Sunday Independent
Encyclopedia
The Sunday Independent is a broadsheet
Sunday newspaper
published in Ireland
by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning
, and is the biggest selling Irish
Sunday newspaper by a large margin (29.2% of Irish Sunday newspaper readers, according to the Joint National Readership Survey); average circulation
of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It is now owned by businessman Anthony O'Reilly
, and is part of a worldwide newspaper group.
its daily counterpart, the Sunday Independent supported Cumann na nGaedheal and its successor Fine Gael
.
From the 1940s until 1970, the paper was run by Hector Legge (1901-1994). Legge's time at the paper was notable
for the Sunday Independent in 1948 leaking the news that the Irish government were going to leave the
British Commonwealth by repealing the
External Relations Act. Legge also published a series of articles by the writer
Frank O'Connor
(under the pseudonym "Ben Mayo") in the paper.
In the 1970s, under the editorship of Conor O'Brien, the Sunday Independent
became known for a series of investigations by journalist Joe MacAnthony into
the activities of the Irish Sweepstakes
.
O'Brien was succeeded as editor in 1976 by Michael Hand.
Aengus Fanning became editor following Hand's departure in 1984.
It is probably better described as a middle-of-the-road newspaper, rather than a newspaper of record
. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Deputy Editor was Anne Harris.
.
The Sunday Independent has become one of the most controversial publications in Ireland; an article in
Magill
magazine about the newspaper stated "Its critics have characterised it as nasty and narcissitic,its supporters as lively and libidinous, a tornado of fresh air in a stale and shrinking industry".
Noted for its trenchant support for Fianna Fáil
, and particularly Bertie Ahern
and latterly Brian Lenihan
, it usually contains articles focused that party and its policies, often at the expense of other political groups in the state. The Government's former Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea
writes a weekly column for the newspaper. The former partner of Bertie Ahern, Celia Larkin
has also started writing as a columnist for the newspaper following the closure of her beauty salon business.
Popularly nicknamed The Sindo, the paper has been a zealous critic of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin
for many years. In the late 1980s and early
1990s, the Sunday Independent was reproachful toward SDLP politician John Hume
, whom the newspaper accused of being insufficiently attentive to the needs of the Ulster Unionists. Many of the Sunday Independent's
columnists also criticised Hume for negotiating with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams
, accusing Hume of being
naive about Adams.
and Ralph Riegel, the paper's Southern Correspondent.
The bottom piece about Ireland's oldest university Trinity College Dublin selling Masters Degrees to its graduates was written by Daniel McConnell. The edition's date is 20 November 2005.
policies in economics and strong opposition to armed republicanism
; some have described the newspaper's policies as those of the New Right
.
It was strongly supportive of the Progressive Democrats and in favour of income tax reduction and the rolling back of the state. Major issues often include big government, the size of the public sector, terrorism, and more recently, the Republic's regime of stamp duty on newly acquired property. It usually features articles by Alan Ruddock, Jody Corcoran, Brendan O'Connor
, Anne Harris and, a more recent addition, economist Marc Coleman
. Editor Aengus Fanning
and Deputy Editor Willie Kealy also sometimes write here. The
Sunday Independent is quite hostile to the Irish Labour Party
and social democratic policies; in
the early 1990s, the paper singled out Labour politicians Mary Robinson
(then serving as
President of Ireland
), Dick Spring
and Michael D. Higgins
for intense criticism.
The Sunday Independent also took a negative tone towards rival media outlets RTÉ
and the Irish Times, objecting to perceived left-wing and pro-nationalist
bias in these organisations.
The Sunday Independent's editorials have come out strongly against Martin McGuinness
' campaign to become
President of Ireland
, claiming McGuiness' IRA past makes him unsuitable for the role:
"Those who contemplate voting for...McGuinness should ask if, within the context of the murders committed by the IRA on our security forces, they are prepared to force our soldiers and gardai to salute President McGuinness with equally heavy hearts.".
after he had fled Ireland following the revelation of his affair with Annie Murphy. However it was later revealed
that Casey had refused to speak to the Sunday Independent and the "interview" was in fact a telephone recording
of Casey speaking to a friend. The Sunday Independent later apologised for this incident, stating
"We are not satisfied the bishop was interviewed in any normal sense of
the word".
, a fashion journalist and estranged wife of former Chief Justice of Ireland
, Ronan Keane
. It was frequently the subject of successful libel actions by persons angered by accusations therein.
