Focusing on the years 1842 to 1867, Newspapers and Newsmakers evaluates the impact of the Dublin nationalist press on the Irish nationalist cause in its aspirations to overthrow the 1800 Act of Union and establish an independent Irish nation. The Dublin nationalist journalists were totally immersed in Irish nationalist activities, whether by reporting news or creating it, often risking danger to themselves from the British government. Beginning with The Nation, a newspaper that heralded a new era of Irish political and cultural nationalism, this book charts the Dublin nationalist press's emphatic role in the promotion of Daniel O'Connell's Repeal of the Union campaign with its impressive peaceful mass mobilizations, the bitter and turbulent splits between leading Irish nationalists in 1846 and 1848, and the attempted Young Ireland rebellion. Following the temporary downfall of the nationalist movement, and in response to the Great Famine, the Dublin nationalist journalists sought an ideological reconstruction of the Irish nationalist cause that included a long-term commitment to revolutionary nationalism leading to the rise of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Drawing upon critical analyses of the political and literary contents of the Dublin nationalist newspapers, emphasis is placed upon the power of ideas, particularly the impassioned dynamics between constitutional nationalism and revolutionary nationalism.

This book also focuses on the thinking of high-profile nationalist writers such as Thomas Davis and John Mitchel and the inspiration they gave to their contemporaries and future Irish nationalists alike. Newspapers and Newsmakers establishes that what was written in the Dublin nationalist press during the mid-nineteenth century had a powerful and enduring influence on the development of Irish nationalism.

Dr Ann Andrews is an Independent Researcher and member of the British Association for Irish Studies.

Acknowledgements
List of Tables
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Nation and the Dublin Repeal Press
The founding of The Nation
The Dublin Repeal papers and the work of the Repeal Association
Irish nationality and The Nation's literature
The zenith of the Repeal movement, 1843

2. The role of the Dublin nationalist press in the events leading to the downfall of the Irish nationalist movement in 1848
Conflicts between The Nation and the Repeal leadership from 1844
The 1846 secession between Young and Old Ireland and its aftermath
The impact of the Great Famine on the 1848 secession
The rebel press and the collapse of the Irish nationalist cause

3. Survival and revival - the Dublin nationalist press post-1848
Recovery of the Irish nationalist cause and The Irishman, 1849-50
The Dublin nationalist press and the tenant right movement in the 1850s
The 1855-6 Tribune and the reassertion of advanced nationalism
The strengthening of Irish nationalism from 1858: The Nation and The Irishman

4. The Irish People and the Fenian movement
The founding of The Irish People
The Irish People and the ideology of Fenianism
The Irish People and nationalist literature
The Irish People and its influence on the rise of the IRB

Reflections
Select Bibliography
Index