitaries of the potential of the political path, and in encouraging the adoption of conclusive ceasefires. An Observer Perspective: This paper examines the contribution of a number of key individuals—prominent among them the Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds; his advisor, Martin Mansergh; and a Redemptorist priest, Fr Alec Reid—to bringing about peace in Northern Ireland. It assesses the central contribution of the Taoiseach in persuading the republican movement that his government possessed sufficient international clout to make it a worthwhile ally in pursuing a political rather than a military path. Martin Mansergh was able to reinforce this message in his contacts with republicans, and Fr Alec Reid, an intermediary whose role was not known at the time, was able to provide vital reassurances to each side about thinking on the other side as discussions proceeded. Not applicable ab.kpw9/7/10