One of the more bizarre moments in the long slow death of the Irish Press was at the very end, at the wind-up meeting in September 1995, when Dr ╔amon de Valera was asked to name the one thing he had done that he regretted most. He pondered for a while and answered that it was not bringing in a facility to print colour on both sides of the page. There was a stunned silence in the RDS as the staff questioned each other to make sure they had heard correctly. Nothing about mismanagement or turing the Press into a tabloid. Nothing about selling a share to Independent Newspapers. It was a technical problem that most concerned him, and so ended over 60 years of journalism and newspaper history.
Mark O'Brien's history of the Irish Press and its relationship with its founder, ╔amon de Valera, and Fianna Fβil almost suggests that the final collapse of the three newspapers was inevitable: "It was de Valera who drew up the company's carefully drafted articles of association, securing for himself the most powerful position on the board - that of controlling director - allowing him to keep the post for as long as he saw fit. The position was not subject to re-election and on the death, resignation or incapacity of the controlling director, the director to whom he chose to transfer his powers automatically became controlling director. It was in this way that the de Valera stranglehold of the Press company was cast in stone", and was also the reason his grandson was sitting overseeing the end of three newspapers all those years later.
Dr O'Brien in effect writes two histories that intertwine. One is the story of an industrial relations hell and the other the political role of the Irish Press since 1931. Because it was established as de Valera's paper, rather than as a Fianna Fβil newspaper, its role was never as clear-cut as was always assumed. De Valera, founder and controlling director, was given uncritical coverage. His withdrawal from Dβil politics, just as Noel Browne was asking questions about the ownership of the Irish Press, meant the Press had to forge new relationships with his successors. It was instrumental in preparing the Fianna Fβil grass roots for the change from de Valera's protectionist economic policy to Lemass's free trade. In 1989 it performed a similar task for Charles Haughey in convincing the Fianna Fβil faithful to follow the party into coalition, something that was once anathema to any Fianna Fβiler. It offered the most consistent opposition to the illiberal coalition governments of the 1970s, though its record during Fianna Fβil governments was less impressive.
Dr O'Brien chronicles the contribution of the Irish Press to journalism, something it was rightly proud of, even though it was often despite the newspaper and its management. He is impressive uncovering and explaining the labyrinthine ownership structures of the Irish Press and how de Valera, his son and finally his grandson maintained control. He is best on the history and the relationship with Fianna Fβil. His account of the closure offers little more than was known and reported at the time, with few new sources. It is odd that of all the people quoted there are no union officials, printers or even the NUJ's Father of Chapel (office branch) at the time of the closure.
This book is an impressive contribution to newspaper and journalism scholarship in Ireland and all the more valuable given the paucity of published works in the fascinating field of the relationship between the media, journalism and politics.
Michael Foley is a lecturer in journalism at the Dublin Institute of Technology. As The Irish Times media correspondent he covered the closure of the three Irish Press titles