{"id":13830,"date":"2022-06-22T14:43:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T13:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=13830"},"modified":"2022-06-22T14:43:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T13:43:59","slug":"a-variety-of-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2022\/06\/22\/a-variety-of-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"A Variety of Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>\u2018I have never met a man so in love with the written word \u2013 provided he himself has written it\u2019<br \/>\n<\/em>Vincent Mercier on his editor at <em>The Bell <\/em>Sean O\u2019Faol\u00e1in.<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>In this second and final instalment, Frank Armstrong reviews <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fourcourtspress.ie\/books\/new-year-folder\/periodicals-and-journalism-in-twentieth-century-ireland-2\/\">Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland 2: A Variety of Voices<\/a><\/span> edited by Mark O\u2019Brien and Felix M. Larkin and published by the Four Court Press in Dublin this year. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>It follows his review of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fourcourtspress.ie\/books\/2014\/periodicals-and-journalism\/\">Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth Century Ireland: Writing Against the Grain<\/a><\/span> (2014) edited by the same authors. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This book delves deeper into the canon of dissenting Irish journalism and weighs up the consequences of the arrival of the internet for critical journalism in this country.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In the first of two reviews, Frank Armstrong revisits \u2018the fulcrum on which the intellectual foundations of Irish society moved \u2013 slowly, but irrevocably.\u2019<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KoU3AnPLUx\">https:\/\/t.co\/KoU3AnPLUx<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/broadsheet_ie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@broadsheet_ie<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BowesChay?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BowesChay<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/paddycosgrave?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@paddycosgrave<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FourCourtsPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FourCourtsPress<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fallon_donal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@fallon_donal<\/a> @corourke91 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlanGilsenan1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AlanGilsenan1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; CassandraVoices (@VoicesCassandra) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VoicesCassandra\/status\/1534213798743220236?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 7, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Digital Flood<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>John Horgan observes in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.ca\/books\/396250\/great-irish-reportage-by-john-horgan\/9780241967126\">Great Irish Reportage<\/a> <\/em><\/span>(Random House, Penguin, London, 2013) that \u2018Writing about current events will have been transformed by the rise of digital media in ways we can only guess at.\u2019 This may seem an obvious statement, but we can surely hazard a guess as to some consequences for journalism that goes against the grain, in particular.<\/p>\n<p>If the invention of the printing press in Europe in 1450 germinated a diverse range of ideologies and religions, signs are a <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/society-culture\/society\/the-doomsday-machines\/\">distracted and smart-phone-addicted civilisation<\/a><\/span> arising out of the technological rupture of the Internet is inclining towards homogeneity and conformity \u2013 not least in terms of the sub-Americana patois increasingly mouthed in the Podcast-verse.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, we have just witnessed widespread uniformity in the response of governments around the world to Covid-19, as dominant \u2013 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/the-covid-science-wars1\/\">group-thinking<\/a><\/span> \u2013 academic scientists, doctors, NGOs and pharmaceutical companies harnessed traditional and social media to manufacture consent for unprecedented curbs on civil liberties to contend with a contagious respiratory pathogen.<\/p>\n<p>We may argue into the night over whether the response was right or wrong, <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VoicesCassandra\/status\/1529534583523397632\">proportionate or disproportionate<\/a><\/span>, motivated by mamon or otherwise, but no one can now doubt the global reach of digital power, controlled especially from Silicon Valley. A latter-day Napoleon would not consider four hostile newspapers to be more formidable than a thousand bayonets. Rather he would surely recognise the capacity of social media to mould opinions and frame political choices: concluding the algorithm to be mightier than the best opinion writer.