In it there were often hints of a relationship with a prominent political figure, named in the column as Sweetie. In 1999, it was revealed by Keane on the RTÉ One
programme, The Late Late Show
, that the figure had been the former Taoiseach
, Charles Haughey
. Keane gave the story as an exclusive to rival newspaper The Sunday Times
, while still employed by Independent News and Media. She abruptly left the newspaper (amid much recriminations) and her column continued as Not The Keane Edge, soon renamed The Double Edge.
, a columnist with the newspaper, caused much controversy when she attacked the Paralympic Games
as being "perverse", in an article of 22 October 2000. This became the subject of much public debate and lead to the columnist being criticised in the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament). Initially, the editor, Aengus Fanning
, defended the columnist, however he eventually issued an apology, after the then health boards threatened to withdraw advertising from the newspaper. Synon has not written for the newspaper since, although it was denied that she had been dismissed from the newspaper.
appearance on the RTÉ One
show Open House
. They occasionally featured as a fantasy figure for fictional Sunday Tribune
character Ross O'Carroll-Kelly
.
was killed in a road traffic accident in the Khimki
district of Moscow
during the early hours of Saturday morning. His driver was also killed in the accident, and a female passenger in the back seat of the car was slightly injured. The Sunday Independent edition of 23 October published a story on its front page, written by Ciarán Byrne, Jody Corcoran and Nick Paton Walsh
, claiming that Lawlor's car had been travelling "from a red-light district
" of Moscow and that police had claimed that the female passenger was a teenage girl who police claimed was "likely to be a prostitute". Reports later during Sunday revealed that the female passenger was actually a 32-year-old Ukrainian
national who worked in Prague
as a legal secretary and interpreter and who had worked in that role for Lawlor before during previous business trips to Russia. As the furore over the accuracy of the article continued on the Sunday, the article disappeared from the front page of the newspaper's website (although it could still be accessed by specifying its URL
), and the PDF copy of the front page of the newspaper (usually available on the website) was also taken down.
On Monday 24 October, the managing director of Independent Newspapers, Michael Denieffe, admitted in an interview on RTÉ Radio 1
's lunchtime news programme, News at One
, that the report had been "inaccurate" and apologised to the Lawlor family for the distress caused. The original article had by this point disappeared from the website entirely, and the PDF copy of the front page had reappeared on the website with the offending article blanked out. Later that afternoon, the editor of the Sunday Independent, Aengus Fanning, also apologised to the Lawlor family and said that he "took full responsibility" for the inaccurate report. There had been considerable outrage about the report during the day, with calls being made on phone-in radio programmes for a boycott
of the newspaper unless the editor and others responsible for the report resigned or were sacked.
On Tuesday 25 October, The Observer
, whose Moscow correspondent Nick Paton Walsh
had been one of those bylined in the original story, issued a statement acknowledging that there had been "serious discrepancies" in the article it had published (also claiming that the woman concerned was a prostitute), apologised for the distress caused, and removed the article from its website. In addition, Paton Walsh stated that he had had "no hand" in the drafting of the Sunday Independent article. Paton Walsh said that "an editor" in the Sunday Independent had contacted him on the Saturday seeking help to confirm reports that Mr Lawlor had died. Paton Walsh said that he had spoken with an official police spokesperson and relayed only the contents of three conversations with this same person to their newsdesk, saying that he had stressed that it was "only a possibility the girl was a prostitute".
It was reported on Wednesday 26 October that the interpreter, Julia Kushnir, was seeking apologies from those newspapers who had published erroneous reports that she was a prostitute, and that she was likely to sue for damages if the newspapers did not comply.
The controversy sparked a debate over press standards in Ireland, with the Labour Party Senator Kathleen O'Meara
calling for the establishment of a Press Council to monitor standards in the print media. The then Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell
, stated that the print media coverage of Mr Lawlor's death was "grossly offensive, cruel and lacking in foundation and fact", and that defamation was not enough to deal with this kind of posthumous coverage. He said that legislation was being drafted to establish an appropriate press complaints council.
