 An Phoblacht front page from June 2014 | |
| Type | Monthly political newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Publisher | Parnell Publications |
| Editor | John Hedges |
| Founded | 13 December 1906(original) January 1970(current) |
| Political alignment | Irish republicanism Left-wing |
| Language | Irish English |
| Headquarters | Kevin Barry Memorial Hall, 44 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1, Ireland |
| Website | anphoblacht.com |
An Phoblacht (Irish pronunciation:[ənˠ ˈfˠɔbˠlˠəxt̪ˠ]; English:"The Republic") is aSinn Féin-affiliated[1] onlineIrish republican news platform which also publishes a quarterly[2] print magazine format. Editorially the paper takes aleft-wing position and was supportive of theNorthern Ireland peace process. Along with covering Irish political and trade union issues the newspaper frequently featured interviews with celebrities, musicians, artists, intellectuals and international activists.
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The originalAn Phoblacht was founded as the official organ of theDungannon Clubs in Belfast in 1906 and its first edition was printed on 13 December 1906 under the English-language version of the titleThe Republic.[citation needed] In the first edition,Bulmer Hobson, one of the founders of the Dungannon Clubs, set out their aims:
Ireland today claims her place among the free peoples of the Earth. She has never surrendered that claim, nor will ever she surrender it, and today forces are working in Ireland that will not be still until her claim is acknowledged and her voice heard in the councils of the nations.
A year later the paper merged with a Dublin publication calledThe Peasant. However, the titleAn Phoblacht was again used from 1925 withPatrick Little (P.J. Little) as its editor during a tumultuous period of internal splits and constant suppression by the government.[3] From 1925 into 1926,Seán Lemass wrote a number of articles advocating engagement in politics prior to the establishment ofFianna Fáil.Peadar O'Donnell took over as editor in April 1926 following a split in the Irish republican movement (Little became one of the founding members of Fianna Fáil).[4]Frank Ryan also edited the paper for some time; other prominent contributors during this time includedMaurice Twomey,Seán MacBride,Frank Gallagher (who became the first editor ofThe Irish Press),Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and FrMichael O'Flanagan. The title appeared again in 1966 as the paper of a smallIRA splinter group based in Cork.[5]
Its modern version was again refounded immediately following the Sinn Féin split byJimmy Steele in January 1970,An Phoblacht supporting the group led by Ruaírí O'Bradaigh that became theProvisional Irish Republican Army when the split with theOfficial Irish Republican Army occurred.
In 1970,An Phoblacht was at first circulated only in the South with another republican paper also established inNorthern Ireland in 1970,Republican News, under the editorship of veteran republican Jimmy Steele. It supported the campaign of theProvisional Irish Republican Army and published a weekly column titled "War News", which outlined IRA actions and conflict with theBritish Army, and provided in depth analysis of the policies being formulated by the Republican movement.An Phoblacht began with a circulation of 20,000 per month.
Located at 2a Lower Kevin Street inDublin's south inner city, it moved to the northside of the capital, toKevin Barry House, 44Parnell Square, in August 1972. And in that October it became a fortnightly publication under the editorship ofÉamonn MacThomáis, a writer and historian[6] who instituted changes in layout and general improvements so that it became a weekly publication. After 1976, the then Minister for Post and Telecommunications,Conor Cruise O'Brien, aLabour Party minister in theFine Gael/Labour coalition, strengthenedJack Lynch's original 1971 Section 31 censorship directive banning members of the IRA or its political wing Sinn Féin from the airwaves. However this ban did not extend to the print media. Section 31 produced a climate where many career journalists engaged inself-censorship to avoid official opprobrium.
An Phoblacht became more important in disseminating the republican message and highlighting what it saw as the naked state oppression by the Unionist Party and theRoyal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland. However, it was the southern Irish government which harassedAn Phoblacht most stridently, with regularGardaSpecial Branch investigations into the publication's links (both real and alleged) to the IRA. Mac Thomáis was arrested and charged with IRA membership and sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment having been found guilty of the offence. The paper continued under the stewardship of Dublin journalistDeasún Breathnach until Mac Thomáis resumed duties on his release in July 1974. Within two months, Mac Thomáis was again arrested and sentenced to another 15 months. Another editor,Coleman Moynihan, who had succeededSeán Ó Brádaigh in 1972, suffered a similar fate. The paper continued on with the succeeding editors being Gerry Danaher (1974–75), Gerry O'Hare (1975–77), and Deasún Breathnach (1977–79).
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The Republican Movement (Sinn Féin and the IRA) felt that a single paper for the whole of Ireland was required to provide a clear and coherent line from the leadership and to counter what they regarded as anypartitionist thinking which might flow from thePartition of Ireland. Accordingly, on 27 January 1979, the first 12-page issue of the merged publications, under the banner ofAn Phoblacht/Republican News (AP/RN), appeared under the editorship ofDanny Morrison.