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the profound challenges legacy publications contend with pale in comparison to that faced by dissenting journalism that in Ireland has generally appeared in the marginal periodicals explored in these reviews.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, the editors of <em>A Variety of Voices<\/em> find it \u2018hard to envisage that it will be possible \u2013 or profitable, in intellectual or any other terms \u2013 for historians of the future to compile two volumes on twenty-first century Irish periodicals like we have done on the twentieth-century ones.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Contemporary dissenting journalism that is not dependent on the financial largesse \u2013 and whims \u2013 of wealthy institutions and individuals faces extinction. This point is driven home by the recent demise of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.broadsheet.ie\/\">www.broadsheet.ie<\/a><\/span>, a resolutely independent news and satirical website, representing no fixed political abode, apart from exhibiting a deep suspicion of state and corporate institutions that left it subject to charges of being informed by <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">conspiracy theories<\/span>, but which on a number of occasions displayed a willingness to publish <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/news\/ireland\/irish-news\/denis-o-brien-lawyers-demand-removal-of-broadsheet-ie-article-1.2310440\">purportedly defamatory material<\/a><\/span> that mainstream publishers shied away from.<\/p>\n<p>Revealingly, the recently published <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tolkajournal.org\/\">Tolka<\/a><\/em><\/span> \u2013 \u2018a journal of formally promiscuous non-fiction\u2019 \u2013 displays the logo of the Arts Council. A first edition lacks any obvious political intent, and hosts among other contributions a whimsical essay by <em>Irish Times<\/em> funny man Patrick Freyne on the origins of his attachment to list-making. It contains no advertising, so we may safely assume it will last as long as its annual grant applications proves successful.<\/p>\n<p>Other magazines funded by <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artscouncil.ie\/funding-decisions\/?&amp;Fund=Arts%20grant%20funding&amp;Year=2022\">Arts Council in 2022<\/a><\/span> include: Banshee, \u20ac75,000; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/comhar.ie\/\">Comhar Teoranta<\/a><\/span>, \u20ac46,800; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/crannogmagazine.com\/\">Crannog Magazine<\/a><\/span>, \u20ac18,000; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyphers.ie\/\">Cyphers Magazine<\/a><\/span>, \u20ac13,000; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/drb.ie\/\">Dublin Review of Books<\/a><\/span>, \u20ac25,000; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/thedublinreview.com\/\">The Dublin Review<\/a><\/span>, \u20ac75,000; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/journalofmusic.com\/\">The Journal of Music<\/a><\/span>, \u20ac75,000. Such magazines are not necessarily apolitical, but generally do not directly address political questions or engage in investigative journalism.<\/p>\n<p>The huge problem attendant to the public-private RT\u00c9 model, emphasises the difficulty with the State directly funding political journalism and investigative reporting. With readers generally unwilling to pay for content, however, publishers are increasingly beholden to advertisers,<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/arid-40048235.html\"> including the state<\/a><\/span>. This insulates powerful institutions and individuals from investigative journalism and critical commentary.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Frank Armstrong examines RTE kitsch on Dermot Bannon&#39;s Room To Improve, which allows shit to be denied and for everyone to act as though it doesn&#39;t exist.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mUP5EV70r5\">https:\/\/t.co\/mUP5EV70r5<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/broadsheet_ie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@broadsheet_ie<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BowesChay?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BowesChay<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenPantrey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BenPantrey<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danieleidiniph1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@danieleidiniph1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; CassandraVoices (@VoicesCassandra) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VoicesCassandra\/status\/1521849381934219265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Finding a Voice<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to the editors <em>A Variety of Voices<\/em> the periodicals featured in their second volume \u2018are mainly organs of important communities within Irish society \u2013 not always mainstream, but significant communities nonetheless that would not otherwise have a voice in Irish media.