On 10 June 2006, the Irish Times reported that Kushnir was to sue the Observer, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday World, the Irish Sunday Mirror, and the Irish Independent over the erroneous claim that she was a prostitute. On 6 November 2007, the four Irish newspapers agreed to pay Kushnir libel damages totalling €500,000 before libel proceedings began in the Irish High Court and lawyers for the four newspapers apologised in court for the offence caused. The Observer newspaper had earlier settled its libel action for approximately €100,000.
over allegations that Finucane was a volunteer in the Provisional IRA. Finucane was a solicitor who came to prominence due to successfully challenging the British Government over several important human rights cases in the 1980s. He was shot fourteen times as he sat eating a meal at his Belfast
home with his three children and wife, who was wounded in the attack. His killer was a member of the UDA
and an informer called Ken Barrett. The Stevens Report
found that Pat Finucane was never a member of the Provisional IRA and that his death was the result of collusion between the UDA
and members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary
. The paper was sued by relatives of Finucane over comments made by their security correspondent Jim Cusack, and over an opinion piece written by the Unionist
writer, Ruth Dudley Edwards who claimed that various “relatives, friends, associates and clients” of the Finucane had killed people. The paper was forced print an apology to the family of Finucane. The political magazine, the Phoenix
estimated that the libel action costed the Sunday Independent €500,000 in damages and legal costs
during the Irish general election, 2007 and continued to support him during his appearances before the Mahon Tribunal. Columnists Eoghan Harris
and Brendan O'Connor
have been particularly strong in supporting Ahern. In August 2007 Harris was appointed to Seanad Éireann
by Ahern. At the same time as supporting Ahern, the newspaper has been strongly critical of Taoiseach
, Brian Cowen
. Several front page articles, written by Jody Corcoran and Daniel McConnell, have accused him of mishandling the economy since the May 2007 election. According to McConnell's recent articles, Cowen has refused repeatedly to deal with Sunday Independent information requests.
Eoghan Harris
Marc Coleman
Jody Corcoran
Brendan O'Connor
Daniel McConnell
Liam Collins
Aengus Fanning
Ronald Quinlan
Shane Ross
Nick Webb
George Hook
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
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...
published in 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,...
by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning
Aengus Fanning
Aengus Fanning is an Irish journalist and former editor of farming of the Irish Independent. Originally from Tralee in County Kerry, he has been the editor of the Sunday Independent since...
, and is the biggest selling Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
Sunday newspaper by a large margin (29.2% of Irish Sunday newspaper readers, according to the Joint National Readership Survey); average circulation
Newspaper circulation
A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. Circulation is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost to the...
of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It is now owned by businessman Anthony O'Reilly
Tony O'Reilly
Sir Anthony Joseph Francis O'Reilly is an Irish businessman and former international rugby union player. He is known for his involvement the Independent News & Media Group, which he led from 1973 to 2009, and as former CEO and Chairman of the H.J. Heinz Company. He was the leading shareholder of...
, and is part of a worldwide newspaper group.
History
The Sunday Independent was first published in 1905 as the Sunday edition of the Irish Independent. Likeits daily counterpart, the Sunday Independent supported Cumann na nGaedheal and its successor Fine Gael
Fine Gael
Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
.
From the 1940s until 1970, the paper was run by Hector Legge (1901-1994). Legge's time at the paper was notable
for the Sunday Independent in 1948 leaking the news that the Irish government were going to leave the
British Commonwealth by repealing the
External Relations Act. Legge also published a series of articles by the writer
Frank O'Connor
Frank O'Connor
Frank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...
(under the pseudonym "Ben Mayo") in the paper.
In the 1970s, under the editorship of Conor O'Brien, the Sunday Independent
became known for a series of investigations by journalist Joe MacAnthony into
the activities of the Irish Sweepstakes
Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake
The Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake was a lottery established in the Irish Free State in 1930 as the Irish Free State Hospitals' Sweepstake to finance hospitals, and is often referred to as the Irish Sweepstake...
.
O'Brien was succeeded as editor in 1976 by Michael Hand.
Aengus Fanning became editor following Hand's departure in 1984.
Content
The newspaper is a general Sunday newspaper, covering news and politics. It is published in five sections: News, Sport, Business, Property, and Living, as well as a magazine section. In terms of news, while the newspaper maintains a broadsheet outlook, it has come in for much criticism lately due to its increasing emphasis on lifestyle features in the main section. It has also been criticised for regularly tending towards sensationalism, and for the often opinion-focused, rather than news-focused nature of its articles.It is probably better described as a middle-of-the-road newspaper, rather than a newspaper of record
Newspaper of record
Newspaper of record is a term that may refer either to any publicly available newspaper that has been authorized by a government to publish public or legal notices , or any major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and...
. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Deputy Editor was Anne Harris.
.
