This article examines the history of the Irish-born journalist S. McKenna’s visits to Leo Tolstoy. He first visited Yasnaya Polyana in 1905 to interview the writer about the Bloody Sunday. Having studied McKenna’s letters, I clearly understand that he visited Tolstoy twice (the second time was presumably in 1907). In 1927, against the wishes of the journalist himself, the story about his visit to the Russian writer reached the Irish press, in which Tolstoy was presented as a “muzhik” (a peasant, a kerne) sitting behind a dirty tablecloth. Such an image aroused indignation among British Tolstoyans, E. Mood in particular. By an ironic coincidence, Mood was preparing to avenge such an image of Tolstoy not on McKenna himself, whose description was the basis for the article in the Irish magazine, but on his British namesake, the novelist S. McKenna. This article provides an analysis of the correspondence between the two namesakes from October 1927; it discusses the figure of Tolstoy and the history of the journalist McKenna’s visits to Yasnaya Polyana. McKenna’s figure is of great interest both in the context of a more global topic about Tolstoy’s relationship with Ireland and in terms of biographical issues.

ABSTRACT Through an examination of four newspapers of the nineteenth-century Irish press at home and abroad, this essay investigates the depiction of women within the dichotomy of the archetypes of proper women, who conformed to Victorian ideas of femininity, and reprobate woman, who did not. It argues that each paper characterized the ideal and reprobate woman based upon their overall ideology. All papers ascribed to traditional Victorian notions of femininity, regardless of their stance on nationalism or other issues, but the particulars differed.

The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 1, Beginnings and Consolidation 1640-1800, edited by Nicholas Brownlees, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2023

In mid-December 1846, British and Irish newspapers reported the news of surgical etherization far more extensively than previously described. Reports about etherization had appeared at least 20 British and Irish newspapers in the days before Robert Liston's first operations under etherization on December 21, 1846. These reports were based on four separate accounts, 2 of which could be traced to New York, and 1 account had been published in a Parisian newspaper Galignani's Messenger on December 9, 1846.

This article examines the case of the first Irish journalist to be imprisoned for refusing to reveal his sources. In his capacity as political correspondent with the Irish Press, Joseph Dennigan (1910–1950) was called as a witness in a case in December 1933 against a member of the ‘Blueshirts’, a quasi-fascist organisation. Dennigan declined to identify the official sources who he consulted in writing an article about the prohibition of the organisation. The decision to impose a one-month sentence on the journalist generated considerable political reaction and extensive coverage in the Irish and international press. Drawing on Dennigan papers, this article examines the contempt case and also issues that arise from this particular episode, specifically government transition and politician-source relations.

Since the publication of ‘Green Fuse’ in The Irish Press in 1974, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne has built up an impressive oeuvre of short fiction. The recent Selected Stories, published by Blackstaff Press in 2023, pays tribute to that achievement. As the collection follows the trajectory of Ní Dhuibhne’s career, with two stories from each of her six collections, it allows one to trace both recurring elements and patterns of development in her work. Ní Dhuibhne’s sustained exploration of women’s lives, dreams and desires, for instance, can be seen to take distinct emphases in each of the collections. This essay argues that binary oppositions are used as structuring models in Ní Dhuibhne’s first four collections – in juxtaposed plotlines, stories and endings as well as contrasting characters, places and times – but, in her later collections, these oppositions move to the more subjective realm of inner reflection and imagination.

This paper explores how the broadcasts delivered by Winston Churchill on 13 May 1945 and Éamon de Valera on 17 May 1945 were portrayed in the Irish press between May and August of that year. Specifically, it analyses how Irish newspapers justified the policy of neutrality, which was considered morally questionable during the battle against totalitarianism; how they explained the Anglo-Irish relationship in a way that defended Ireland's position in the post-war world; and how they reported on small nations under threat of the USSR to legitimise Ireland's situation. By studying the media coverage of these broadcasts, this paper reveals how Irish newspapers imagined the course of the nation.

Abstract The Irish Ordnance memoir scheme attempted to produce wide-ranging ‘statistical’ memoirs on a national basis, to accompany the large-scale (six-inch) mapping of the country by the Irish Ordnance Survey. Dating to the early 1830s, the memoir scheme had a stop-start existence and only published a specimen account for the parish of Templemore, County Londonderry (1837). But the scheme's overall aims of economic improvement and cultural revival attracted considerable support from Irish society and the Irish press. Public calls for resumption after memoir activity was stopped in 1840 led to an investigatory commission of 1843–4, appointed by the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, but the commission's favourable findings were then disputed by him, primarily on grounds of cost. This article examines the impact of the Edinburgh publishing house of William Blackwoods on the memoir commission. The first section investigates the influence of Scottish voluntaryism on the commission, while the second assesses the impact of the firm on the emerging publication proposals in the immediate aftermath of the report. The article argues that the memoir scheme was not a victim of British antipathy but expired from a failure of the principals, including Blackwoods, to agree publishing terms, and both assesses and contextualises the scheme's demise from this adjusted perspective.