\u2019 The authors acquaint us with important titles representing a feminist outlook that has remained distinctly marginalised until recent times, as well as publications emanating from a gay community whose sex lives were only decriminalised in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>There is also a strong analysis of myriad religious periodicals representing the full spectrum of views on the political, social and economic questions of their times. This includes the <em>Catholic Bulletin <\/em>(1911-1939) under firebrand editor Timothy Corcoran SJ as editor, who, according to Patrick Maume, considered the leader of the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Blueshirts General Eoin O\u2019Duffy<\/span> insufficiently fascist.<\/p>\n<p>There are also accounts of other Jesuit publications from Declan O\u2019Keefe that challenged the illiberalism associated with the Catholic Church in Ireland, under Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid especially; and an analysis of the shifting outlook of the <em>Church of Ireland Gazette <\/em>from Ian d\u2019Alton.<\/p>\n<p>This volume also finds room for more contemporary publications such as the resilient <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thephoenix.ie\/\">Phoenix<\/a> <\/em><\/span>and <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/archives\/2017\/0703\/887378-in-dublin-magazine\/\">In Dublin<\/a><\/em><\/span>, although it is disappointing to find no entry for the literary and intellectual publication <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/journal\/cranebag\">The Crane Bag<\/a><\/em><\/span> (1979-1983) edited by <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/society-culture\/society\/is-medicine-out-of-touch\/\">Richard Kearney<\/a><\/span>, and others including <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Ronan Sheahan<\/span>; or for that matter, <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20100619120228\/http:\/irishliterature.library.emory.edu\/content.php?id=MSS043_1001419\">Envoy Magazine<\/a><\/em> <\/span>(1949-51) edited by the late John Ryan; although there is a passing reference to his correspondence with J.P. Donleavy, discussing the prohibitive cost of publishing.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan went on to become the author of a wonderful memoir celebrating <a href=\"https:\/\/ifi.ie\/film\/ghosts-of-baggotonia\/\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Baggatonia<\/span><\/a>, entitled <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lilliputpress.ie\/product\/remembering-how-we-stood-john-ryan\">Remembering How We Stood<\/a> <\/span>(1975). It provides intimate accounts of writers such as Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan and Flann O\u2019Brien, and a memorable description of the first Bloomsday in 1954, organised by Ryan himself along with Flann O\u2019Brien. He was, coincidentally, the father of his namesake former editor of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.broadsheet.ie\">www.broadsheet.ie<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In eschewing self-consciously literary publications, the authors perhaps draw too firm a line between the political and the poetic. It might suggest to a contemporary editor that the two do not mix easily, but Irish history suggests that an emulsification of forms \u2013 especially evident during the Irish Revival at the turn of the last century \u2013 animate political action. Empiricism or strictly factual journalism has its limitation, if we acknowledge as Percy Bysshe Shelley put it: \u2018the poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The First Bloomsday\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A0gNNWHmj9Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Fourth Estate <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This volume draws attention to a remarkable series of articles (1944-5) in <em>The Bell<\/em> by Vincent Mercier and Conor Cruise-O\u2019Brien (under the <em>nom de plume<\/em> \u2018Donat O\u2019Donnell\u2019) assessing the Fourth Estate in Ireland, including dominant titles the <em>Irish Independent<\/em>, <em>Irish Times<\/em> and <em>Irish Press<\/em>. Mercier also attempted to define the timeless nature of Irish humour in his assessment of <em>Dublin Opinion<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In his account Felix M. Larkin describes it as a \u2018dramatic intervention\u2019 for a series of articles to critically assess fellow newspapers and periodicals, including itself.