The Irish Press was an Irish newspaper published by Irish Press plc between 1931 and 1995. The newspaper was controlled by Eamon de Valera and his family, and as a consequence, supported Fianna Fail consistently throughout its life.
Later, the Irish Press started two further newspapers, the Evening Press, and the Sunday Press.
The final issue of the Irish and Evening Press' was on Thursday, May 25th, 1995. The newspapers closed over a bizarre industrial dispute over the sacking of the Group Finance Editor. It is generally acknowledged that the newspapers had not been in a healthy financial state for several years. A relaunch in 1988 of the Irish Press as a tabloid did not help matters.
The company, Irish Press plc, remains in existence. Its main activity is a shareholding in an Independent Local Radio franchise, Tipp FM.
The Evening Press was an instant success, and contributed to the financial losses and eventual closure of the Evening Mail in 1962.
The poor performance of The IrishPress, particularly after its unsuccessful relaunch in 1988, was a severe drain on the whole IrishPress Group, and probably damaged the Evening Press brand, although it continued to perform better in the evening newspaper market than its sister paper did in the morning market.
The collapse of IrishPress Newspapers in 1995 however lead immediately to the closure of all three newspapers in the group.
We believe that the establishment of a statutory press council would fail to respect the necessary distance between the government and the press, thereby undermining the credibility of both institutions and opening them to accusations of bias.
The establishment of a statutory press council in Ireland would be in sharp contrast to the voluntary code adopted in the UK and could pose an obstacle to the effective functioning of the free market, placing Irish newspapers at an unfair disadvantage and contributing to legal confusion in overlapping markets.
While not suggesting that your government would seek to influence the press in such a blatant manner, the enactment of a statutory press council in Ireland would undoubtedly be cited by less democratic regimes seeking to suppress critical newspapers and journalists.
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