The Irish Press in Victorian Britain

Abstract

The history of the newspaper press in the nineteenth century is littered with the bodies of newspapers started with high hopes and varying aims which failed for an equally varied number of reasons, like insufficient capital, local indifference to the cause supported and the strength of rival newspapers. in the eighteenth century the provincial newspaper press consisted of ‘scissors and paste’ journals, normally produced by the local printer, who added local advertisements, to news from the London papers. The problems in charting Irish newspapers in Victorian Britain are endless but highly instructive. The Irish journalist might expect greater acceptability for his national preoccupations in the Catholic press. The Irishness of British journalism was largely a first-generation matter, often with an early career in Irish journalism behind the literary invaders. The system of politico-religious agencies for newspaper distribution, had long been basic to Ireland.