The British popular press and Ireland, 1922-32

Abstract

Concentrating on the Daily Express, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, this thesis examines the relationship between the British popular press and Ireland across the first decade of Irish independence. Undertaking cover-to-cover readings of runs of editions, it explores both the approach to news stories and the content produced. Factors driving interest are established. The contacts, column inches and resources invested into processing developments are examined. The resultant constructions of the Ireland, the Irish and the renegotiated Anglo-Irish relationship are analysed. Within this, ideas about six and thirty-two, as well as twenty-six, county Irelands, are probed. Findings are contextualised and further elucidated through a comparative analysis of quality and left-wing popular titles. Allowing for the event-led nature of media attention, chapters are structured around flashpoints of activity. By expanding the research periods to include weeks before and after these selected case studies, ordinary everyday tabloid Irish interactions are also considered. Scrutinising the intense social and cultural continued entanglement, the thesis begins with the less conventional connections before tackling the traditional, changing formal political ties. These recovered bi- and tri-lateral understandings are then situated into the evolving imperial landscape. Contrary to the dominant historiographical accounts, this thesis demonstrates a continued tabloid interest in a Free State in which Britain remained closely entangled. Driven by events and shaped by established alternative agendas, this attention was not always concerned with conventional political connections but a complex network of ties and shared interests. Returning to underutilised tabloid content and concentrating on an often-neglected decade, this thesis address deficiencies in Anglo-Irish scholarship while enriching the field of media studies.