Although THE BELFAST NEWSLETTER was founded in 1737 and has been a daily paper since 1855, I can’t recall ever reading it. Nor hearing it quoted on the radio or seeing it quoted in any other papers. I can’t think of any writer whose fame extended beyond Belfast, who cut his literary teeth in its columns, or any public figure who bothered to sue it for libel, or any administration which harassed or suppressed it.
Perhaps it’s because I was born in “de Valera’s Ireland” described by the impartially observant David Trimble as “mono-cultural” quoted with the endorsement of Ben Lowry, Deputy Editor of the NEWSLETTER, whose “OPINION” in that paper was reprinted in THE IRISH TIMES on April 11.
I’m no John Keats, who, on first looking into Chapman’s Homer, was moved to praising Chapman in verse. Nor does reading Ben Lowry’s opinion move me to giving his paper a second look.
I was born in 1941 when de Valera was Taoiseach and Dubhghlas de hIde Uachtaran. The Uachtaran was fluent in French and German and Greek and Hebrew,Latin and English, as well as Irish. He was a practising Communicant of the Church of Ireland, in a country whose people were overwhelmingly members of the Church of Rome. De Valera’s newspaper, THE IRISH PRESS, although mainly written in English, also had pieces in Irish, as had the other Dublin dailies, even the Unionist Irish Times. Those citizens schooled since 1922 were to some extent familiar with Irish, and most of them, being Catholics, were not altogether ignorant of Latin. In that last respect they were in the European mainstream, for most Europeans of that time had been baptised by the Church of Rome.
I don’t know what languages, other than standard English, have graced or disgraced the pages of THE BELFAST NEWSLETTER since de Valera was elected for Clare in 1917.
Mr Lowry writes that “the legitimacy of the Rising has been challenged not just by revisionist writers such as Ruth Dudley Edwards and Kevin Myers but by Catholic critics such as David Quinn, John Larkin and Fr. Seamus Murphy, as well as a political moderate, David Ford.”
He goes on to state that “one of the most read recent stories on THE BELFAST NEWSLETTER website was the 3,500-word speech by John Bruton, who demolishes the idea that 1916 was a just war.” It would be interesting to know how far Mr Lowry’s paper has gone to give those who dispute, dent, or even demolish the arguments of his favourite polemicists any space in his paper or on its website.
Father Seamus Murphy SJ is an inventor of history rather than an informed commentator, for he states that Daniel O’Connell never shot anybody. I have seen no evidence that Patrick Pearse, Michael Collins or Eamon de Valera actually shot anyone. But it is a fact, acknowledged by O’Connell himself, that he shot John d’Esterre dead in 1815.
Mr Lowry’s “revisionist” authorities are considered “distortionist” by some of us.
The actual existence of the Newsletter is also a mystery to those knowledgeable in newspaper matters.
It has a paltry paid circulation, most copies being freely given out, and the advertising content over the course of a year would not pay production costs for one month.
So in who’s interest would this corpse be maintained as a living organ?
Would the DUP openly admit to being such benefactor for the reason that they think they need a means of getting out to the public their side of any story, even though the BelTel are running them a close second in the bigotry stakes, thanks to their Lurgan editor?
Hi Donal. The News letter, I believe is the newspaper of choice of the less well educated unionist. The perceived better read types will I understand indulge the Belfast telegraph. One thing I do know however, is that the former paper is the single most bigoted daily/weekly on this island, as it refuses ( by popular demand) to print a single word about the most followed sport in the north.
The Irish news however reports on hockey and rugby and I think that alone tells you a lot about NI.
Jude,
i am so glad you published O’Connell’s confession… and for the comparison with our Heros who were gunned down by a foreign firing squad with impunity, at the command of an equally foreign invader, a British Army Officer.
Informing the begrudgers, whose ignorance is bliss, on the language skills of Dubhglas de Hide Uachtarán, a practising C of E, .must have hit them in the crop…….or hopefully hard elsewhere..
We can proudly say , we had the best!!
DD
Being a unionist there’s a chance David Trimble was comparing the Republic with the U.K. and not just the six counties when he described it as monocultural.
The voters of Ireland chucked Douglas Hyde out as soon as they had the chance. He never won a vote and was opposed by the Catholic Truth Society because of his religious denomination. Not the best example of Irish cosmopolitanism.
Of course and how long was it before Belfast had even a Catholic Lord Mayor?
Dunno. But Belfast did have a Jewish Lord Mayor, Otto Jaffe, in the same decade that the Catholic clergy of Limerick had their pogrom. Is that worth a point in this “who’s the biggest bigot” game you’re playing?
Back of the net!!!!!!!
“The voters of Ireland chucked Douglas Hyde out as soon as they had the chance. He never won a vote and was opposed by the Catholic Truth Society because of his religious denomination. Not the best example of Irish cosmopolitanism.”
He was also expelled from the GAA for attending an international football match.
And the there’s the refusal of the Irish cabinet – including De Valera – to attend his heretical funeral. So Donal’s chosen example of Irish pluralism is a polyglot Protestant who gave his life to Gaelic revival and the service of the state and who was still, in the end, excluded and rejected because of his pluralism and his Church.
I had breakfast in an East Belfast cafe today so I thought I would peruse their choice of newspapers while awaiting my meal. Only the Newsletter and the Sun available so eeny meeny miney mo…Newsletter. Two page spread on how Arlene Iron Lady Foster slapped down Micheal Martin for his disgraceful comments criticising the government of “another country” followed by an Editorial on the same subject but looked like it came straight from the DUP or TUV press offices. Forced to share power with terrorists, the Irish government has no business poking their snouts in our affairs…how utterly depressing.
Though OTTO JAFFE had been over 60 years in Belfast and was a naturalised British
subject and committed Unionist he quit Belfast in his 70th year after being described as a German spy when the Lusitania was torpedoed. He died within about a year, in London and his wife was too ill to attend his funeral.
The Limerick boycott of Jews in 1904 was shameful. It was not a pogrom.Northern Unionists
should, surely. know the difference?
Ireland’s tiny Jewish community has served Ireland well in many fields.
About the time (1900) Belfast had its only Jewish Lord Mayor, Kilkenny had a Unionist Mayor without the need of a gerrymander or other skulduggery. When the only ever
Catholic US President visited Limerick he was welcomed by the Lord Mayor who was both female and Protestant. Cork has also had at least one Jewish Lord Mayor. And “de Valera’s
monocultural Ireland ”
has had two Protestant Presidents – one of whom couldn’t speak a word of Irish.
Incidentally John A Costello was Taoiseach when Douglas Hyde was buried.
The strongly republican poet Austin Clarke wrote about the non attendance
of the Taoiseach at the Church Service.
Sales declining by about 10% year on year. Readership dying out. Failing to make a successful transition online. Gone by the end of the decade.