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Ireland’s Saturday Night to close after 114 years
Friday, 18 July 2008
enlargeIreland's Saturday Night, one of the world's oldest sports newspapers, is to cease publication.
The final edition of ISN will roll off the Belfast Telegraph presses on July 26, after 114 years of bringing reports, scores and analysis to hundreds of thousands of sports fans throughout Northern Ireland and beyond.
Falling circulation and the impact of the current world-wide credit crunch forced Independent News and Media (NI), owners of the Belfast Telegraph, to close the title.
Telegraph Editor Martin Lindsay said last night: "The ISN was part of the very fabric of this province in its heyday but, unfortunately, over a period of years readership dropped to the point where publication of the title could not be sustained.
"I know this will come as a severe blow to the dwindling number of people who read the ISN but the current economic climate is such that it proved impossible to continue printing it.
"At the height of its popularity in the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties, the ISN was an instant source of information on a wide variety of sports which took place throughout Northern Ireland every Saturday. In recent years, however, sports enthusiasts, armed with the latest digital technology, found new and faster means of getting this information and the ISN readership suffered as a result."
The ISN was launched by the Baird brothers — William and George, former owners of the Belfast Telegraph — on November 17, 1894, and soon built up a reputation for being the sports bible of Ireland.
Initially, it was called Ulster Saturday Night, but two years after it hit the streets and because of its runaway success, this was changed to Ireland's Saturday Night — with an edition for the north and another for the south.
Down the years, stalwart readers of Ireland's Saturday Night re-christened the title — calling it the Pink, the ISN, the Ulster, and the Ireland. Back in 1894, it consisted of four pages, and was printed on pink paper to distinguish it from the main daily, then known as the Belfast Evening Telegraph.
The ISN survived two World Wars and its staff — journalists, printers and van drivers — battled through riots, gun battles and bombs of the seventies and eighties to get a paper onto the streets, every Saturday night, even when the Telegraph's presses were destroyed by an IRA bomb. During this turbulent time, two of its drivers were murdered and countless others had their vehicles hijacked.
The final edition of the ISN will contain a special pull-out section, tracing the history of the paper from the early days in 1894 to the present.
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I was told as a child that my grandfather William John Lightbody a Gold and Silver engraver of Ann St Belfast was envolved in the production of The Ireland Saturday Night Cup which I remember being reproduced on the paper's titles. I have no further information about this, it was merely a comment my father made and I know that he was apprenticed as an engraver. I would love to know if there was a connection as I am trying to build a history of my family before the last remnants of memory of this era disappear for ever.
Posted by Jim Lightbody | 11.08.09, 19:14 GMT
I'm really sad- in more ways than one as it has taken me a year to discover the death of the Pink.
My first regular money from writing was in the Pink. Peter Brodie was the Editor, and Peter McMullan was in charge of Rugby. I got 12/6 (62.5 p) for junior Rugby inside Belfast City boundary and 17/6 (87.5p) for games outside the boundary, but if you got two outside the boundary you got 30/- (1.50) I use to do Belfast High and Jordanstown, or BRAFP. Ah nostalgia isn't what it use to be
Posted by Edward Andrews | 11.06.09, 00:17 GMT
what has been said below is totally true - had the ISN stuck to local football, I and I'm sure many others would've kept buying and enjoying it. As far as I'm concerned, the ISN died the first time english football was on the front page, and when the local football letters page was stopped. Sad to say, but good riddence to it in it's 'modern' state. In recent years it has been terrible
and yeah, credit crunch and the ISN?!. I don't think so!
Posted by Glyn | 09.08.08, 00:24 GMT
I learned to read from it, sixty five years ago.
Posted by Wee Joe Reid | 26.07.08, 21:37 GMT
Get ready for the stampede, demand for the final edition will be massive.
For many years my dad sent the Ulster to me in Melbourne.
Go Blues!
Posted by Annabella | 19.07.08, 06:36 GMT
sad
Posted by Chobi | 19.07.08, 02:24 GMT
I left Belfast in 1952 and am in my late eighties. The Ulster was part of my life because I was a sports fanatic and read it from cover to cover.
While it seems terrible to see it go the reason is understandable and it is not the only thing which seemed part of our life which goes.
Many thanks to the dedicated staff who provided many pleasant hours of reading.
Posted by Reginald Johnston | 18.07.08, 20:28 GMT
How sad, I remember selling "the ulster"on a saturday night
going from pub to pub ;it was an institution in the 40's & 50's
Ralph the Rover, Larry O'Hooligan and Malcom Brodie
Posted by brendan | 18.07.08, 19:26 GMT
So sad, when I was a little girl my Uncle Sam Cohen wrote the Table Tennis reviews every week under the pen name "Back Hand Flick" any of you oldies but goodies out there remember him. I am 69 so you would have to be in your 80"s or 90's. Jacqueline Lewis
Posted by Jacqueline | 18.07.08, 17:37 GMT
Peter Hughes (two comments above) wonders about columnist "Ralph the Rover's" real name. He was, in fact, Billy McClatchey, already an elderly gentleman, apparently past pension age but still churning out copy, by the time I joined the paper in 1957.
Not everything he wrote pleased all football fans. He was therefore nicknamed "Ralph the Raver" by a certain section.
Posted by Graham McKenzie | 18.07.08, 17:18 GMT
Very sad indeed. Fans of real football in this country will feel the loss. Those only interested in the celebrity of the English Premiership or Rangers/Celtic won't be too bothered.
Posted by Squirrel | 18.07.08, 15:53 GMT
Such a shame, however, its the sign of the times I suppose.
Posted by Keith | 18.07.08, 13:09 GMT
The credit crunch and ISN - I'd call that a long shot
Posted by Charles De Winn | 18.07.08, 11:24 GMT
Sad to see the demise of one of my favourite papers. Unfortunately the reader was more interested in how their local team did, not how teams over the water were doing and from the great days when the Irish League tables and results were on the back page in full it has now deminished into nothing more than the Man United Saturday Night. Maybe if it had focused on what the readership were most interested in sales wouldn't have dropped?
Posted by Harrybiy | 18.07.08, 11:00 GMT
What a shame "The Ulster" will be just be a memory! I can recall during the war years the scramble to get a copy at Shaftesbury Square and devour every word of the afternoon's matches, including the one attended. Did anyone ever find out "Ralph the Rover's" real name? I wonder, living in England, how I will be able to get a copy of the final issue ?
Posted by Peter Hughes | 18.07.08, 10:53 GMT
As a child, I can remember my dad sending me to the shop to get "The Ulster"; he was an avid reader of the paper. It's very sad news to see that it won't be printed anymore after the end of this month.
Posted by Raki Diva | 18.07.08, 10:18 GMT