THERE IS only a handful of national newspapers in the world which have survived to celebrate their 150th anniversary. We count ourselves lucky to be among them. The Irish Timeshas changed and reinvented itself over and over again down through the years since 1859, evolving, and continuously writing the first draft of history about the political, social, economic and cultural landmarks on the island of Ireland, all of which make our archive so interesting to readers and historians.
The calendar date of our 150th anniversary is tomorrow, March 29th. The first Irish Timeswas published on a Tuesday. It had a masthead of its time, advertisements on its front page. We reproduce all four pages of it with today's edition. The founder was Lawrence Knox, aged 22 years, profiled in our commemorative magazine published yesterday. For the first 14 weeks the newspaper was published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, until June 8th, 1859, when it became a daily newspaper.
It was a successful journal peculiar to its times. Justifying the appearance of another newspaper, its first editorial observed: “Irish journalism, the talent and respectability of which we gladly recognise, has left yet unoccupied a point of view from which national and imperial topics can be usefully discussed. It is quite true that every religious and political party is already fully justified in the Press: but it is also true, conversely, that every Irish journal which has any circulation to boast of is the special advocate and mouthpiece of a sect or a party.”
There is a thread of continuity throughout the intervening years to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of The Irish Times Trust, set up by Major Tom McDowell in 1974. It mandates this generation “to publish an independent newspaper primarily concerned with serious issues for the benefit of the community throughout the whole of Ireland, free from any form of personal or party political, commercial, religious or other sectional control”.
Points of reference are important to provide continuity and consistency, and no less so in a newspaper. The Irish Timesplayed a role in liberalising Irish society, in championing the peace process in Northern Ireland, in advancing the women's agenda, in accentuating the importance of arts, culture, the economy, education and sports, in providing an independent Irish perspective on world events and in exposing corrupt practices in our society.
But our work is not done. The values underpinning the first Irish Timesare as relevant today as they were 150 years ago. The core function of independent journalism is to provide the raw material of democratic choice, the information on which facts, arguments, interpretations and value judgments can be based. This is more vital in a world where citizens are bombarded with images, slogans, and the exhortations of professional spindoctors. The Irish Times aspires to create a rough map of present-day reality and, in so doing, help citizens to find their bearings. We exist to serve the public's right to know.
We acknowledge that, in the deadline-driven environment in which we work, we can get it wrong on occasions. We certainly do. But, as we celebrate our 150th anniversary, we hope that our readers and customers enjoy the newspaper every day at least half as much as all the editorial, management, advertising and commercial staff in our new state-of-the-art building on Tara Street, and our printers at Citywest, enjoy writing and producing it every morning.