The Sunday Independent has become one of the most controversial publications in Ireland; an article in
Magill
Magill
Magill was an Irish politics and current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne and others in 1977. Magill was widely perceived as groundbreaking, specialising in in-depth investigative articles and colourful reportage by journalists such as Eamonn McCann and Gene Kerrigan...
magazine about the newspaper stated "Its critics have characterised it as nasty and narcissitic,its supporters as lively and libidinous, a tornado of fresh air in a stale and shrinking industry".
Noted for its trenchant support for Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
, and particularly Bertie Ahern
Bertie Ahern
Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008....
and latterly Brian Lenihan
Brian Lenihan
Brian Patrick Lenihan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, who served in a range of cabinet positions, most notably as Tánaiste , Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Justice....
, it usually contains articles focused that party and its policies, often at the expense of other political groups in the state. The Government's former Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea
Willie O'Dea
Willie O'Dea is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and a Teachta Dála for the Limerick City constituency. He served as the Minister for Defence from September 2004 until 18 February 2010, when he resigned from his post due to controversy over a defamation case.-Early and private life:O'Dea was born...
writes a weekly column for the newspaper. The former partner of Bertie Ahern, Celia Larkin
Celia Larkin
Celia Larkin is a former Irish civil servant and was the partner of then Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Their relationship ended in April 2003. Ahern is separated, though not divorced, from his wife. There was some controversy in the media at Ahern's public presentation of his partner...
has also started writing as a columnist for the newspaper following the closure of her beauty salon business.
Popularly nicknamed The Sindo, the paper has been a zealous critic of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
for many years. In the late 1980s and early
1990s, the Sunday Independent was reproachful toward SDLP politician John Hume
John Hume
John Hume is a former Irish politician from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble....
, whom the newspaper accused of being insufficiently attentive to the needs of the Ulster Unionists. Many of the Sunday Independent's
columnists also criticised Hume for negotiating with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...
, accusing Hume of being
naive about Adams.
Front page
The front page featured is not the typical format as usually the paper runs with a "bottomer", a satirical analysis of the issues of the day. The main splash story "Slim majority trusts Ahern on Sinn Féin" written by Willie Kealy. The Off-lead "No to Keane as manager" was written by Shane Hickey, Donal LynchDonal Lynch
Donal Lynch is an Irish journalist who has worked as a columnist for the Sunday Independent since 2002. The recipient of two press awards, he has also contributed to , The Boston Globe, , BBC Radio, The Belfast Telegraph and the Irish Independent...
and Ralph Riegel, the paper's Southern Correspondent.
The bottom piece about Ireland's oldest university Trinity College Dublin selling Masters Degrees to its graduates was written by Daniel McConnell. The edition's date is 20 November 2005.
Editorial
The Editorial policy of the Sunday Independent can be described as support for Laissez-faireLaissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
policies in economics and strong opposition to armed republicanism
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
; some have described the newspaper's policies as those of the New Right
New Right
New Right is used in several countries as a descriptive term for various policies or groups that are right-wing. It has also been used to describe the emergence of Eastern European parties after the collapse of communism.-Australia:...
.
It was strongly supportive of the Progressive Democrats and in favour of income tax reduction and the rolling back of the state. Major issues often include big government, the size of the public sector, terrorism, and more recently, the Republic's regime of stamp duty on newly acquired property. It usually features articles by Alan Ruddock, Jody Corcoran, Brendan O'Connor
Brendan O'Connor (journalist)
Brendan O'Connor is an Irish journalist, comedian, media personality and retired pop star. Since 2010 he has presented The Saturday Night Show on RTÉ One. O'Connor is a columnist for the Sunday Independent, and is editor of the newspaper's Life Magazine.O'Connor's pop career has included a stint...
, Anne Harris and, a more recent addition, economist Marc Coleman
Marc Coleman
Marc Coleman is Economics Editor of Newstalk 106 to 108 and an economic commentator.Marc Coleman was born in Dublin but lived as a child in Erlangen, Bavaria before returning to Ireland in the mid-1970s. He was a member of Fine Gael in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Coleman became Newstalk's...
. Editor Aengus Fanning
Aengus Fanning
Aengus Fanning is an Irish journalist and former editor of farming of the Irish Independent. Originally from Tralee in County Kerry, he has been the editor of the Sunday Independent since...
and Deputy Editor Willie Kealy also sometimes write here. The
Sunday Independent is quite hostile to the Irish Labour Party
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...
and social democratic policies; in
the early 1990s, the paper singled out Labour politicians Mary Robinson
Mary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...
