KILLING OFF THE COMPETITION: FIANNA FAIL’S ‘DUBLIN JUNTA’S’ ATTACK ON HONESTY

In the August of 1929, James W. Upton, Editor of the Irish republican weekly newspaper, Honesty, discovered that that senior figures in the Fianna Fáil political party had secretly issued a circular to their membership, blackballing his newspaper and promoting The Nation, a newspaper recently taken into Fianna Fáil control for propaganda purposes. Upton, who had always considered himself sympathetic to and friendly with the Fianna Fáil leadership, was stung by the attack and responded by denouncing those involved. A dispute ensued that would ultimately lead to the undermining of Honesty as a commercially viable newspaper. The events surrounding this dispute reveal political duplicity in the service of silencing a newspaper, that whilst sympathetic to the party could not be relied on to tow the party line. It was a battle between political power and journalistic integrity, democratic discourse and spin which would ultimately lead to the death of a newspaper.