‘Mysterious Malady Spreading’: Newspaper Coverage of the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic

Abstract

This chapter explores media coverage of influenza in both national and local newspapers. It has been argued that it was difficult to find traces of the pandemic from official sources in British archives and this too was the case in Ireland. Therefore, it has been essential to use newspaper reports to research the day-to-day effects of the pandemic in the country. This chapter illustrates - through the newspaper coverage - that the war impacted on the way in which influenza was reported in certain Irish newspapers, especially during the first wave. It shows how other contemporary political concerns were considered more newsworthy than the influenza outbreaks. Reasons for the pandemic’s subsequent exclusion from Irish history are presented along with consideration to the theory that the lack of contemporary newspaper coverage of the disease was a factor on why influenza has been forgotten in Irish history.