``Write me an article for the last An Phoblacht of the century Rita,''
he said. ``You can e-mail it to me.''
I don't do e-mail. Twenty-first century or not, Martin Spain will get
this article the same way I wrote my first article for the paper in
1978. Handwritten. In pencil. Put on the editor's desk.
There was no e-mail in 1978. No word processors. No computers. Not
even fax machines. The production of An Phoblacht probably had not
changed much for 50 years.
With the amalgamation of An Phoblacht and Republican News in 1979, the
production was all done in Dublin. Then, as now, we did all the
pre-print stuff ourselves. The paper was put together and made ``print
ready'' in what is now Head Office and the Ard Chomhairle room in 44
Parnell Square. Accounts, administration, distribution, layout, and
photographic dark room were all in the outer office. There was even a
small printing press there as well for the production of leaflets and
small posters. The back room housed the editor, sub editor, reporters
and proof readers. Desks were shared, space was at a premium, but we
managed somehow.
Next week's paper was started on Friday, the general plan laid out.
Handwritten, in pencil, of course. The ``stars'', Cormac and The
Brigadier, were always on the same page each week. We looked forward
to Cormac coming down, everybody gathered round to read it. The same
with The Brigadier column - though there were times that political
correctness won over triumphal gloating and a wee bit of editorial
censure was imposed - which resulted in abusive phone calls from The
Brigadier but a more subtle comeback from Cormac. A cartoon would
appear a few weeks later about censorship! The brigadier, however,
would be very indignant - `what's wrong with a wee gloaty?'
The War News also had its own set slot. Hilda MacThomas, the political
analysis column from the North, was another staple that people
automatically turned to. In between were the news stories, the
first-hand accounts of what was really happening on the streets of
Belfast and Derry and in the rural areas of the North and the border
counties.
These were the censorship years, and the Paper's (can't stop thinking
of it without capitals) main raison d'être was to counter censorship
and give people a true account of what was happening and, more
importantly, why.
Censorship was not just the banning of Sinn Féin from television and
radio. It was also the practical agenda of many of the newspapers.
There were notable exceptions of editors and journalists who refused
to be either intimidated or dictated to. But for all those years, our
main medium to overcome censorship and get our message across was the
Paper. And we did it without e-mail!
Dinosaur or not, I never stood in the way of technology. As long as I
could still ``do it my way'', I accepted and encouraged the inexorable
march of progress.
One big step was the move to 58 Parnell Square. This building had been
empty for years, almost derelict, and it was the vision of people like
Mick Timothy, the then editor, that resulted in us buying 58 and
refurbishing it. Sadly, Mick died before we moved in, a tragedy and a
severe loss for his young family and for all his friends and a huge
loss to An Phoblacht and the struggle.
So the move to offices with space and your own desk and more than one
phone and our first computers held a great sadness for all of us who
had worked with Mick - a brilliant editor and great writer whose
Burke's at the Back column (which replaced the Brigadier) were
classics. The building is named in his memory, a fitting tribute to
someone who brought not only commitment to the paper but a high
standard of writing and professionalism.
d no amount of technology can replace or reproduce what people like
Mick brought to An Phoblacht. So it's great that the present staff
don't have to work all night to get the paper ready. All this
technology makes it faster, but it is people whose dedication and hard
work bring that paper out week after week, not the machines.
My years on the paper, from 1978 to 1991, were through some of the
most traumatic years of the struggle. The paper and everyone who
worked on it were an essential part of that struggle and contributed
so much to it. It's great to see some of the same faces from all those
years ago still there in the paper or back with it. They're sitting in
front of keyboards and computer screens now but they are still the
same people.
To all of you still there in An Phoblacht and to all of you who I hope
increased your skills and honed your politics in An Phoblacht and
moved on to other work, thank you. Thank yuou for the satisfaction of
getting the paper out no matter what happened. And we did it with the
old lead pencils, (with rubber on the end, of course).
Editor's Note:
It was Rita O'Hare who, in 1989, took a chance on hiring the current
editor, then a callow UCD graduate with ill-defined politics and an
unhoned writing style. Oddly enough, it was the almost simultaneous
arrival of computers into the office that saved his bacon, as O'Hare
was insisting on typed articles rather than his mangled scrawl, which
she struggled in vain to decipher. I owe my career to the delete
button, the spell checker, and to my first editor, whose passion was
infectious.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)