(then serving as
President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
), Dick Spring
Dick Spring
Richard "Dick" Spring is an Irish businessman and former politician. He was first elected as a Labour Party Teachta Dála in 1981 and retained his seat until 2002. He became leader of the Labour Party in 1982, and held this position until 1997...
and Michael D. Higgins
Michael D. Higgins
Michael Daniel Higgins is the ninth and current President of Ireland, having taken office on 11 November 2011 following victory in the 2011 Irish presidential election. Higgins is an Irish politician, poet, sociologist, author and broadcaster. Higgins was President of the Labour Party until his...
for intense criticism.
The Sunday Independent also took a negative tone towards rival media outlets RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
and the Irish Times, objecting to perceived left-wing and pro-nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
bias in these organisations.
The Sunday Independent's editorials have come out strongly against Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....
' campaign to become
President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
, claiming McGuiness' IRA past makes him unsuitable for the role:
"Those who contemplate voting for...McGuinness should ask if, within the context of the murders committed by the IRA on our security forces, they are prepared to force our soldiers and gardai to salute President McGuinness with equally heavy hearts.".
Bishop Casey controversy
In 1993, the Sunday Independent advertised what was claimed as a "world exclusive" interview with Bishop Eamon CaseyEamon Casey
Eamon Casey is Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus of Galway and Kilmacduagh, Ireland.-Priest and bishop:...
after he had fled Ireland following the revelation of his affair with Annie Murphy. However it was later revealed
that Casey had refused to speak to the Sunday Independent and the "interview" was in fact a telephone recording
of Casey speaking to a friend. The Sunday Independent later apologised for this incident, stating
"We are not satisfied the bishop was interviewed in any normal sense of
the word".
The Keane Edge
The Keane Edge was a gossip column written by Terry KeaneTerry Keane
Terry Keane was an Irish columnist and fashion journalist.Born as Ann Teresa O'Donnell in Guildford, Surrey, UK in 1939, Keane studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin but dropped out without obtaining a degree. She spent the majority of her career working for the Irish newspaper, the Sunday...
, a fashion journalist and estranged wife of former Chief Justice of Ireland
Chief Justice of Ireland
The Chief Justice of Ireland is the president of the Supreme Court of Ireland.Under Constitution of Ireland, the Chief Justice of Ireland also occupies several positions ex officio, these include;* A possible judge of the High Court....
, Ronan Keane
Ronan Keane
The Hon. Ronan Keane , S.C., was Chief Justice of Ireland from 2000 to 2004. Keane was educated at Blackrock College, Dublin, and graduated from University College Dublin in 1953 with a BA in Modern History. He was called to the Bar in 1954 and became a Senior Counsel in 1970. He was appointed...
. It was frequently the subject of successful libel actions by persons angered by accusations therein.
In it there were often hints of a relationship with a prominent political figure, named in the column as Sweetie. In 1999, it was revealed by Keane on the RTÉ One
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...
programme, The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show, sometimes referred to as The Late Late, or in some cases by the acronym LLS, is the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster and the official flagship television programme of Irish broadcasting company RTÉ...
, that the figure had been the former Taoiseach
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...
, Charles Haughey
Charles Haughey
Charles James "Charlie" Haughey was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving three terms in office . He was also the fourth leader of Fianna Fáil...
. Keane gave the story as an exclusive to rival newspaper The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, while still employed by Independent News and Media. She abruptly left the newspaper (amid much recriminations) and her column continued as Not The Keane Edge, soon renamed The Double Edge.
Mary Ellen Synon controversy
Mary Ellen SynonMary Ellen Synon
Mary Ellen Synon is an Irish-American journalist currently based in Brussels. She is a columnist with the Mail on Sunday and a contributor to the Daily Mail in Britain and the Irish Daily Mail, as well as the Irish weekly, The Sunday Business Post. She writes a blog - titled "Euroseptic" - for the...
, a columnist with the newspaper, caused much controversy when she attacked the Paralympic Games
Paralympic Games
The Paralympic Games are a major international multi-sport event where athletes with a physical disability compete; this includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately following their...
as being "perverse", in an article of 22 October 2000. This became the subject of much public debate and lead to the columnist being criticised in the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament). Initially, the editor, Aengus Fanning
Aengus Fanning
Aengus Fanning is an Irish journalist and former editor of farming of the Irish Independent. Originally from Tralee in County Kerry, he has been the editor of the Sunday Independent since...
