Portal:Ireland/Selected article archive/13





The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet news paper launched in the late 1850s. The current editor is Geraldine Kennedy, who succeeded Conor Brady in 2002. The paper is generally perceived as liberal and neutral on Irish unity, in contrast to the Irish Independent, which is perceived as populist and economically right wing.

Though formed as a Protestant Irish nationalist paper, within two decades, and under new owners, it had become the voice of Irish unionists who wanted Ireland to remain a full part of Britain. In the early twentieth century, as the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom and later also the Commonwealth, the paper changed its identity, becoming a more radical voice in the Irish media.

Today, its most prominent columnists include writer and arts commentator Fintan O'Toole, the satirist Miriam Lord and former taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Garret FitzGerald. Senior international figures, including Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and others have written for its 'Op-Ed' (Opinion and Editorial) page. Among of its most prominent columns include Drapier (an anonymous column produced weekly by a politician, giving the 'insider' view of politics).

It is also the Irish newspaper with the most bureaux abroad; it has had full time correspondents in Washington, Moscow, Beijing, London, Central and South America, Africa and other parts of the world. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a daily circulation of 117,370 during the second six months of 2005. Read more...