BOOK REVIEWs: Bringing the Post
to book
Tony Beatty was behind the launch of The Irish Post some 36 years
ago. His autobiography From Post To Post tells the story of his journey
from a rural Irish post office to the heart of London’s Irish community.
In an exclusive extract he recounts the birth of the paper which became
the voice of the Irish in Britain.
 THE Irish Post was born in a hotel in the English Midlands. My accountancy
business was going through a particularly busy period between 1967 and
1969 and I virtually lived out of a suitcase as my hectic schedule took
me to all corners.
During these travels I would meet members of the Irish community in various
clubs and haunts and it became very clear to me that they had no means
of communicating with Irish groups in other towns. The Irish of Nottingham,
for instance, knew nothing of their counterparts in Newcastle. The Coventry
Irish were strangers to their soulmates in Cardiff and there was no bond
between Willesden and Walsall.
The logical way to reach them seemed to be a newspaper or magazine: A
national organ and information sheet dedicated solely to the welfare of
the Irish community in Britain and to furthering their cause. Ideally,
it should be run by an experienced team of Irish journalists with a fellow-countryman
at the helm. Like Topsy the idea grew and I started to look for a professional
newspaperman who fitted the bill.
Eventually, I found Brendan MacLua, who had a publishing background in
Ireland and I persuaded him to join me in the venture. We worked tirelessly
side-by-side formulating the style and content of my new baby and so jointly
founded the Irish Post.
We had appointed Pat Chatten, an experienced Irish journalist, as our
first editor and in order to attract potential advertisers we produced
our first dummy issue in December 1969.
I was relieved to find that it had generated a high level of interest
among the Irish financial and industrial corporations. The tourist industry
supported us too, and we soon had comments from Ryans, B & I Line,
Murphy’s the builders and the Irish TGWU.
To cap this, both main Irish banks bought a whole page of advertising.
We decided to fly in the face of superstition by launching The Irish Post
on Friday, February 13, 1970. We felt we were big enough to overcome any
bad ju-ju and, in retrospect, it proved to be a lucky day for us.
There was plenty of interest in the inaugural issue.
I often thumb through that first issue. The lead story picked the bones
out of a speech made at our inaugural luncheon by the late George Colley,
Irish Minister for Industry and Commerce, who made an impassioned plea
for the Irish in Britain to use their voting power to support candidates
who sympathised with the Irish viewpoint.
Other issues covered included the outburst from Enoch Powell, then MP
for Wolverhampton, who said that his party would ensure that the Irish
would have no preference entering Britain and should expect the same treatment
as the French, Russians and Australians.
A random survey showed that the Irish were three to one in favour of
returning home if they could find a job with similar pay and conditions.
There was also an exclusive interview with Con Murphy, chairman of the
advisory committee for services to immigrants who wished to return home.
A new Irish centre had just opened in Leeds and the Liverpool equivalent
was celebrating its fifth anniversary. There was a round-up of provincial
news from Ireland, a women’s page, a showbusiness page and a profile
of Johnny Giles of Leeds United and Ireland, certainly one of the sporting
heroes of the time.
For advocates of the other variety of football, there was an extensive
preview of the match between England and Ireland at Twickenham the following
day and all this for an old-fashioned shilling! We printed 84,000 copies
of the first issue.
As I have said, the initial reaction was encouraging but my concern was
to ensure that both readers and advertisers would stick with it and I
embarked on a lengthy programme of promotional visits to Irish clubs and
centres — not just to sell the paper but also to sell its concept.
I had to answer countless questions on editorial policy and gradually
it became clear to the much-maligned and often-rejected Irish community
in Britain that they had a champion — an ally on whom they could
rely. People started to write letters, airing their views on controversial
issues.
Other readers reacted and this spawned more correspondence making the
letters page an open forum for diverse points of view on anything that
breathed, moved or perhaps, more pertinently, occupied a Parliamentary
seat. I can still recall, in those early days, the pride I felt just seeing
the paper in newsagents in all parts of Britain. It was sold in Ireland
too, for many emigrants returned to their homeland in the 1970s and wanted
to keep up with news of their colleagues in Britain.
It was important that we indicate our stance on a wide variety of topical
and controversial issues affecting the Irish community. First of all,
we refused to be neatly categorised. We also wanted to retain the facility
to communicate with the great mass of Irish people in Britain.
Major points in our manifesto included our views on jobs: We provided
practical information on employment opportunities in Ireland and helped
to create more work by the promotion of Irish goods and services to Britain;
on the reunification of Ireland we pointed out that in the unlikely event
of this happening in the immediate future the vast majority of Irish emigrants
would have to remain in Britain and it would be the duty of The Irish
Post to safeguard the interests and welfare of these people;
on emigration we emphasised that half the people of Ireland were living
in Britain because their own country couldn’t accommodate them.
We pointed out that successive Irish governments had done damn all for
the welfare of the Irish in Britain, and that The Irish Post would not
be guilty of this.
Fortunately, the emigrant community has chosen to nurture its roots rather
than sever them, and Irish culture, particularly dancing, is more popular
in Britain than it is in Ireland.
Ireland has many champions and may it always have them but aren’t
the half who have opted to live in Britain entitled to have one champion
who will put their interest above all other things? This was the role
to which The Irish Post committed itself from the start. Its banner head
said: A Voice For The Irish In Britain and nothing changed during my period
as co-proprietor of the newspaper.
From Post To Post is available to order from all good bookshops
or log on to the publisher’s website at www.currach.ie. |
