The metropolitan press: connections and competition between Britain and Ireland

Abstract

The relationships between the constituent nations of Great Britain and Ireland have complex histories. One key element of these relationships has been the longstanding connections between the press cultures of both islands which often manifested itself in the ease with which journalists migrated between capital cities and secured employment in their new homeland. The intricate web of connections within the press industry linking Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales at the turn of the nineteenth century was, unsurprisingly, a by-product of the political union of the four countries that was buttressed by the rise of the Irish Parliamentary Party as a potent political force from the 1880s onwards and the development of its associated press presence in Ireland and Britain.