THE LONDON-based Irish Postnewspaper is to apologise to President Michael D Higgins for its coverage of his visit to London last month, which has provoked widespread and continuing anger among Irish community organisations in Britain.
Publisher Elgin Loane yesterday told The Irish Timeshe "had concerns" about the coverage, which sharply criticised Mr Higgins for being silent on major issues of concern to the Irish living in Britain.
“We have the utmost respect for the President and he is a man of great dignity. We should not be in a position where our editorial is taking a different view,“ said Mr Loane, who bought the newspaper last September.
Editor Murray Morse, who was appointed just days before Mr Higgins’s visit began, said: “It certainly wasn’t the intention of the paper, or me, to offend the President, or to do anything that would undermine his position.
“If that is indeed what has happened, and it appears to be the case, then I am sorry for that,” he told The Irish Times.
Mr Morse is the former editor-in-chief of the Daily Sport and has also worked for the Daily Record, the Cambridge Evening News, the Sun and other titles, including the Belfast Telegraph. He said: “I will issue a full apology [in tomorrow’s edition] and write a letter of apology to that effect.”
The Irish Posthad been annoyed because it had tried to secure an exclusive interview with Mr Higgins and believed it would have an opportunity to interview him separately during his London visit – a version rejected by official Irish sources.
The fact such a meeting did not take place was “a missed opportunity” for the newspaper and for the President, Mr Morse went on.
Repeating that the paper had not intended to offend, Mr Morse said: “What we were drawing attention to was a sense of frustration that important questions that we had wanted answers to for four months had not been answered.”
Meanwhile, a series of community organisations signed a letter of protest condemning the Post before the apology was issued. In it, they accused the paper of “a disgraceful attack” upon Mr Higgins, saying the Irish community in Britain had been “deeply offended”.
"Your claim to be the voice of the Irish in Britain has some historic legitimacy. However the Irish Posthas no previous history of very low-grade tabloid journalism such as this, which has undermined this legitimacy," said the group.