, defended the columnist, however he eventually issued an apology, after the then health boards threatened to withdraw advertising from the newspaper. Synon has not written for the newspaper since, although it was denied that she had been dismissed from the newspaper.
The 03 team
The 03 (later 04) team were a group of young female journalists who appeared in the Sunday Independent during 2003 and early 2004. The articles, originally appearing in the Living supplement but soon promoted to the main section, comprised the various members of the team writing usually very poor quality short articles on a common subject. However they were usually accompanied by a large colour group photo of the team posing scantily clad and very occasionally topless. Eventually the feature was dropped, but not before the team had made a televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
appearance on the RTÉ One
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...
show Open House
Open House (Ireland)
Open House is an Irish afternoon television show broadcast on RTÉ One between 1998 and 2003. The last episode was broadcast in 2004. It was presented by Mary Kennedy and Marty Whelan and focused on lifestyle, cookery and human interest issues. Presenters included Dermot O'Neill, the popular...
. They occasionally featured as a fantasy figure for fictional Sunday Tribune
Sunday Tribune
The Sunday Tribune was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to tabloid. Former editors include Conor Brady, Vincent Browne,...
character Ross O'Carroll-Kelly
Ross O'Carroll-Kelly
Ross O'Carroll-Kelly is a fictional wealthy "D4" rugby union player created by journalist Paul Howard.The character first appeared in a January 1998 column in the Sunday Tribune newspaper and later transferred to The Irish Times...
.
Death of Liam Lawlor
On 22 October 2005, the controversial Irish politician Liam LawlorLiam Lawlor
Liam Aloysius Lawlor was an Irish politician who resigned from the Fianna Fáil political party following a finding by a Party standards committee that he had failed to co-operate with its investigation into planning irregularities, and subsequently came into conflict with the Mahon Tribunal.-Early...
was killed in a road traffic accident in the Khimki
Khimki
Khimki is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, situated just northwest of Moscow, at the west bank of the Moscow Canal. Population: 207,125 ; 141,000 ; 106,000 ; 23,000 .-History:...
district of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
during the early hours of Saturday morning. His driver was also killed in the accident, and a female passenger in the back seat of the car was slightly injured. The Sunday Independent edition of 23 October published a story on its front page, written by Ciarán Byrne, Jody Corcoran and Nick Paton Walsh
Nick Paton Walsh
Nick Paton Walsh , is an award-winning British journalist, who is an international correspondent with CNN, currently serving as their Kabul Correspondent. He has been an Asia and foreign affairs correspondent for the UK's Channel Four News, and Moscow correspondent for The Guardian newspaper. He is...
, claiming that Lawlor's car had been travelling "from a red-light district
Red-light district
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...
" of Moscow and that police had claimed that the female passenger was a teenage girl who police claimed was "likely to be a prostitute". Reports later during Sunday revealed that the female passenger was actually a 32-year-old Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
national who worked in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
as a legal secretary and interpreter and who had worked in that role for Lawlor before during previous business trips to Russia. As the furore over the accuracy of the article continued on the Sunday, the article disappeared from the front page of the newspaper's website (although it could still be accessed by specifying its URL
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
), and the PDF copy of the front page of the newspaper (usually available on the website) was also taken down.
On Monday 24 October, the managing director of Independent Newspapers, Michael Denieffe, admitted in an interview on RTÉ Radio 1
RTÉ Radio 1
RTÉ Radio 1 is the principal radio channel of Irish public-service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926...
's lunchtime news programme, News at One
RTÉ News at One
RTÉ News at One is a news and current affairs programme broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. It airs Monday to Friday for 45 minutes at 13:00.The programme is presented by Sean O'Rourke. Dr Gavin Jennings presents on an intermittent basis....
, that the report had been "inaccurate" and apologised to the Lawlor family for the distress caused. The original article had by this point disappeared from the website entirely, and the PDF copy of the front page had reappeared on the website with the offending article blanked out. Later that afternoon, the editor of the Sunday Independent, Aengus Fanning, also apologised to the Lawlor family and said that he "took full responsibility" for the inaccurate report. There had been considerable outrage about the report during the day, with calls being made on phone-in radio programmes for a boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of the newspaper unless the editor and others responsible for the report resigned or were sacked.
