The Trib
Authors: David Kenny
EDICATION
To you, the reader. And to journalists everywhere, whose work one day reflects the thoughts of a nation ... and the next is consigned to history's litter-tray. We salute you.
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Diarmuid Doyle for contacting and (gently) harrying the Trib staffers and reading the final proof. His calm advice and help in general were hugely appreciated. He sends his love to his wife, Elaine Edwards, and parents Joe and Kay.
Chenile and Robert at Y Books: this project wouldn't have worked without your vision, skill, patience and preternatural niceness.
To all those I chased and hassled: thank you for your time and generosity â in particular to John Boyne. Thanks also to my roadie, Gráinne Kenny, and family friend, Dr Richard Fitzpatrick.
Finally, and most importantly, my thanks and love go to my long-suffering wife Gillian Carroll. Your halo is in the post.
David Kenny
First published in 2011 by Y Books
Lucan, Co. Dublin
Ireland
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Text © by individual contributors
The Trib
concept and compilation © David Kenny
Design and layout © 2011 Y Books
All photographs © Mark Condren
Paperback                      ISBN: 978-1-908023-21-6
Ebook - mobi format       ISBN: 978-1-908023-22-3
Ebook - epub format       ISBN: 978-1-908023-23-0
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The publishers have made every reasonable effort to contact the copyright holders of photographs reproduced in this book. If any involuntary infringement of copyright has occurred, sincere apologies are offered and the owner of such copyright is requested to contact the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Typeset by Y Books
Cover design by Graham Thew Design
Front and back cover images courtesy of Mark Condren
Printed and bound by CPI MacKays, Britain
General Editor's note
A
n ink-veined editor once told me: âGreat journalism is no guarantee of success â or survival â in the newspaper business.' He then claimed it was my round, told me I was fired (although I didn't work for him) and ordered me to phone him a cab home. Whatever about the round, he was right about journalism. We had been talking about the
Irish Press
and the conversation had, inevitably, turned to the perpetually struggling
Sunday Tribune
, where I worked at the time.
When the Press Group closed in 1995, some of the finest journalism ever produced in these islands wound up on history's âspike'. In February of this year, the
Tribune
looked destined for the same fate. Thirty years of journalistic excellence would gather dust in the National Library. The public would soon forget the
Trib
's strident, honest voice.
In March, I floated the idea for this book with Y Books. How about a compilation of best bits from NóirÃn Hegarty's tenure as editor? The timeframe would be 2005 to 2011, six of the most eventful years in recent history. We would ask the writers to choose four of their favourite articles. âI'll whittle them down into a book,' I said. It sounded so straightforward at the time.
Soon my desktop was groaning under the weight of several hundred thousand words. Having such a wealth of top-quality material made the read-through one of the most enjoyable tasks imaginable. Having finite space made the editing process one of the most painful. Inclusion was eventually based on striking the right balance between human interest, analysis and humour. The positioning of columns and bylines doesn't denote any pre-eminence. This book is intended to be dipped into, not read from cover to cover.
These are the pieces the journalists most want you to read, and as a result
The Trib
is a kind of emotional bookmark â something that will prompt you to say: âOh, I'd forgotten about that,' and remind you of a moment or a buried feeling. Hopefully, it will engross you enough to make you miss your bus stop.
The Trib
is dedicated to the only person who matters in the production of a newspaper: you, the reader, without whom we wouldn't exist. Or get paid. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it.
David Kenny
June 2011
ONTENTS
ÃIRÃN
H
EGARTY
Foreword
I
t started with a phone call. Michael Roche's name flashed on the screen of my mobile. It was just after 8 p.m. on St Stephen's Day 2004.
âYou know I've always valued you highly,' he began. It was news to me. Michael and I had enjoyed an adversarial professional relationship. His role as managing editor of Independent Newspapers was to limit expenditure, mine as deputy editor of the
Evening Herald
was to secure as much of the budget as I could.
âI'm going into the
Sunday Tribune
as managing director. I want you to be my editor.' I wasn't surprised. I was utterly stunned. âYou've hidden your admiration well,' I remember answering. The call ended with an instruction to keep our conversation top secret. We would meet in the coming days to thrash out the details.
My husband Frank came into the kitchen. I was still staring at the mobile phone in my hand. âI'm going to be an editor,' I told him. He knew how badly I wanted this chance and how much it meant to me.
I had experience of many editorial environments, good and bad, and I knew that I wanted to do things differently. Just over a month later, in my maiden speech to the
Sunday Tribune
journalists I told them so. I wanted to preside over a meritocracy. I wanted to build a creative environment where entrepreneurial journalism was critical. They would work with me, not for me, and we would create a quality newspaper together.
Most of them just looked at me dumbfounded. I thought that everybody understood how detrimental tyrannies are to good journalism, but I forgot that most people at the
Sunday Tribune
had no such experience and didn't know what I was talking about. They were much more concerned that this unknown woman from the âtabloid'
Evening Herald
would barrel in and wreck the newspaper they loved.
The early weeks in any new job are daunting. I was lucky. From day one I had a quiet, reliable, and wise counsel on my side in the shape of
Tribune
âlifer', deputy editor Diarmuid Doyle. For the next six years he never wavered in his loyalty and support, and without it I would have been much the poorer.
The newspaper set up was schizophrenic. We had too many feature writers in specialist areas and too few news hounds. I had not one, but two previous editors looking over my shoulder â one at the far end of the newsroom who had just vacated my new office but remained working at the newspaper, and the other employed as a columnist.
Change had to be radical but could not cause consternation. Professional systems had to be put in place. We had to break stories, build credibility, and get some attention. The way the newspaper had been doing things wasn't working, so we had to do things differently. Some big names had to go and some new names had to come in.
Budgets were always tight and on many occasions huge sacrifices had to be made in order to attract fresh talent and ability. I saw it as a marriage between the high-quality writers traditionally associated with the
Tribune
and the new era. The only objective was excellence.
There were losses along the way â good people I had to make redundant for cost reasons. It was difficult, heartbreaking at times, but I had to concentrate on building a future for the people in jobs rather than focusing on the ones who had to lose out.
In spite of the limited resources, imagination was in ready supply, and when the economic picture darkened we became more and more inventive.
Everybody remembers the big stories the
Sunday Tribune
broke â John O'Donoghue, George Gibney, the Real IRA, Sean Quinn â and for those we have received much recognition. They are the easy ones. The real slog is in producing a relevant, exciting newspaper week after week no matter what. That achievement is credited to a top-class team of department heads. Deputy editor PJ Cunningham, who joined us that first year, greatly enhanced the newspaper and my term as editor with his strategic approach to management, sport and the newspaper business in general.
My best achievement was to assemble a team that far outshone my ability and made my job easy. Mick McCaffrey in News, Fionnuala McCarthy in Features, Maureen Gillespie in Photographic, Olivia Doyle in Arts, Neil Callanan in Business, Helen Rogers in News Analysis and chief sub editor Ger Siggins ran top-class departments and inspired all they worked with.
We made mistakes along the way, but we never wavered in our quest to become the best we could be. And in the pages that follow you will read the work of journalists who achieved that week after week.