Early copies of the Limerick Chroniclegoing back to 1768 have been acquired by the Glucksman Library in the University of Limerick.
For decades the masthead has proudly declared that the newspaper first appeared in 1766, but a new discovery of volumes of the paper establishes that the first Limerick Chronicle edition appeared on August 11th, 1768.
A volume of nearly 100 of Chronicle first editions, never previously available to historians and believed to have been lost, is now part of the university's Limerick collection.
The university and the former owner of the volume, Joe MacMahon from Annacotty, declined to disclose the cost of acquiring the newspapers.
Mr MacMahon bought the volume at a bookshop in Wales more than 40 years ago, just before the premature celebrations for the paper's 200th birthday.
He said he contacted the newspaper at the time to point out that it had first appeared in 1768, but this was not followed up.
Instead, the year of 1766 appeared as the paper's foundation date up until this week's issue.
Gobnait O'Riordan, director of the university library, said the library is privileged to house the historic newspapers, which will now help historians to reconstruct the events of 18th-century Limerick and provide an important insight into its history and heritage.
Alan English, editor of the Limerick Leader and Limerick Chronicle, said the emergence of the early newspapers was "a remarkable development in the life of a newspaper with a remarkable history".
Ken Bergin, special collections librarian at the university, is hopeful the discovery could lead to more people coming forward with priceless documents, especially the very first issue of the Chronicle, dated Thursday, August 11th, 1768. This is the only early edition missing from the volume.
Last week the will of John Ferrar, the first editor and proprietor of the Limerick Chronicle, was discovered by a local solicitor.