View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
September 2, 2011

Why the Irish Post went into liquidation

It is almost 18 months to the day since the great and the good of the Irish community sat down for a celebratory meal to mark the 40th anniversary of the Irish Post.

Two weeks ago, some of those same people from Thomas Crosbie Holdings announced that it will cease trading. So what went wrong?

The Irish Post was founded in 1970 by journalist Breandan Mac Lua and accountant Tony Beatty. It was the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland which had by then extended to Britain.

Irish living in England, Scotland and Wales felt part of a suspect community – every time a bomb went off in Britain eyes seemed to turn to those people of Irish descent, staffing the hospitals, working in the schools and building the roads.

The British media ran government propaganda about the Troubles – two feuding tribes with the army trying to keep the peace between them.

The Irish community needed a voice.

It was the Irish Post that came to provide that voice under the stewardship of McLua and later editor Donal Mooney. The staff worked hard to bring out a high quality product that gave the Irish a voice.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

It told the truth of what was going on in the north of Ireland and campaigned relentlessly on injustices such as the Birmingham Six, Judy Ward and the Guildford Four.

Later it played a significant role in bringing to wider attention cases like those of John Mathews, who would otherwise have become miscarriage of justice victims.

‘The Irish Post worked’

The paper also covered other aspects of the community, the cultural side with events like Irish dance, the language, poetry and sport. There were other needs like those of the elderly, the homeless and prisoners.

The Irish were strong in the trade union and labour movements – this was reflected in the paper.

The Irish Post worked, performing a public service and turning a healthy profit.

The product continued to prosper well into the 1990s. Somewhat ironically it was the ending of the Troubles that spelled some problems for the paper.

The Troubles meant that events in the north of Ireland dominated much of the national news agenda over 30 years.

They transported what was otherwise, for the British media, a regional backwater to become the dominant national news story.

As peace took hold, news from the north subsided to regional status as far as the national media were concerned. This had implications for the Irish press as well.

The Irish Post readjusted, covering much news from the Republic as well as focusing on more peaceful matters in Britain.

The politics continued with writers like Jack Holland and McLua holding this reader, for one, transfixed most weeks with their reflections.

The paper continued to campaign, covering the deaths of Irish prisoners in Brixton prison and surprisingly for some the abuse of British soldiers in barracks.

The deaths at Deepcut and other barracks featured early in the pages of the paper.

Ageing readership

The readership, though ageing, remained loyal. Executives at the paper looked to draw in the new generation of Irish emigrant coming to work in Britain, the bright young things that everyone wanted working in their businesses.

This was a difficult ground for the Irish Post to crack – it did not seem a natural buy for this computer literate generation.

The paper focused on Irish celebrity but people could always get this in spades from the national British media.

A big break came with Ken Livingstone’s election as Mayor of London. Livingstone had always been loyal to the Irish community, playing his own part in the past at exposing injustices.

So when elected, he introduced the St Patrick’s Day parade in London. The Irish Post under new editor Nora Casey became an intricate part of the celebration, gaining much needed public profile. The event has grown and the Irish Post prospered from the association.

The ownership of the paper was sold first to Jefferson Smurfitt and then to Thomas Crosbie Holdings for £1.3 million in 2003. Sadly, sales have been on the decline, going from around 30,000 a decade ago to around 17,000 today.

The paper though has continued to serve the community, providing a cohesion and space for its issues. The paper championed the Federation of Irish Societies (FIS) campaign to get the Irish to register for the census earlier this year.

A couple of years ago the paper gave much coverage to the dangers to the Irish of proposals effecting British citizenship.

There was the campaign to save Crickelwood Homeless Concern. The plight of that generation of now ageing Irish immigrants was played out vividly on the pages of the paper, nowhere else would give such coverage.

The paper has provided one of the few fair voices on the plight of Irish travellers and prisoners.

Hope for the future?

There have been problems. There has been a tendency at time to duplicate the role of papers like the Irish Times and Independent, producing Irish news for the Irish in Britain.

Why would people then buy the Post to get what was available elsewhere? The niche always has to be the affairs of the Irish in Britain and how they relate to the mother country.

The steady hand of a MacLua or Mooney has clearly been seen lacking in coverage of issues like child abuse in the Catholic Church, the relationship with the British Crown and the Papal visit last year.

There seems to have been something of an identity crisis at the paper regarding these issues, but then that maybe true of the Irish generally so in a sense again the paper is only reflecting its constituency.

What is certain is that there should be a future for the newspaper.

There would be some restructuring required, moving out of the expensive rented accommodation in Hammersmith to a more humble abode. Maybe some sharing of other functions with similar players in the field.

There will also need to be a recognition of who the readership are and what the paper is for. The readership is ageing but the money of the 65-year-old is just as good as that of the 25 year old.

The political line needs to be stronger and more consistent. The community groups serving the homeless and elderly need greater recognition and service.

There is certainly a future for the Irish Post. The danger must be that if the community does not get its act together now, it will only realise what it has lost when it is gone.

The St Patrick’s Day parades without the Irish Post – is that not unthinkable? There must be a future for the Post, the question now is who will be bold enough to make it happen?

The Federation of Irish Societies is championing an effort to save the Irish Post – see www.irishinbritain.org

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network