How long will Geraldine Kennedy last as Editor of the Irish Times? She has performed less than well in two challenges to her authority from Kevin Myers—who has his own editorial ambitions.

The first came in the aftermath of Captain Kelly’s death. Myers, who habitually writes cranky and inaccurate columns in hyperbolic prose directed to West British prejudice, surpassed himself. Captain Kelly and the Arms Crisis of 1969-70 have come to epitomise the independent development of Ireland outside the British Imperial world dynamic. By blackening the names of those who tried to render assistance in August 1969 to a Catholic community under attack from organs of the Northern Ireland state beyond Premier Chichester-Clark’s control, and misrepresenting the nature of the Arms Crisis, the admirers of Imperial civilisation seek to demoralise their opponents. While James Kelly was alive this project was hampered by the facts and had to be conducted somewhat circumspectly—even so, the Captain won five libel actions with the Irish Times amongst those who had to pay up for carrying lies about him. Now that he can no longer defend his good name—for, as the British/Irish legal adage has it, You can’t libel the dead—the constraints are off.

Myers celebrated the occasion with a totally over-the-top column in which he accused Captain Kelly of forming the Provos, being responsible for 2,600 deaths in the Northern Ireland conflict, and of breaking his oath of allegiance as an Irish Army officer. While the Irish Times likes to carry controversial columns to entertain its readers, its reputation as the would-be Irish paper of record is damaged if it does this wild ranting—which is what Myers’ piece amounted to. Nevertheless, Geraldine Kennedy did not dare to interfere with a word of the sacred text: the Columnist is clearly more indispensable to the paper’s trustees than the Editor.

The second Myers’ challenge to Kennedy’s authority was even more direct and overt: in a full-page interview in the Sunday Independent he praised the management style of Sir Anthony and virtually accused the Irish Times Trust of embezzling the funds of the paper. Such a stance called for instant dismissal. Nevertheless, Myers’ column continued to appear as usual.

A sign of Editor Kennedy’s frustration with this state of affairs is the way she handled the complaint of the family over Myers’ malicious column on Captain Kelly. Admitting that she had no say whatsoever over the content of the most high-profile features of her paper, the first woman-editor of a national paper told the family:
“Well, you have done well out of it.”

Asked what she meant by this totally inappropriate remark at a time of bereavement, she declared:
“You got the front page.”

In other words, the family should be grateful to the Irish Times for condescending to report the death of Capt. Kelly on its front page: a statement of stunning insensitivity.

However this ultra-Progressive, ultra-Democrat Editor may come to regret what is an admission that front-page treatment is not necessarily determined by he newsworthiness of particular events, but by other agendas. This is something that close students of Irish affairs have long suspected—that the media, with the Irish Times in the lead, decide what makes the news, and so mould public opinion. Events which suit the West British agenda are given the big headline treatment and those which don’t are reported sotto voce, if at all. The passing of James Kelly—a major event in which the great came to pay their guilty respects to a humble Captain—was also an occasion of celebration for West Britain. So it was given the big treatment—and for this the family was to be grateful and ignore whatever outrageous lies this paper of record chose to carry.

It now appears that Kennedy is one of life’s over-achievers: that her journalistic record owed as much to her associations as to her own abilities and that she does not have the authority, gravitas or ability to make her writ run, which are the requirements of great Editorship. But, so long as she satisfies the agenda of her employers, no doubt she will serve.

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