\u2019 Recalling a contemporary reluctance on the part of Irish journalists to criticise directly one another, Larkin argues that<\/p>\n<p><em>to dig deeper into the affairs of other organs might delegitimize the status of the press generally, diminish its influence and give ammunition to those wishing to circumscribe its freedom. There was also a certain esprit de corps within the press, notwithstanding often fierce competition between individual newspapers and periodicals \u2013 a sense of \u2018dog doesn\u2019t eat dog<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>He further opines that \u2018The idea linking all six articles is that the Fourth Estate was accordingly complicit in the stagnation that followed the revolution.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Mercier identified the <em>Irish Times<\/em> as the newspaper of the Protestant professional classes rather than of landowners \u2018the true \u2018people of Burke and of Grattan\u2019, but observed how \u2018slowly but surely it is becoming the organ of the entire professional class, Protestant and Catholic.\u2019 He characterized the politics of the <em>Irish Times<\/em> as \u2018on the left\u2019 but qualified this by intimating it had \u2018its own particular brand of conservative progressivism\u2019. He nonetheless regarded its journalism as \u2018ten times more alive than its rivals in the newspaper world.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien argued that the <em>Irish Independent <\/em>was first and foremost a business undertaking. He observed how: \u2018Middle class Catholic families who were reading the <em>Independent<\/em> ten years ago are reading the <em>Irish Times <\/em>today\u2019. He anticipated that it might react by using \u2018its commanding financial position to get better features that other papers could afford.\u2019 One such contributor would be Cruise-O\u2019Brien himself!<\/p>\n<p>The now defunct <em>Irish Press <\/em>\u2013 of which then Taoiseach Eamon de Valera was still the principal shareholder \u2013 was also analysed by Mercier. According to its first editorial in 1931 the publication stood \u2018for independence, for the greatest temporal blessing a nation may enjoy, the full liberty of all its people \u2026 Our ideal, culturally is an <em>Irish <\/em>Ireland.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>By the mid-1940s, however, Mercier believed \u2018it could justifiably be described as \u2018the Government organ\u2019 and that it was \u2018almost as closely linked with the new Big Business of Ireland as the other two daily papers\u2019. Nonetheless, he conceded that it is \u2018mainly read on its merits as a newspaper rather than on any political count.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The same writer also analysed the Bell itself under Sean O\u2019Faol\u00e1in as editor. Among O\u2019Faol\u00e1in\u2019s uncompromising articles was one entitled \u2018The Stuffed Shirts\u2019, where he fumed: \u2018[T]he final stage of the Revolution was \u2013 and is to this day \u2013 a middle-class <em>putsch<\/em>. It was not a society that came out of the maelstrom. It was a class.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In a refreshingly iconoclastic piece Mercier wrote of Sean O\u2019Faol\u00e1in: \u2018I have never met a man so in love with the written word \u2013 provided he himself has written it\u2019; but asserted that he \u2018is not just a figurehead, he is the magazine.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In his essay \u2018The Parnellism of Se\u00e1n O\u2019Faol\u00e1in\u2019 O\u2019Brien described O\u2019Faol\u00e1in as \u2018parochial\u2019<\/p>\n<p><em>He <\/em>[O\u2019Faol\u00e1in] <em>neither affirms nor denies anything of universal importance\u2026 His stories are illuminating about Ireland; an anthropological entertainment to the curious foreigner, an annoyance and a stimulus to the native. To Ireland, the stimulus is of great value; in a time of sleepy stimulation Mr O\u2019Faol\u00e1in\u2019s irascible and dissenting temperament has struggled, not without success, to preserve some honest intellectual life among his people.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is hard to imagine a contemporary Irish publication subjecting its own editor to such stern critical analysis.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;the mothers were warm, the fathers diffident&quot;. Denys Candy recalls a 1960s childhood in Dublin, including witnessing Irish troops setting out for the Congo.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LPmQs4ignt\">https:\/\/t.co\/LPmQs4ignt<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danwadewriter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@danwadewriter<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BowesChay?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BowesChay<\/a> @Des_The_Dog <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FourCourtsPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FourCourtsPress<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HeresHowPodcast?