On Tuesday 25 October, The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, whose Moscow correspondent Nick Paton Walsh
Nick Paton Walsh
Nick Paton Walsh , is an award-winning British journalist, who is an international correspondent with CNN, currently serving as their Kabul Correspondent. He has been an Asia and foreign affairs correspondent for the UK's Channel Four News, and Moscow correspondent for The Guardian newspaper. He is...
had been one of those bylined in the original story, issued a statement acknowledging that there had been "serious discrepancies" in the article it had published (also claiming that the woman concerned was a prostitute), apologised for the distress caused, and removed the article from its website. In addition, Paton Walsh stated that he had had "no hand" in the drafting of the Sunday Independent article. Paton Walsh said that "an editor" in the Sunday Independent had contacted him on the Saturday seeking help to confirm reports that Mr Lawlor had died. Paton Walsh said that he had spoken with an official police spokesperson and relayed only the contents of three conversations with this same person to their newsdesk, saying that he had stressed that it was "only a possibility the girl was a prostitute".
It was reported on Wednesday 26 October that the interpreter, Julia Kushnir, was seeking apologies from those newspapers who had published erroneous reports that she was a prostitute, and that she was likely to sue for damages if the newspapers did not comply.
The controversy sparked a debate over press standards in Ireland, with the Labour Party Senator Kathleen O'Meara
Kathleen O'Meara
Kathleen O'Meara is an Irish politician and member of the 21st and 22nd Seanads for the Labour Party in Ireland. On both occasions she was elected by the Agricultural Panel....
calling for the establishment of a Press Council to monitor standards in the print media. The then Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell is a Senior Counsel in the Bar Council of Ireland and a former politician. A grandson of Irish revolutionary Eoin MacNeill, McDowell was a founding member of the Progressive Democrats political party in the mid-1980s...
, stated that the print media coverage of Mr Lawlor's death was "grossly offensive, cruel and lacking in foundation and fact", and that defamation was not enough to deal with this kind of posthumous coverage. He said that legislation was being drafted to establish an appropriate press complaints council.
On 10 June 2006, the Irish Times reported that Kushnir was to sue the Observer, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday World, the Irish Sunday Mirror, and the Irish Independent over the erroneous claim that she was a prostitute. On 6 November 2007, the four Irish newspapers agreed to pay Kushnir libel damages totalling €500,000 before libel proceedings began in the Irish High Court and lawyers for the four newspapers apologised in court for the offence caused. The Observer newspaper had earlier settled its libel action for approximately €100,000.
Death of Sgt. Tania Corcoran
The Sunday Independent sparked another furore in March 2007 when the newspaper featured a front page report of the death in childbirth of Garda Sergeant Tania Corcoran. A headline noted that Sgt Corcoran was the wife of the ERU Garda who had fired a fatal shot in the Abbeylara siege, incensing friends and relatives of the couple.Pat Finucane controversy
The newspaper was sued by relatives of the murdered solicitor Pat FinucanePat Finucane (solicitor)
Patrick Finucane was a Catholic Belfast solicitor killed by loyalist paramilitaries on 12 February 1989. His killing was one of the most controversial during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Finucane came to prominence due to successfully challenging the British Government over several important...
over allegations that Finucane was a volunteer in the Provisional IRA. Finucane was a solicitor who came to prominence due to successfully challenging the British Government over several important human rights cases in the 1980s. He was shot fourteen times as he sat eating a meal at his Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
home with his three children and wife, who was wounded in the attack. His killer was a member of the UDA
Uda
Uda can refer to:*Emperor Uda, Emperor of Japan*Uda, Nara, a city in Japan*Uda, a Japanese name*Shintaro Uda, inventor of the Yagi-Uda antenna*Uda , a breed of domestic sheep*Uda, a commune in Argeş County, Romania...
and an informer called Ken Barrett. The Stevens Report
Stevens Report
The Stevens Inquiries were three official British government inquiries led by Sir John Stevens concerning collusion in Northern Ireland between loyalist paramilitaries and the state security forces...
found that Pat Finucane was never a member of the Provisional IRA and that his death was the result of collusion between the UDA
Uda
Uda can refer to:*Emperor Uda, Emperor of Japan*Uda, Nara, a city in Japan*Uda, a Japanese name*Shintaro Uda, inventor of the Yagi-Uda antenna*Uda , a breed of domestic sheep*Uda, a commune in Argeş County, Romania...
