The Irish Examiner: 100 Years of Irish News edited by Des O’Driscoll
If you’re interested in Irish news this is the book for you. 100 Years of Irish News is a unique presentation of events in Ireland and worldwide during the last century. The Irish Examiner, formerly The Cork Examiner is the only national daily paper published outside Dublin. In celebration of Cork’s year as European Capital of Culture 2005, the stories in 100 Years of News all come from the Examiner archives, presented as they appeared in the paper together with photographs. Each year is summarised and the front page from a significant date reproduced. Although the print is hard to read, as the broadsheet paper is reduced to book size, the juxtaposition of photographs on the pages produces some hilarious results. The one I enjoyed most was when Pope Pius XII died in 1958 and the paper’s “Pope’s minder mourns” report appeared alongside a photograph captioned, “An exhibition of how a Hula-hoop works at Dunnes Stores, Cork”. Also interesting is the news briefs section, which provides a quick look at what was happening in Ireland and the world. In 1931 a priest in Castleisland was assaulted when he visited a dance hall “with a flashlight to check the goings-on”. In a similar vein, a judge at a hearing for a dance licence in County Kildare in 1973 proclaims that discos are “designed by the devil, that they are excruciatingly noisy and that the psychedelic lighting in them is driving people out of their minds”. 100 Years of News offers a unique look at the history of Ireland and, despite the small print and often incongruous photographs, it is well worth a read. The perfect gift for Dad, I’d say. |