In the final editorial ofRepublican News on 20 January 1979, the essential thinking behind the merger was outlined:"To improve on both our reporting and analysis of the war in the North and of popular economic and social struggles in the South... the absolute necessity of one single united paper providing a clear line of republican leadership... [and] the need to overcome any partitionist thinking which results from the British-enforced division of this country and of the Irish people."
On 12 May 1979An Phoblacht published extracts from a secret British Ministry of Defence intelligence document which contained a detailed analysis of theProvisional IRA and the situation in Northern Ireland. The document, written by Brigadier JM Glover, described the IRA as "highly-professional" and capable of sustaining their campaign for at least a further five years, and predicted increasing British military casualties. The publication caused considerable embarrassment to the incoming British Secretary of State for Northern IrelandHumphrey Atkins withDanny Morrison, the paper's editor, forced into hiding for several months. A representative of thePress Association who was passed a copy of the document by AP/RN was also issued an arrest warrant by the British authorities and fled to the United States in response.
During the 1980s An Phoblacht was to the fore in reporting many issues including allegations of abuse of prisoners in Castlereagh andGough Barracks, the H-Block and Armagh Prison hunger strikes and also coverage of the ongoing conflict inNorthern Ireland. Miniature versions of the paper which were about a third of the size were also printed and smuggled into prisoners inLong Kesh,Portlaoise, Armagh and other prisons. During the 1981 hunger strike sales of the newspaper reached up to 60,000 copies per-week and some issues quadrupled in size resulting in some editions running to 48 pages long. During this periodAn Phoblacht also opened another office based in west Belfast.
In October 1982 Morrison left the newspaper after being elected to the Northern Assembly for theMid-Ulster constituency. He was succeeded by Mick Timothy who expanded the newspaper from 12 to 16 pages. Timothy died suddenly in January 1985 and was replaced byRita O'Hare. The headquarters ofAn Phoblacht was subsequently named after Timothy. During this periodAn Phoblacht focused strongly on alleged collusion between the British security forces andloyalistparamilitaries such as theUVF. In response the paper came under attack from the UVF and other Loyalisthit squads.
In the 1980s, top Irish government officials questioned senior ministers as to why the paper had not been banned under the Offences Against the State Act 1939 and suggested that the publication could be classed a "treasonable document or seditious document" and thus make it illegal to send it through the post. The officials also suggested blocking the publication's application for official newspaper status. TheAttorney General at the time dismissed the move.[7] State papers also revealed that during a meeting on 10 January 1984, the BritishSecretary of State for Northern IrelandJim Prior and Irish Minister for JusticeMichael Noonan discussed the possibility of banning the publication but recognised that "if one title was stopped, the same paper could appear under a new title".[8]
In 1991 a group calling itself theLoyalist Retaliation and Defence Group launched a spate of attacks against newsagents who soldAn Phoblacht and also targeted AP/RN delivery drivers. On 10 August 1991, a 33-year-old shopkeeper (James Carson) was shot dead in his shop on the Falls Road, Belfast. This was followed by the shooting death of a 66-year-old shopkeeper (Lawrence Murchan) on St James's Road on 28 September 1991. Both were targeted for sellingAn Phoblacht in their newsagents.[9][10] On 12 December 1992 AP/RN worker Malachy Carey was shot dead by loyalist gunmen inBallymoney. In January 1991 theRUC also raided the offices ofAn Phoblacht in Belfast seizing computer equipment and disks.[11] Letter bombs were also frequently sent toAn Phoblacht by loyalist paramilitaries in the 1990s. In one incident on 4 January 1994 a bomb disguised as a book was carried outside of the offices by AP/RN book reviewerAengus Ó Snodaigh where it exploded a short time later, injuring two members of theIrish Defence Forces bomb disposal unit as they attempted to defuse it.[12] In January 2018, loyalistWinston Churchill Rea was charged with encouraging the murder of "persons working in shops selling An Phoblacht in republican and nationalist areas" between November 1977 and October 1994.[13]
During the early 1990s AP/RN was the publication which was first to report on many of the moves towards the IRA ceasefire as well as the first place where Sinn Féin peace documents such asTowards a Lasting Peace were published. The paper also played an important role in winning support for a peace strategy from republican activists. In 1997 the paper became one of the first in Ireland to go online.[citation needed]
The paper was officially relaunched in September 2005 asAn Phoblacht, dropping theRepublican News title although it is still often referred to as such.[citation needed] In 2010, the paper went from a 16-page weekly paper to a 32-page full colour monthly paper. The current editor is John Hedges. In 2013,Seán Crowe TD told the Dáil that republican prisoner John Anthony Downey, fromCounty Donegal, who had been arrested in connection to theHyde Park bombing and was being held inBelmarsh Prison, had been refused copies of the paper by prison authorities because of the Irish language content contained within it. He stated that other prisoners who spoke different languages had no difficulty in obtaining other publications.[14]
In November 2017 it was announced thatAn Phoblacht would cease as a monthly print publication and would become an internet based news service with only special editions being made available in magazine format.[15]
An Phoblacht also publishes books, booklets, posters and magazines under the nameRepublican Publications.These include:
