Newspaper and Periodical History Forum of Ireland
Sixth Conference, 8 - 9 November 2013
‘Blackguards, Muckrakers and Crusaders: Journalists in History’
Dublin City University
FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER
10:00 – 12.00
Oliver O’Hanlon
Chandra Clarke
Patrick Maume
Aoife Whelan
12:45 – 15:00
Eugenia Palmegiano
John Horgan
David Finkelstein
Ken Goldstein
15:30 – 17:00
James Kelly
Mary Harris
Sonya Perkins
17:00 – 18:00
Session 1
MUCKRACKERS AND THE PRESS
Henri Béraud: Blackguard, muckraker and crusader
Telling it the way she saw it: Almena Davis Lomax, journalist
D.P. Moran and The Leader
Paper, tobacco, food and whiskey: Breandán Ó hEithir and the
‘craft’ of journalism
SESSION 2
JOURNALISTS & PROPRIETORS
Looking within/looking without: Periodicals’ perceptions of
nineteenth-century British journalists
Editors: powerful or disposable? Louis MacRedmond and the
Irish Independent
‘A last hurrah’: The powers of the press as represented in
State of Play
George McCullagh: How Canada’s almost-forgotten newspaper
mogul altered the course of Canadian Journalism
SESSION 3
CRUSADERS AND THE PRESS
Matthew Carey and the Volunteer’s Journal
The significance of Eoin MacNeill’s contributions to the
Irish Volunteer
‘Morbid stories are not wanted’: Fr Senan Moynihan, editor of
The Capuchin Annual 1930‐54
Keynote Address: Martin Conboy, Professor of Journalism History,
Sheffield University
What crisis? This crisis! Definitions and perceptions of journalism:
historical contexts in contemporary debate
19:30 – Late
Conference Dinner
SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER
10:00 – 12.00
SESSION 4
1913 AND THE PRESS
Karen Steele
Personalising the news: Larkin, Murphy, and the Dublin Lockout
Padraig Yeates
The Lockout – A very British strike, a very Irish commemoration
Donal McCartney
William Martin Murphy: Politics and the press baron
13:00 – 14:00
Keynote Address: Pauric Travers, St Patrick’s College, Dublin
‘Crossing the line’: Arthur Lynch, Irish-Australian ‘war correspondent’,
and the Boer War
14:00 – 16:00
SESSION 5
JOURNALISM & THE PROVINCIAL PRESS
Mícheál Ó Fathartaig ‘The Connacht Sentinel’: T.J.W. Kenny on watch till death for
Galway’s sake
Des Marnane
‘The great Pashaw of the Crowbar Brigade’: Peter Gill, the Tipperary
Advocate and revisiting the past
Mark Wehrly
‘A pastime for heroes and career for performing gypsies’: The role of
journalists in the development of the game of golf in Ireland since 1880
Ciaran Bartlett
‘His corpse was mighty poor pickin’, Maglone’: The life and work of
R. A. Wilson aka Barney Maglone
16:00 – 16:30
AGM
Speakers’ Bios
Oliver O’Hanlon is a PhD student in the department of French, UCC where he is studying the links
between France and Ireland through the work of French journalists who wrote about Ireland in the 20th
century.
Chandra Clark is an assistant professor of speech in the department of English & Modern Languages at
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Florida. A former journalist, she is completing her PhD on the
journalist Almena Davis Lomax at Florida State University.
Patrick Maume has taught 19th and 20th century Irish history at UCD and QUB. He is a researcher with
the RIA’s ‘Dictionary of Irish Biography’ and has published numerous books.
Aoife Uí Fhaoláin is an IRC postgraduate scholar in the School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and
Linguistics at University College Dublin. She is currently completing her PhD on the portrayal of the ‘IrishIreland’ ideology in the Irish Independent’s Gaelic column.
