The Phoenix (magazine)

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The Phoenix

Type	monthly magazine
Format	fortnightly satirical

Owner(s)	Penfield Enterprises Ltd.
Founded	1983
Political position	Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail Republican
Headquarters	44 Lower Baggot Street Dublin 2 Ireland
Editor	Paddy Prenderville

Website	[1]

This article describes the Irish magazine: for other uses of the word Phoenix, see Phoenix (disambiguation).

The Phoenix is an Irish news and satire magazine, inspired by the British magazine Private Eye. The magazine was launched in January 1983 and is published fortnightly by Penfield Enterprises Ltd. It is edited by Paddy Prenderville under the pseudonym "Goldhawk", a character who appears in radio adverts for the magazine. The magazine is owned (as of 2006) by John Mulcahy. It has an ABC-audited circulation of 19,014 for 2004, and 18,150 for 2005. The circulation figure for 2006 was 18,154, an increase of 4 since the previous year^[1].

Features in the magazine include the news column, profiles ("Pillars of Society" and "The Young Bloods"), a satirical section "The Funnies" - which indicates that the pieces are funny by the repeated strapline "Funnies" - which includes a regular parody of Bertie Ahern entitled "Da Diary of a Nortsoide Taoiseach", and a financial column, "Moneybags". Like Private Eye, the cover features a speech bubble, putting ironic or humorous comments into the mouths of the famous in response to topical events. Other features "lifted" from Private Eye include the "Apology" section (where the magazine offers an ersatz apology for the failings or success of some person or event), "That Menu in Full", the use of ("That's enough of this. -Ed" type interjections) and their derivatives, a sporting parody supposedly by Irish sports minister John O'Donoghue (based on the Sally Jockstrap character in Private Eye), and the Christmas Gift lists where implausible gifts with ridiculous features are offered for sale.

Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin and Irish left-wing politicians get a less hostile ride from the magazine (one of John Mulcahy's sons is a Fianna Fáil councillor and former Lord Mayor of Dublin)than the opposition Fine Gael and Labour parties. Favourite targets include other media operations (in the "Fit to Print" section), especially Tony O'Reilly's Independent Newspapers. However, RTE receive scant attention.

It is a major source of investigative journalism in Ireland. Notable court cases against the magazine which ended in settlement have been taken by politician Avril Doyle and former US diplomat George Dempsey.

The name Phoenix is apparently a reference to its "emergence from the ashes" of two of John Mulcahy's previous publications. These were the periodical Hibernia, which ceased publishing in 1980 after a libel action, and the Sunday Tribune newspaper, which first collapsed financially in 1982.

1 Vincent Browne
2 Sources
3 Notes
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Vincent Browne

The Phoenix has had a long antagonistic relationship with Dublin journalist Vincent Browne. This may stem from the fact that Vincent Browne previously worked for the Phoenix founders at the Sunday Tribune.

Browne was reputed to be a difficult and unpredictable boss, and the tone of the Phoenix’s coverage of the Sunday Tribune, Browne himself and his other ventures, Magill magazine and Village magazine, made it clear that there is deep hostility between them. Referring to his current publishing venture, the Phoenix now routinely refers to Browne as the ‘Village Idiot’. Ironically, the Phoenix and Village Magazine share a number of common, anonymous writers, and sources.

The antipathy appears to be returned, as Browne and his publications have rarely referred to the Phoenix in anything other than disparaging terms, and an early edition of the Village magazine carried an apology for remarks made by Browne about the Phoenix. Before the Village was first published he was asked how it would differ from the Phoenix, and he replied that the Village would pay its taxes. The apology later printed acknowledged that the Phoenix was fully tax-compliant.