By Akshita Hunka
The Irish Examiner is Ireland’s oldest daily newspaper. Being so, it has a long and interesting history. Formerly known as The Cork Examiner, it was used by Editor John Francis Maguire to support Catholic emancipation and Daniel O’Connell’s campaign to secure tenants’ rights. However, this was only the start. It also had the fastest access to world news in the late 19th and 20th century. In the time when there was no telegraph cable between Ireland and America, the news would reach from there to Europe when transatlantic liners docked in Europe. Back then, reporters from The Irish Examiner would row out to meet the liners and find international stories before major European newspapers. One of these reporters Thomas Crosbie, later became the editor and owner of The Cork Examiner. It was thus able to share stories of national and international importance with the masses, and gained a big audience. As it kept growing in 1976, it became the first daily newspaper in Ireland or Britain that moved to modern web offset printing, that later led to a fully computerised system.
In 1996, The Cork Examiner’s title was changed to The Examiner. Later in 2000, it finally became The Irish Examiner. In fact, The Irish Examiner that had been based in Academy Street in Cork city centre for more than 160 years, finally moved to Lapps Quay in 2006.
The Irish Examiner was purchased by Landmark Media, in 2013. Landmark Media is a company backed by Tom Crosbie and his father who were both shareholders of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, Evening Echo, Waterford News and Star, the Wexford Echo, the Carlow Nationalist, the Kildare Nationalist, the Laois Nationalist, the Western People, Roscommon Herald and radio station interests were also part of the deal. In 2018, the Landmark Media group was acquired by The Irish Times.
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