LAST week the Sunday World ran a story about Michael Lowry's alleged extramarital affair. It looked just like those stories the British tabloids have been publishing for years and which we in Ireland read, but smugly assumed would never run in our newspapers.

One political reporter said on radio last weekend that the decision of the Sunday World's editor, Mr Colm McGinty, to run the story meant the Irish media had "crossed the Rubicon". But had we not crossed it five years ago when the private life of Bishop Eamonn Casey was splashed across the newspapers? Or when Emmet Stagg's private life was exposed? Or on the number of occasions when the affair between the singer Chris De Burgh and his children's nanny became front page news?

Each one of those stories can, and has, been defended with varying degrees of plausibility. The Bishop Casey story was arguably about public money and accountability. The Emmet Stagg story could be justified by virtue of the involvement, however marginally, of the gardai; Chris De Burgh because he had the image of a family man and had even written a song in praise of his wife.

The Sunday World editor told The Irish Times that he did not believe there was a major change in Irish newspapers, or the floodgates were about to open. There was no way the exposure of the private life of a little known backbencher could be justified he said.

The Lowry story was in the public interest, he argued. The former minister had set himself up as opposing sleaze and corruption in public life. It was then reported that he had accepted money from Ben Dunne to build an extension to his house. Then the Sunday World had learnt he had been having an affair and travelled to Spain to stay in a hotel, while a Government Minister, with another woman. He signed the register as Mr and Mrs Lowry.

He had been given every opportunity to comment and was asked for a statement that would be used sympathetically, said Mr McGinty. He, chose not to comment.

Mr Paddy Clancy of the Irish edition of the Sun praises Mr McGinty and the Sunday World.

The Lowry story was a spin off from a growing amount of investigative journalism that followed the murder of Veronica Guerin. Once Mr Lowry became a major news story and the centre of the payment to politicians story, it was only a matter of time, said Mr Clancy.

Mr John Horgan is a former journalist, former TD and now a senior lecturer in journalism at Dublin City University. He was also a member of the Newspaper Commission.

The Lowry story ran because the Irish newspaper industry has become fiercely competitive, he said. The justification for exposing Mr Lowry's private life was that he had become newsworthy in a different context. "In that case, all those with complicated private lives must now fear hitting the headlines for whatever reason."

Such stories will become more common, he predicted. It is not against the law and the public just "laps it up. I believe you could not find a Sunday World in Michael Lowry's constituency last Sunday." If we wanted to operate some sort of curb on that sort of journalism, Mr Horgan suggested, a press ombudsman and a voluntary code of practice should be established. This was recommended by the Commission on the Newspaper Industry last year.

The press officers of the political parties used to be confident that there was no interest in the private lives of TDs. Today they are not so sure.

Fianna Fail's press officer, Mr Marty Whelan, said there was a general unease about the story around Leinster House, but he would wait and see if this was the start of a trend.

THERE is now a greater willingness to report stories concerning people's private lives. It might as some maintain, be due to a growing tabloid culture in Ireland, because of the pressures' from British imports. It might be because TDs are not held in particularly high regard and loyalty to received political ideas and parties is dying.

Newspapers have long been testing the water, dipping a toe with innuendo in a growing number of gossip columns.

However, it is not as if politicians behaving badly was something new to Us. It is the reporting of their behaviour that is new.

Gossip and rumour have long been part of Irish life. The private lives of TDs and Ministers, including Mr Lowry, have been the stuff of gossip in bars all over the country.

A number of factors ensured that those rum ours never got into the press: the attitude of the Catholic Church, censorship, and a belief that newspapers would not benefit from disclosure.

Things are changing. The State, by changing laws on issues such as family planning, has got out of the bed room, ironically as the press has entered. The power of the church is waning and the sales of British tabloids clearly indicate Irish readers are no different from British.

Published rumours are very different from those whispered in pubs. Remember, it was not the fact that Parnell was living with and had a family by a divorcee that brought him down, that was well known. It was the reporting of the divorce action in the newspapers that brought an end to his political career.