and members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
. The paper was sued by relatives of Finucane over comments made by their security correspondent Jim Cusack, and over an opinion piece written by the Unionist
Unionist
-United Kingdom:In the United Kingdom, British unionists are those people and political organisations who wish their area to remain or become part of the United Kingdom...
writer, Ruth Dudley Edwards who claimed that various “relatives, friends, associates and clients” of the Finucane had killed people. The paper was forced print an apology to the family of Finucane. The political magazine, the Phoenix
The Phoenix (magazine)
The Phoenix is Ireland's best selling political and current affairs magazine. Inspired by the British magazine Private Eye, and a source of investigative journalism in Ireland...
estimated that the libel action costed the Sunday Independent €500,000 in damages and legal costs
Supporting Bertie Ahern
The newspaper strongly supported Bertie AhernBertie Ahern
Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008....
during the Irish general election, 2007 and continued to support him during his appearances before the Mahon Tribunal. Columnists Eoghan Harris
Eoghan Harris
Eoghan Harris is an Irish journalist, fiction writer, director, columnist and politician. He currently writes for the Sunday Independent. He was a member of Seanad Éireann from 2007–11, having been nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern....
and Brendan O'Connor
Brendan O'Connor (journalist)
Brendan O'Connor is an Irish journalist, comedian, media personality and retired pop star. Since 2010 he has presented The Saturday Night Show on RTÉ One. O'Connor is a columnist for the Sunday Independent, and is editor of the newspaper's Life Magazine.O'Connor's pop career has included a stint...
have been particularly strong in supporting Ahern. In August 2007 Harris was appointed to Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas , which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann . It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members Senators or Seanadóirí . Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by...
by Ahern. At the same time as supporting Ahern, the newspaper has been strongly critical of Taoiseach
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...
, Brian Cowen
Brian Cowen
Brian Cowen is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 7 May 2008 to 9 March 2011. He was head of a coalition government led by Fianna Fáil which until 23 January 2011 had the support of the Green Party and independent TDs.Cowen was also leader of Fianna Fáil from 7 May...
. Several front page articles, written by Jody Corcoran and Daniel McConnell, have accused him of mishandling the economy since the May 2007 election. According to McConnell's recent articles, Cowen has refused repeatedly to deal with Sunday Independent information requests.
Main writers in the Sunday Independent
Gene KerriganGene Kerrigan
Gene Kerrigan is an Irish journalist and novelist who grew up in Cabra in Dublin. His works include political commentary on Ireland since the 1970s in such publications as Magill magazine and the Sunday Independent newspaper. He has also written about Ireland for International Socialism magazine...
Eoghan Harris
Eoghan Harris
Eoghan Harris is an Irish journalist, fiction writer, director, columnist and politician. He currently writes for the Sunday Independent. He was a member of Seanad Éireann from 2007–11, having been nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern....
Marc Coleman
Marc Coleman
Marc Coleman is Economics Editor of Newstalk 106 to 108 and an economic commentator.Marc Coleman was born in Dublin but lived as a child in Erlangen, Bavaria before returning to Ireland in the mid-1970s. He was a member of Fine Gael in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Coleman became Newstalk's...
Jody Corcoran
Brendan O'Connor
Brendan O'Connor
Brendan Patrick O'Connor , Australian politician, has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since November 2001, representing the Division of Burke, Victoria 2001–04 and the Division of Gorton since October 2004...
Daniel McConnell
Daniel McConnell
Daniel McConnell is a former member of the West Coast Eagles Australian Football League club. He was taken at pick 26 in the 2003 AFL draft by the West Coast Eagles, a second round selection....
Liam Collins
Aengus Fanning
Aengus Fanning
Aengus Fanning is an Irish journalist and former editor of farming of the Irish Independent. Originally from Tralee in County Kerry, he has been the editor of the Sunday Independent since...
Ronald Quinlan
Shane Ross
Shane Ross
Shane Peter Nathaniel Ross is an independent Irish politician and Business Editor of the Sunday Independent. He was the longest-serving member of Seanad Éireann , until he was elected to Dáil Éireann for the constituency of Dublin South at the 2011 general election.-Early life and career:Born in...
Nick Webb
Nick Webb (journalist)
Nick Webb Irish journalist of the year , business journalist of the year , Smurfit Business school specialist reporter of the year...
George Hook
George Hook
George Hook is an Irish broadcaster, journalist and rugby union pundit. He had a career as a rugby union coach and businessman, before becoming a rugby pundit with Raidió Teilifís Éireann...