The press in Ireland, 1919-20: ideology and reality

The article deals with the effect of the terror and repressions climate on the non-governmental press, primarily on the leading Irish newspapers in Ireland of 1919 - 21. The aim of the article is to show what it meant to be a journalist in the Ireland of this period. The main sources of the research include the historical archives of the leading liberal Irish newspapers, the Freeman’s Journal and the Irish Independence, the archives of some British newspapers, the chronicle of the terror in Ireland by the famous British correspondent Hugh Martin, and the works of the contemporary historians. The author analyzes the conflict between the leading national newspapers, the Freeman’s Journal, the Irish Independence, and the Cork Examinee, and the belligerents, British military forces and IRA. It is concluded that after the intensification of the conflict since September 1920 the Irish press continued to publish critical materials of the British military forces and became itself the object of the campaign of violence, intimidation, and terror of the British death squadrons. The complicated relationship of the press and the belligerents turned the press into one of the participants of the conflict.