This article draws the portrayal of the church support for Romanians as depicted in articles from the most important Irish newspaper, The Irish Times (1992-2020). The articles analyzed show: the help of the Church of Ireland for the Romanian people in the aftermath of the 1989 fall of the communist regime; the interest that the Irish society showed for the Orthodox Church in the context of an increase in the number of immigrants from Romania, a predominantly Orthodox country; the efforts of the churches in Ireland to establish an interfaith dialogue for the benefit of the Romanian immigrants; the focus that remarkable Orthodox priests, such as Father Irineu Crăciun and Father Godfrey O’Donnell, benefitted from in the Irish press due to their constant work for the benefit of the Romanian community in Ireland.

Book notes: <i>The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 3, Competition and Disruption, 1900–2017</i> by Martin Conboy and Adrian Bingham (Editors)

<i>Ireland, Literature, and the Coast: Seatangled</i> by Nicholas Allen

Mediating America: Black and Irish Press and the Struggle for Citizenship, 1870–1914

A Letter from Eugene O'Neill to Patrick McCartan (June 11, 1934); or, Yeats, the Abbey Theatre, and <i>Days Without End</i> (April 16, 1934)

新闻自律；新闻评议会；新闻监察员办公室；业务准则

Review of David Finkelstein, ed., The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press: Expansion and Evolution, 1800–1900 (2020)

The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, vol. 3: Competition and Disruption, 1900–2017, edited by Martin Conboy and Adrian Bingham

ABSTRACT This article demonstrates the extent of advertising in the Irish press in the years before and after the foundation of the Irish Free State for the “female pills” widely understood to induce abortions. These advertisements appeared very frequently in a wide range of Irish publications for several decades prior to 1922, and the article establishes the ways in which the advertisements functioned as an open secret strategically ignored by both legal and moral authorities. The style and content of the advertisements themselves, which allowed this open secret to operate in plain sight, is explored in detail, along with the context in which the advertisements were produced, circulated and likely understood by women readers. The article concludes by examining the advertisements’ gradual and then complete disappearance from the Irish press, especially in light of the Free State legislation enacted during the 1920s.

This article looks at the early development of women’s football in Ireland, examining the cultural impact of the first women’s matches, and how this early heritage has laid foundations for future developments. Women took to playing association football not long after it was first established as a male bastion during the latter half of the nineteenth century. These early matches attracted large crowds, public and press criticism, and in some instances social disorder. The article first examines how the Irish press presented this sporting innovation and the first exposure to actual matches when the British Ladies Club arrived to play in Belfast in early June 1895. Beyond the expected disapproval, there is evidence that debate took place on women’s general role in society, and in particular how females could engage in sport. Also examined is the way British Ladies Club presented themselves as upper-middle-class, and how this contrasted with the way they were portrayed in the press. New research is presented, which casts doubt on the club’s middle-class image and shows how friction between the club and its main sponsor arose when a true picture of the players’ backgrounds came to light. In conclusion, the author contrasts the Irish response to the British Ladies Football Club with the women’s sides that played during World War I and the post-war period. It is shown that the early matches of the 1890s paved the way for a more appreciative and accepting audience.

ABSTRACT This article explores Irish and international news reporting on the gay Irish politician Leo Varadkar during his term as Irish Prime Minister (2017–2020). Focusing on two media events occurring in 2019 – first, the outing of Varadkar as a Kylie Minogue fan in the KylieGate scandal and, second, his St. Patrick's Day meeting with then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence – the article argues that the Irish and international media differentially employed both homoheroic and homophobic narratives in their accounts. The article introduces the concept of homoheroism, which exists in tension with lingering homophobic scripts, as a structuring dynamic for understanding the contemporary media's affirmative rendering of the cultural capital associated with being an out LGBTQ politician. Whereas the international press hailed Varadkar as a homoheroic intersectional leader capable of challenging homophobia internationally and forging a progressive internationally respected identity for Ireland, the Irish press treated Varadkar's gay, Indian-Irish identities as evidence of political illegitimacy in coverage laced with anti-gay stereotypes. The Varadkar case speaks more broadly to the emergence of a generation of global political leaders whose LGBTQ status poses challenges for media representation, may raise expectations around homonationalism, and carries geopolitical implications for the branding of the politicians and their countries.

This hefty volume should be present in each university library, as a precious, and indispensable tool for students and scholars who investigate not only the British and Irish nineteenth-century press, but Victorian culture and technology, visual studies, advertisement and, generally, the complex and evolving relationship between Victorian readers and printed information. The volume is part of an impressive project that will also include The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Vo...