| Type | Sunday newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | Independent News and Media |
| Editor | Colm MacGinty |
| Founded | 1970s |
| Political alignment | populist right wing |
| Headquarters | Talbot Street, Dublin |
| Official website | www.sundayworld.com |
The Sunday World is an Irish newspaper published by Sunday Newspapers Limited, a division of Independent News & Media. It is the largest selling "popular" newspaper in the Republic of Ireland and is also sold in Northern Ireland (where a modified edition with more stories relevant to that region is produced).
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The Sunday World was Ireland's first tabloid newspaper. It was launched in 1973 by Hugh McLaughlin and Gerry McGuinness. It broke new ground in terms of layout, content, agenda, columnists, and use of sexual imagery. It is currently the biggest selling tabloid newspaper in Ireland with combined sales north and south of around 250,000 copies each week. It's readership on the island is over one million people.
In 2001, a journalist working for the paper in Northern Ireland, Martin O'Hagan, was killed by Loyalist paramilitaries in Lurgan, Co Armagh. O'Hagan was the first journalist to draw attention to the activities of Billy Wright. Wright lived only a few miles from O'Hagan in north Armagh, and had attempted to have the journalist murdered in 1992. The threat was sufficient to cause O'Hagan to temporarily move to the Sunday World office in Dublin, and then to Cork. He continued working for the newspaper, returning to his family in Lurgan in the late 1990s. When killed, O'Hagan became the first reporter covering the Northern Ireland conflict to be killed by paramilitaries.[1][2]
On May 1, 2005 it alleged double standards by a prominent member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). It claimed that the unionist politician, Paul Berry had been caught in a sting operation by the newspaper when he met a male masseur in a room booked under a false name in a Belfast hotel. According to the paper, Berry asked the man upon meeting him: "I hope you're a Prod?" Berry denied the allegations, claiming that he was seeking treatment for a sports injury, and is considering legal action. In the 2005 general election five days later Berry was the DUP candidate for Newry and Armagh but was one of the few DUP candidates to experience a fall in their share of the vote in favour of the Ulster Unionist Party while everywhere else in the province the DUP gained at the expense of its main rival. The DUP were to the forefront in the campaign of the 1970s and 1980s to stop the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland. On July 4, 2005 it was announced that Berry had been suspended from the DUP following an internal disciplinary panel meeting.
The paper has been noted in its hard-hitting coverage of crime in the Republic of Ireland compared to other papers. It has been to the forefront of exposing the emergence and growth of organised crime in Ireland throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. In the 1990s it broke the story about the secret life being led by controversial priest Fr Michael Cleary, revealing that he had a secret family with his housekeeper Phyllis Hamilton. Along with the Bishop Eamon Casey story and revelations about clerical child abuse, the Cleary story is viewed as one of the defining moments in the decline of the authority of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
In 2008 the paper was the first to expose the controversial fundraising activities of the House of Prayer run by self proclaimed visionary Christina Gallagher in Achill, Co Mayo. It also revealed the lavish lifestyle Gallagher was leading. The investigation later became an acclaimed book 'Immaculate Deception' by journalist Jim Gallagher. The House of Prayer made over 100 individual complaints to the press ombudsman about the investigation, all of which were dismissed.
In 2005 the paper was sued by a well known Dublin criminal figure Martin "the Viper" Foley after it reported that he was a leading figure in gang related crime and had links with the IRA elements. Foley argued that the report placed his life in jeopardy and sought to gag the paper. The attempt failed as the High Court rejected his allegations and refused to prevent further reporting.[3]
In 2010 the paper won a landmark legal ruling when a privacy and defamation case taken by Ruth Hickey was dismissed by the President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns. The ruling copperfastened the importance of freedom of expression in Irish law and stated that it can only be outweighed by the right to privacy in limited circumstances. Mr Justice Kearns also defended the right of the newspaper to publish information that was clearly in the public domain on the internet (in this case the infamous 'Zip Up Your Mickey' phone rant by Twink whose husband had left her for Ms Hickey.
On March 19, 2006, Sunday World reporter Hugh Jordan tracked down former Sinn Féin official and British Forces informant Denis Donaldson at a remote, rustic cottage in County Donegal.[4][5] Sixteen days later, Donaldson was murdered there, and the paper was heavily criticized for identifying and showing a photo of the location. In 2009 the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing.[6]
On November 1, 2009, Northern Editor Jim McDowell attracted complaints to the Press Complaints Commission after the paper published on the front page the photograph of a man hanging from a bridge, having killed himself under the headline "Halloween Horror".[7] McDowell claimed on the Stephen Nolan's BBC Radio Ulster show on 2 November that it was meant to dissuade individuals thinking about suicide but the decision to publish was condemned by suicide awareness and support groups.[8]
It is noted for its strong Irish coverage in a newspaper market awash with 'Irish editions' of the main British newspaper titles such as the Sunday Mirror and Mail on Sunday. Among its Irish sports writers are the legendary Con Houlihan, Pat Spillane, Charlie Nicholas, John Aldridge, Denis Irwin and Mick Galwey. Columnists include Amanda Brunker, Lorraine Keane, Martina Devlin, Paddy Murray, Fr Brian Darcy, Des Ekin and Daniel O'Donnell.
The paper is currently subject of a defamation case taken by Sinn Féin TD Aengus O'Snodaigh. The newspaper claimed in an article entitled "Aengus Turns Blind Eye To Car Jacking" that he had failed to report his car missing to the Gardai. [9]
In November 2011, the Sunday World agreed to issue a public apology to convicted Old Bailey bomber and IRA terrorist turned Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly. Kelly sued the paper claiming references to him as the chief of staff of the IRA with responsibility for the end of the IRA ceasefire in 1994 were defamatory to his reputation in the eyes of right thinking people. The Sunday World accepted that articles describing him as the Provos' chief of staff and alleging that he had a liaison with a female diplomat for "ulterior motives" were "wrong." [10]
In November 2011, Iris Robinson received "substantial damages" for the publication of photos taken while she was undergoing treatment for depression after an attempted suicide.[11]
In 2008, the newspaper won the prize for the Newspaper of the Year (Sunday) at the annual Chartered Institute of Public Relations Press and Broadcast Awards for Northern Ireland.[12]