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@HeresHowPodcast<\/a> @Theislanderpods<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; CassandraVoices (@VoicesCassandra) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VoicesCassandra\/status\/1539207012206235650?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Irish Humour<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to Larkin, Vincent Mercier\u2019s <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.ie\/books\/about\/The_Irish_comic_tradition.html?id=AQuwngEACAAJ&amp;redir_esc=y\">The Irish Comic Tradition<\/a><\/em><\/span> (Dublin, 1962) asserts that \u2018comedy is the central tradition of Irish and Anglo-Irish literature and can be traced back to oral Gaelic roots in the ninth century.\u2019 Mercier identified apparently timeless elements of this tradition as \u2018a bent for wild humour [and] a delight in witty world play.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>His article: \u2018Dublin Opinion\u2019s Six Jokes\u2019 represented a foretaste of later scholarly work. These include the <strong><em>Civil Service Joke<\/em><\/strong>, which is also the<em> <strong>Cork Joke<\/strong><\/em>: \u2018if you took away the Corkmen, where would the civil service be? And if you took away the Civil Service, where would the Corkmen be?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>There was also the <em>Where Were You in <strong>1916 Joke<\/strong><\/em>, the <strong><em>Irish Navy Joke<\/em><\/strong>\u2019, emphasising its miniscule size, the \u2018New Ireland Joke\u2019, a \u2018back-handed cut at the more absurd manifestations of the Gaelic Revival\u2019; the <strong><em>Ourselves-As-Others-See-Us Joke<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018usually located in Hollywood, and pigs in the kitchen generally figure in it somewhere.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>And finally, <strong><em>The Farmer Joke<\/em><\/strong>, depicting the archetypal Irish farmer \u2018filling up forms, submitting to inspection, resisting inspectors, selling his cattle, giving them away the price goes to hell etc.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Mercier regarded <em>Dublin Opinion <\/em>as \u2018one of the most political funny papers in existence\u2019. \u2018The real secret\u2019 he argued was its impartiality. He believed that \u2018its sympathies were with the losing side [in the Civil War]\u2019, but that it could not \u2018attack those in power, who then had the majority of the people behind them. At least \u2026 if it wished to keep its circulation, or even, perhaps, some freedom of speech. On the other hand, it had no desire to persecute the unhappy Republicans.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>However, he criticized the magazine for \u2018failing to address such issues as unemployment and the Dublin slums\u2019, at least since the end of Arthur Booth\u2019s Cassandra-like prophecies of war and famine.\u2019<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cjhumanrights?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@cjhumanrights<\/a> with an important contribution in our new April \u201822 issue on the complexities of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, why it is needed and how to get closer to achieving it. <br \/>Get your hard copy of the complete issue @NOALIBISBOOKS <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XMkNbwDECj\">https:\/\/t.co\/XMkNbwDECj<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8ryAefOxX1\">pic.twitter.com\/8ryAefOxX1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; @Fortnight50 (@fortnight50) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fortnight50\/status\/1514208960110374924?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Fortnight<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another important contemporary magazine covered in this edition is <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/fortnightmagazine.org\/\">Fortnight<\/a><\/em><\/span>, which emerged as an important voice of moderation during the Northern Ireland Troubles under the stewardship of an academic lawyer Tom Hadden in 1970. The article in <em>A Variety of Voices<\/em> was written by a former editor Andy Pollack, who reveals how he valued the opportunities it gave him to use controversial material he could not publish in \u2018a more risk-averse national broadsheet newspaper\u2019. This included accounts from the notorious Kincora boys home in east Belfast.<\/p>\n<p>At times the magazine experienced embedded resistance to its human rights advocacy, as when staunchly Unionist Lurgan printers made it clear that they did not want to continue to print it after an issue came out strongly against internment.<\/p>\n<p><em>Fortnight<\/em> also contained one prescient critique of the Northern Ireland Peace Process from David Guelke who warned that that \u2013 unlike its South African equivalent \u2013 by concentrating on securing and sustaining \u2018ceasefires by paramilitary actors at the margins\u2019, it could actually make the situation more difficult by freezing in place \u2018a Cyprus-type bloodless conflict\u2019, where there would be \u2018no incentives for cross-community collaboration\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The publication received \u2018substantial grants from the British charity the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.