Ireland on Sunday was a Sunday newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 in the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, published by Associated Newspapers

Associated Newspapers

Associated Newspapers is a large national newspaper publisher in the UK, which is a subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust. The group was established in 1905 and is currently based at Northcliffe House in Kensington...

 Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust

Daily Mail and General Trust

Daily Mail and General Trust plc is a British media conglomerate, one of the largest in Europe. In the UK, it has interests in national and regional newspapers, television and radio. The company has extensive activities based outside the UK, through Northcliffe Media, DMG Radio Australia, DMG World...

 plc. The newspaper had a number of formats, but in its later years was tabloid in page size; however, it was not a 'red top' tabloid, but considered 'middle-market

Middle-market newspaper

A middle-market newspaper is one that attempts to cater to readers who want some entertainment value from their newspaper as well as sufficient coverage of significant news events. Middle-market status is the halfway point of a three-level continuum of journalistic seriousness; upmarket newspapers...

'.

History

The newspaper was considered to be the Irish edition of the Mail on Sunday

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

. However, this was not always the case. The newspaper was originally founded in 1996, by former County Meath

County Meath

County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...

 Gaelic football

Gaelic football

Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...

 player Liam Hayes, as a sports-only newspaper, The Title. In 1997, it was expanded into a general broadsheet Sunday newspaper, under the name Ireland On Sunday, with Hayes as its editor. IoS (as it was nicknamed) was aimed at the traditional Irish nationalist readers who had formerly read The Sunday Press

The Sunday Press

The Sunday Press was a weekly newspaper published in Ireland from 1949 until 1995. It was launched by Éamon de Valera's Irish Press group following the defeat of his Fianna Fáil party in the Irish general election, 1948...

. The paper's columnists included Tim Pat Coogan

Tim Pat Coogan

Timothy Patrick Coogan is an Irish historical writer, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He served as editor of the Irish Press newspaper from 1968 to 1987...

 and Niall O'Dowd

Niall O'Dowd

Niall O'Dowd , is an Irish journalist and author living in the United States. He was extensively involved in the negotiations leading to the Irish Good Friday Peace Agreement, and is a proponent of comprehensive immigration reform in the United States...

.
In 2000, the newspaper was sold to Scottish Radio Holdings

Scottish Radio Holdings

Scottish Radio Holdings was a Scottish media company which owned 22 radio stations, and around 30 local newspapers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.-History:...

; a year later, having switched to tabloid format, it was sold to Daily Mail and General Trust

Daily Mail and General Trust

Daily Mail and General Trust plc is a British media conglomerate, one of the largest in Europe. In the UK, it has interests in national and regional newspapers, television and radio. The company has extensive activities based outside the UK, through Northcliffe Media, DMG Radio Australia, DMG World...

. Since then, it had been relaunched again, with a format similar to the Mail on Sunday.

The newspaper had come under much criticism recently with its constant giveaways of CDs

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 and books with the newspaper, in order to attract readers. Other Irish Sunday newspapers occasionally offer free CDs from time to time, but in the case of Ireland on Sunday the giveaways are regular rather than occasional. In addition, its usage of content from the Mail on Sunday has led to it being given the nickname "Little England on Sunday" in certain parts of the Irish media.

Closure/Rebrand

On 21 September 2006, Associated Newspapers announced that the 17 September 2006 edition of Ireland on Sunday had been the newspaper's final edition, with its replacement with the Irish Mail on Sunday from 24 September. The newspaper had already been considered informally as the Mail on Sunday's Irish edition, however it was now officially an edition of the Mail on Sunday and use a variation of that newspaper's masthead and editorial style. The UK edition of the Mail on Sunday was withdrawn from the Irish market in line with this.