The Cork Sportsman: a provincial sporting newspaper, 1908–1911

Abstract

This article examines the regional, Cork-based sporting newspaper, the Cork Sportsman, for its lifespan of 3 years, when it was published weekly from 1908 to 1911. The article seeks to place this sporting newspaper in the context of the development of a specialist sporting press in Ireland from the late nineteenth century as well as in the context of the development of sporting coverage in the traditional newspaper trade developing simultaneously both nationally and regionally. Moreover, this article seeks to address why the newspaper had such a short lifespan at a time when coverage of sport in newspapers was growing and expanding in scope in the region. In so doing, this article argues that close examination of sporting newspapers is an important element of understanding the way in which sports history is written, given the significance of newspapers as a source in the methodology of many historians of sport.