\u2019 However, according to Pollack the advent of a social media \u2013 which spelt \u2018the death knell for small, radical print publications everywhere\u2019 \u2013 led to its demise. It did, however, resume publishing in September, 2020.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-13835 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/The_Phoenix_magazine.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"265\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Phoenix<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In his article on <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thephoenix.ie\/\">Phoenix Magazine<\/a><\/em><\/span> Joe Breen cites a warning from Tony Harcup\u2019s <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.ie\/books\/about\/Journalism.html?id=Zhh9FLY-vlAC&amp;redir_esc=y\">Journalism: Principle and Practice<\/a><\/em><\/span> (London, 2009)] to the effect that investigative journalism, while achieving notable results might be seen as \u2018perpetuating a myth that society is divided into a large number of fundamentally good people and a smaller number of fundamentally bad people\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Harcup asks where the investigative journalism is into structural forces in society answering: \u2018Largely notable for its absence. Instead, particularly on television, we tend to have personalised stories of goodies, baddies and heroic reporters\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, the achievements of <em>The Phoenix <\/em>under the control of John Mulcahy and with Paddy Prendevilll as editor (a bulldog quality, untainted by ideology is also attributed to deputy editor Paul Farrell) in this vital sphere are arguably unsurpassed in the history Irish journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Fittingly, an <em>Irish Times <\/em>obituary describes John Mulcahy as \u2018one of the most significant journalists and publishers of the last half century in this country\u2019. <em>Phoenix<\/em>\u2019s major scoops have included: Charles Haughey receiving \u00a31 million from Ben Dunne; the pension of \u00a327.6 million paid to Michael Fingleton; Father Michael Cleary fathering a child with his housekeeper; and Anglo-Irish bank being technically bankrupt<\/p>\n<p>In October 1991, Dick Spring quoted a <em>Phoenix <\/em>article at length in the D\u00e1il. It had been pulled from the magazine when Smurfit Web Press refused to print it.<\/p>\n<p>The magazine\u2019s investigations are still accompanied by a Private Eye-infused humour, where Breen argues \u2018laddish sexual innuendos were a staple\u2019: as with the cartoon: \u2018How\u2019s the queen?\u2019 Queen Elizabeth: \u2018Edward\u2019s fine, thank you\u2019. The magazine has also displayed an unusual sympathy \u2013 in an Irish journalistic context at least \u2013 for the Republican cause in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Despite its achievements, Breen warns that that \u2018it is notable that with the rise of social media, where people play fast and loose with facts, rumours and innuendo, <em>The Phoenix <\/em>has lost some of its traction.\u2019<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13836\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13836\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13836 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Hilda_Tweedy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"865\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13836\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Hilda_Tweedy.jpg\">Second row: Far left: Hilda Tweedy<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em>The Irish Housewife<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The origins of the unradical-sounding <em>The Irish Housewife <\/em>magazine can be traced to a public \u2018Memorandum on the Food and Fuel Emergency\u2019 authored by <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalarchives.ie\/article\/hilda-tweedy-papers-irish-housewives-association\/\">Hilda Tweedy<\/a><\/span>, Andre\u00e9 Sheehy Skeffington; Marguerite Skelton and Nancy Simmons in 1941. According to Sonja Tiernan they \u2018drew up an economic plan urging the government to ration all essential foodstuff, control prices and supress black-market sales.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In response it was denigrated by journalists as \u2018a housewives\u2019 petition\u2019. The authors appear to have inverted these prejudices by using \u2018housewife\u2019 in the title of the Association they founded, which went on to publish the magazine.<\/p>\n<p>It is instructive that after Hilda Tweedy \u2018applied for a teaching job in a Protestant girls\u2019 school, she was told that as a married woman she was unsuitable; the headmistress said it would not be nice for girls if their teacher became pregnant.