Eugenia M. Palmegiano is professor emerita at Saint Peter’s University (New Jersey). Specializing in
the nineteenth-century British press, she has authored five books and co-edited another. A past
president of the American Journalism Historians Association, she currently serves on the editorial boards
of a number of scholarly journals.
John Horgan is professor emeritus of journalism at Dublin City University. He is Ireland’s Press
Ombudsman, the author of numerous biographies, and recently published an anthology of Irish
journalism titled ‘Great Irish Reportage’ (2013).
David Finkelstein is Dean of the School of Humanities at the University of Dundee. His publications
include ‘The House of Blackwood: Author-Publisher Relations in the Victorian Era’ (2002), the coauthored ‘An Introduction to Book History (2005) and the co-edited ‘Print Culture and the Blackwood
Tradition’ (2006).
Ken Goldstein is a former Associate Deputy Minister of Communications for the province of Manitoba,
Canada and holds an MSc in Journalism from Northwestern University, Illinois. In recent years he has
served on the boards of the Banff Television Festival and of the Media Awareness Network.
James Kelly is Cregan Professor of History, and head of the History department at St Patrick’s College.
Among his numerous publications are the co-edited volume ‘Clubs and Societies in eighteenth-century
Ireland’ (2010). His most recent publication ‘Death and Dying: essays in Irish, British and European
History’ (2013).
Mary Harris is senior lecturer in history at NUI Galway where teaches courses on early twentieth-century
political and cultural history. She is engaged currently in a research project on Eoin MacNeill, his various
ideological positions, political roles, his contributions to education and scholarship.
Sonya Perkins is the chief executive of ‘Irish Arts Review’ and former editor of ‘The World of Hibernia’.
She has recently completed an MPhil at Trinity College where her research focused on 20 th century Irish
periodicals, particularly the ‘Capuchin Annual’ between 1930 and 1954.
Martin Conboy is Professor of Journalism History at the University of Sheffield and is the author of
numerous books including ‘Journalism in Britain: A Historical Introduction’ (2011), ‘The Language of the
News’ (2007), ‘Tabloid Britain: Constructing a Community Through Language’ (2006), and ‘Journalism: A
Critical History’ (2004).
Karen Steele is a professor of English at Texas Christian University. She is the author of ‘Women,
Press, and Politics during the Irish Revival’ (2007) and editor of ‘Maud Gonne’s Irish Nationalist Writings,
1895-1946’ (2004). She is also co-editor of ‘Ireland and the New Journalism’ (forthcoming).
Padraig Yeates is a social and labour historian and the author of ‘Lockout: Dublin 1913’ (2000), the
standard work on the great labour dispute. He is also the author of a trilogy of books on the history of
Dublin, ‘A City in Wartime’, (2011), ‘A City in Turmoil’ (2012) and ‘A City in Revolution’ (forthcoming).
Donal McCartney is professor emeritus of modern history at University College Dublin. He is president
of the Parnell Society and co-editor of the recently published ‘Parnell Reconsidered’ (2013).
Pauric Travers is former President of St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra and chairman of the Parnell
Society. He is currently working on a history of conscription in the First World War and on a biography of
Colonel Arthur Lynch, Australian republican and writer.
Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh is a lecturer in modern history at Dublin Business School. His PhD, undertaken
at Trinity College, examined the semi-state sector and economic development in the Irish state and is
due to be published shortly.
Des Marnane is a member of the board of the National Library of Ireland. He is the author of guides to
Cashel, Tipperary historiography and Tipperary politics and is also a regular contributor to county
historical journal.
Mark Wehrly is a lecturer in journalism at Independent College, Dublin and has worked as a freelance
sub-editor for all the main national titles. His PhD, ‘Government by Journalism’ examined the newspaper
industry in Sligo between 1885 and 1927.
Ciarán Bartlett is a PhD candidate at the University of Ulster. His research, 'Reporting an age of change:
Newspaper journalism in nineteenth century Belfast', examines Irish press history during the years that
saw Belfast and Belfast-based media find its character amid socio-political and industrial upheaval.