Collection 3049 Irish Edition Records 1916-1991 (bulk 1981-1991) 47 boxes, 3 flat files, 30 linear feet Contact: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Phone: (215) 732-6200 FAX: (215) 732-2680 http://www.hsp.org Processed by: Laura Ruttum Processing Completed: September 2004 Sponsor: Processing funded through the generosity of the Phoebe W. Haas Fund Restrictions: None Related Collections at None HSP: © 2003 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved. Irish Edition Records Collection 3049 Irish Edition Records, 1916-1991 (bulk 1981-1991) 47 boxes, 3 flat files, 30 linear feet Collection 3049 Abstract The Irish Edition newspaper, founded in Philadelphia in 1981, is a regional monthly Irish- American newspaper with a focus on metropolitan Philadelphia, including south New Jersey and the Wilmington area of Delaware. While primarily concentrated on local concerns, the paper’s circulation is of a national scale and covers current events, politics, business, and the culture of Irish and Irish Americans both at home and abroad. The founders of the paper, Anthony R. Byrne and Jane M. Duffin, have served respectively as publisher and editor from the beginning of the paper to the current day. The paper is presently located in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania. The collection is divided into eight series, and the materials themselves consist of correspondence; article drafts and submissions; advertisements and ad copy; press releases and newsletters; publications and mailings from various information and newswire services; a smattering of financial materials; newspaper clippings and articles; and photographs and a few slides. Background note Founded in 1981 in Philadelphia by Publisher Anthony R. Byrne, Managing Editor Nancy Mortimer, and Associate Editor Jane Duffin, the Irish Edition was intended to meet the perceived demand for local coverage on Irish and Irish-American affairs, which were not adequately represented in existing newspapers. An early editorial listed the paper’s goals as being, “To sustain and enrich the American Irish tradition….To increase communication about Irish affairs here and ‘in the land we left’….To encourage and record in words and pictures the current local Irish experience.” An additional goal of the publishers appears to have been to dispel commonly held beliefs and myths about the nature of Irish ancestry and culture: the paper strives to eliminate the popular misconception of “Irishness” as epitomized by green beer and shamrocks. While the first edition of the paper, published in March 1981, began with a stated intent to focus on local Irish-American affairs, it by no means neglected issues of a broader geographic, or topical, scope. For example, while the first issue contained several pages of local events, gossip, and notices, it also featured a below-the-fold front page story entitled “Bobby Sands is Going to Die,” referring to the activist, political prisoner, and member of British Parliament who passed away in May 1981 after sustaining a 66-day 1 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Irish Edition Records Collection 3049 hunger strike. The paper has similarly consistently devoted column and advertising space to local, national, and international concerns over the entire course of its publication. In addition, a small amount of the materials collected by the collection, presumably as reference files, indicate a staff interest in international affairs beyond Irish concerns. It is likely that these materials were collected by Editor Jane Duffin, who had worked for community development and civil rights in the 1960s in Louisiana, followed by a career closer to her origins in Pennsylvania, teaching sociology. The paper’s topical scope includes current events, politics, business, and the culture of both Irish and the Irish-American community locally, nation-wide, and in Ireland. Among the numerous regular columns are included additional feature articles on entertainment and book reviews, Irish heritage and history, the Gaelic language, sports, obituaries, local gossip, Irish immigrants’ stories of moving to the United States, and a community calendar. Notable stories have ranged from a 1985 interview with Sean MacBride, who was a political activist, co-founder of Amnesty International, IRA lieutenant under Michael Collins, and winner of both the Nobel and Lenin peace prizes during the 1970s; to coverage of the Irish reaction to the events of September 11, 2001. The Irish Edition’s circulation reached 15,000 annually in 1984, and has held steady at that rate to the current day. 1 The paper is supported primarily by advertisement revenue and subscribers, with the 2003 ad rates ranging from $700 for a black and white full-page advertisement, to $750 for a color full-page ad.2 From the early beginnings of the paper to the present, there have typically been a regular staff of journalists, as well as submissions from local Irish-American notables and the general public. Scope & content The collection documents the publishing activities of the Irish Edition, as well as a large number of primarily local organizations, individuals, and businesses focused on Irish ethnicity, culture, and events. While there is a rich array of article drafts, correspondence, and reference materials present, there are few records relating to administrative or financial aspects of the newspaper. The collection dates span from 1916 to 1991, with the bulk of the materials produced between 1981 and 1991. Materials pre-dating the foundation of the paper are believed to have been collected by individuals on staff at the Irish Edition, who most likely brought these items to the paper as reference files. The collection’s series arrangement reflects the types of materials collected and published by the paper, in the following eight series: Series I. Correspondence; Series II. Article Drafts, Advertisements, and Submissions; Series III. Press Releases, Community Events, and Newsletters; Series IV. Information and Wire Services; Series V. Other Reference Materials; Series VI. Financial; Series VII. Miscellaneous; and Series VIII. Photographs and Slides. 1 Irish Edition. 2003. In Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory [database online]. [cited 19 February 2004]. Available from R.R. Bowker, LLC, New Providence, NJ 2 Irish Edition. 2003. In Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory [database online]. [cited 7 September 2004]. Available from R.R. Bowker, LLC, New Providence, NJ 2 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Irish Edition Records Collection 3049 Materials held in the collection served as both reference for and rough drafts of articles presumably published in the newspaper; the collection is nevertheless significant for the large amount of draft materials that did not reach publication, the voluminous amount of reference materials leading to the creation of articles and stories, and finally for documentation of the newspaper publishing process and industry during an era when it was drastically altered by mass adoption of computer technology. The collection chronicles the large Irish-American community of the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area, giving insight into the Irish-American experience, identity, political views, and cultural practices of the community during the 1980s and early 1990s. Many of the materials demonstrate the degree of connection — both perceived and actual — of Irish Americans in the United States to the “homeland” of their predecessors. In addition, while many Irish and Irish-American newspapers take a formal stance on political issues in Ireland, the publishers of the Irish Edition appear to have gone to great lengths to represent a wide array of the existing viewpoints on the British-Irish conflict, the questions of home rule for Ireland, Sinn Fein and the IRA, religious questions, and many other issues of heightened importance during the turbulent era of the 1980s. Series I. Correspondence is broken into seven subseries along the following lines: correspondence among staff and regular contributors to the newspaper, primarily concerning stories; letters sent and received by the paper; Letters to the Editor; holiday cards; business cards; and resumes and writing samples submitted by prospective journalists or employees of the paper. The Letters to the Editor subseries is perhaps the most interesting of these, as it contains a wide array of views on issues of interest to the Irish community, as well as commentary on Irish Edition articles previously published. Included in the correspondence are a few letters between editors of other newspapers and the Irish Edition, largely regarding subscription exchanges. Correspondence received by the newspaper from organizations represented in Series III is located in the files of each respective organization. All other letters are kept together, with the letters filed in chronological order. Series II. Article Drafts, Advertisements, and Submissions consists of five subseries that are divided by type of document, as well as by authorship. Subseries A., Regular feature columns consists of article drafts bearing a particular title (News Briefs, for example) that were regularly occurring columns written by both staff and freelance journalists. Subseries B., Articles, by author, consists of article drafts submitted by authors who did not appear to have their own column, but frequently submitted to the paper, and may have been regular staff journalists. The third subseries, Articles, Other authors, differs from the second in that it contains