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, according to Tiernan the Irish Housewives Association \u2018had made a rather astute business deal with an advertising agency: The agency printed and distributed the magazine and in return they kept all of the advertising income.\u2019 As articles were contributed for free it was kept at an affordable price.<\/p>\n<p>Among its contributions, Katherine Watson recorded her experiences of visiting female prisoners in Mountjoy, while George Yeats (the daughter of W.B.) published an article entitled \u2018Can Your Child Draw\u2019 in which she warned: \u2018don\u2019t be too cautious! Beware of all that restricts a child\u2019s boldness of hand and of imagination. More is at stake than his future as an artist.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The advertising market began to slow down in the 1960s and by 1966 it was no longer viable for the agency to print the magazine. Nonetheless, it had provided an important outlet, and Tweedy later mused: \u2018Who would have thought in 1942 that women would move from the kitchen to \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in.\u2019<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13837\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13837\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13837 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Mary-Robinson.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"804\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13837\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">75th Anniversary of the Easter Rising, O&#8217;Connell Street, President Mary Robinson. Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/digital.libraries.dublincity.ie\/vital\/access\/manager\/Repository\/vital:27919\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Dublin City Library Archive<\/span><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em>Status<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Signs of the rise of future President Mary Robinson\u2019s generation of successful and ambitious women can be identified in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/brandnewretro.ie\/2011\/10\/16\/status-irish-womens-news-magazine-1981\/\"><em>Status Magazine<\/em><\/a><\/span>, a short-lived feminist news magazine from 1981.<\/p>\n<p>Its origins lie in in the gathering of about 1,000 women and several men at a conference in Liberty Hall, which led to the founding of the magazine with Marian Finucane as editor. She was already a well-known Irish media personality. 31,500 copies of the first issue of <em>Status<\/em> were printed and these sold out quickly; yet curiously ten months later <em>Status <\/em>closed down.<\/p>\n<p>The decision to launch a magazine squarely focused on women\u2019s rights had come from the proprietor of <em>Magill<\/em> Magazine Vincent Browne\u2019 who said: \u2018News coverage and investigative journalism from a woman\u2019s perspective is what we are aiming for.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Cutting-edge reportage included Nell McCafferty writing from inside one of the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/society-culture\/society\/mother-and-baby-home-whitewash-compounds-victims-torture\/\">mother and baby homes<\/a><\/span> where single, pregnant women effectively went into hiding until their babies were born.<\/p>\n<p>One regular feature that scared advertisers was a page headed \u2018No Comment\u2019, which reproduced snippets of sexist nonsense sent in by readers including advertisements and articles from national newspaper. This included one from the <em>Irish Times<\/em>, which observed that \u2018sitting TDs, Mr Eddie Collins and Mr Austin Deasy, are regarded as \u201cGarret men\u201d, though not fanatically so: the young and pretty Mrs Bulbulia is taken for a dedicated \u201cGarret woman\u201d\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Without adequate advertising revenue it was, however, doomed. Vincent Browne felt from the start the magazine was \u2018gratuitously offensive to advertisers \u2026 There was too much sniping which antagonises people to no purpose.\u2019 He noted that \u2018marketing managers are male dominated and \u2013 dare I say it \u2013 some of them maybe, a little frightened\u2019. <em>Status <\/em>was, he felt, a \u2018bit too aggressively women\u2019s lib\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>According to Tiernan: \u2018The usual rules did not apply: Those controlling these decisions did not want to see their advertisements in <em>Status<\/em> no matter how many educated women were buying the magazine.\u2019 Eventually, even those stalwarts of magazine advertising \u2013 cigarette companies \u2013 abandoned ship.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cassandra Voices - The Hard Copy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/StcXwlOT9yE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>A Future for Hard Copy Journalism?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A final word goes to John S. Doyle the former editor of <em>In Dublin<\/em>, which was inspired by <em>Pariscope<\/em>, the <em>New Yorker <\/em>and London\u2019s <em>Time Out<\/em>. It remained largely removed from the cut and thrust of national politics, apart from assessing the planning decisions of Dublin Corporation, and then providing an outlet for the campaign against the development of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/society-culture\/a-curious-irish-disregard-for-historic-buildings\/\">Wood Quay<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Intriguingly, Doyle revealed that<\/p>\n<p><em>none of the people who started In Dublin, or who came to in the first few years, considered themselves to be journalists, or had thought of that as a career. They were people who, in their different ways, wanted to write, and one of the strengths of the magazine was that it attracted so many of them.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It may be that through some such formula \u2013 involving those with a desire and even <em>need<\/em> to write \u2013 we may revive dissenting journalism.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge may be to find a broad-based platform that is not dependent on an increasingly commercialised and censorious social media for citizen journalists to publish. In this respect we mourn the demise of www.broadsheet.ie, which showed an usual willingness to court controversy, even if this occasionally placed them in the company of characters who apparently set out to cause offense.<\/p>\n<p>A future for dissenting hard copy journalism that is not funded by an emanation of the state or philanthropy is difficult to identify, but it may be \u2013 just as music connoisseurs are now purchasing vinyl which was once considered obsolete \u2013 that readers will revert to a tangible format as the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">promblems with the digital medium<\/span> become increasingly apparent.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Help keep this show on the road! We depend on readers\u2019 support. You can contribute on an ongoing basis via <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/cassandravoices\">Patreon<\/a><\/span> or through a one-off contribution via <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buymeacoffee.com\/cassandravoices\">Buy Me a Coffee<\/a><\/span>. Any small amount is hugely appreciated.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018I have never met a man so in love with the written word \u2013 provided he himself has written it\u2019 Vincent Mercier on his editor at The Bell Sean O\u2019Faol\u00e1in. In this second and final instalment, Frank Armstrong reviews Periodicals and Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland 2: A Variety of Voices edited by Mark O\u2019Brien and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[167,267,501,523,541,698,1253,1401,1506,1669,1718,1814,1877,1922,2046,2595,2705,2706,2715,2815,3226,3412,3681,3839,3989,4092,4107,4564,4603,4974,4984,4985,4986,5156,5881,5885,6395,6484,6926,6943,7051,7098,7211,7546,7734,8222,8527,8624,8625,8947,8987,9026,9048,9062,9116,9118,9125,9292,9428,9450,9453,9472,9798,9850,9851,9853,9893,10175,10218,10227],"class_list":["post-13830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-2","tag-1916-joke","tag-a-variety-of-voices","tag-and","tag-andree-sheehy-skeffington","tag-andy-pollack","tag-arts-council-funding","tag-can-your-child-draw","tag-cassandra-voices-hard-copy","tag-catholic-bulletin","tag-church-of-ireland-gazette","tag-civil-service-joke","tag-comhar-teoranta","tag-conor-cruise-obrien","tag-cork-joke","tag-crannog-magazine","tag-donat-odonnell","tag-dublin-opinion","tag-dublin-opinions-six-jokes","tag-dublin-review-of-books","tag-economics","tag-felix-m-larkin","tag-fortnight-magazine","tag-george-yeats","tag-great-irish-reportage","tag-hard-copy-irish-journalism","tag-hilda-tweedy","tag-history","tag-irish-housewives-association","tag-irish-navy-joke","tag-john-mulcahy","tag-john-ryan","tag-john-s-doyle","tag-john-s-doyle-in-dublin","tag-katherine-watson","tag-marguerite-skelton","tag-marian-finucane","tag-nancy-simmons","tag-nell-mccafferty","tag-ourselves-as-others-see-us-joke","tag-paddy-prendevilll","tag-paul-farrell-phoenix","tag-periodicals-and-journalism-in-twentieth-century-ireland","tag-phoenix-magazine","tag-public-private-rte-model","tag-remembering-how-we-stood","tag-sean-ofaolain","tag-sonja-tiernan","tag-status-magazine","tag-status-no-comment","tag-the-bell","tag-the-crane-bag","tag-the-dublin-review","tag-the-farmer-joke","tag-the-fourth-esate-in-ireland","tag-the-irish-comic-tradition","tag-the-irish-housewife","tag-the-journal-of-music","tag-the-stuffed-shirts","tag-timothy-corcoran-sj","tag-tolka","tag-tom-hadden","tag-tony-harcup","tag-variety","tag-vincent-browne-status","tag-vincent-browne-status-magazine","tag-vincent-mercier","tag-voices","tag-wood-quay-campaign","tag-writing-against-the-grain","tag-www-broadsheet-ie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}