Mayo author’s new book, 'The Newspaper Men', now available to pre-order
Westport author Padraig McLoughlin’s new book titled ‘The Newspaper Men, The Doris Brothers and Ireland 1893-1923’ is now available for pre-orders.
The book tells the story of two brothers, William and Patrick J., their ‘Mayo News’, two opposing political beliefs, and a family Civil War against the backdrop of Ireland’s history, 1893 to 1923, witnessed and questioned by the ‘Man-in-the-Street’.
Stated Padraig: “William was born in 1860; at 16 he was a solicitor’s clerk in Westport. At 18 he became a journalist in The Connaught Telegraph.
"He came under the influence of James Daly and the Land League, became secretary of the Mayo Branch of the Land League, and helped organise a great Land League meeting on the Newport Road, where Parnell and Davitt were on the platform together for the first time.”
"He then went to Dublin, worked for the Underground Land League, when Parnell was in jail, was arrested, and spent six months in Dundalk jail. He served as a journalist with the Leinster Leader and the Carlow Nationalist, then came back to Westport and founded the paper.
“PJ Doris also ended up in jail. In 1916 the British had invented a word 'dissension'. That covered a multitude of reasons, so the authorities could arrest people.
"If you sang an Irish song, played Gaelic games, or wrote editorials in The Mayo News, you could be arrested. PJ was arrested and spent eight months in Frongoch Camp, in Wales, which became a kind of school for revolutionaries.
"Michael Collins and others were there. Later, in 1918, PJ Doris had to go on the run when he heard the Black and Tans wanted to kill him.”
The price of the book is €35 and is now available for pre-orders in the following outlets: McLoughlin’s Bookshop, Westport (in-store and online); Seamus Duffy's Bookshop, Westport; The Castle Bookshop, Castlebar (in-store and online); Books-At-One, Louisburgh; Achill Tourism, The Achill Experience Aquarium and Visitor Centre; The Beehive, Keel; Siopa Claddaigh/Sweeney's, Achill Sound; The Irish History Bookshop, Cong; Pangur Bán Bookshop, Ballina; Liber Bookshop, Sligo.