STAFF AT the Sunday Tribunewere shocked and disappointed last night at the news that the paper had been put into receivership.

Emerging from a meeting in the paper’s offices on Talbot Street in Dublin, staff said they had feared the day might come but had hoped it would not.

Established in 1980 by John Mulcahy and Hugh McLaughlin, the Sunday Tribunehas come close to collapse on two other occasions.

In 1982, it was dragged into receivership following the ill-fated launch of a sister title, the Daily News. In 1983, it was relaunched by current chairman Gordon Colleary and Vincent Browne.

A decade later, the decision again to launch a sister title, the Daily Tribune, again almost caused its demise. It was saved from bankruptcy by Independent News & Media, which took a 29.9 per cent stake in it.

Employees were told a decision on whether or not to publish this Sunday would be made in the next 24 hours, although there were sufficient funds to pay staff until the end of February.

Meanwhile, staff were expected to appear for work this morning and write stories for what may be a ghost newspaper.

One staff member said she believed if the paper did not come out next Sunday it would never come out again. Some journalists had already been offered jobs elsewhere, she said.

“I will be very surprised if it comes out this Sunday, it looks like curtains to me,” she said. “How they expect you to show up and work on your stories as though nothing has happened . . . I don’t know.”

Another reporter said they had all feared the day would come, but hoped it would not. “We are in limbo at the moment,” he said.

The meeting was described as “pretty bloody desperate” by another staff member, who stood with colleagues outside the building.

He said it wasn’t really much of a shock, but it was very hard for staff, particularly those who were there for many years.

Séamus Dooley, Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, described the announcement as “a bolt from the blue”. He said the union was “gravely disappointed” at the appointment of the receiver.

“There had been no prior warning of the threat to the newspaper,” he said.

Its financial position had been precarious for some time, Mr Dooley said, but staff had made a tremendous effort to revamp the paper, including accepting an 8 per cent pay cut.

He said he would be seeking a meeting with the receiver.