LAST Wednesday at the Irish Farm Centre, home these days to the offices of The Irish Field, it was a day of celebration. Exactly 150 years previously the first edition of what was to become today’s paper, then called the Irish Sportsman and Farmer, was published. Only two papers today in Ireland predate it, and to survive and thrive in the competitive world of newspapers for a century and a half is something to be acknowledged.

While social media was alight with messages of congratulations all week, the normal work of the staff within the paper continued – albeit with something of a festive air about.

Wednesday is press day for our colleagues in the Irish Farmers Journal, so a full house is pretty much assured on that midweek day. It was opportune therefore to join with them to toast the first 150 years of The Irish Field, a unique publication with nothing comparable anywhere else in the world.

As the title is owned by The Agricultural Trust, it fell to the CEO Justin McCarthy to open proceedings and he placed the history of the paper in the context of air travel and the invention of the motor car. Yes, we have been about that long!

Justin was joined by the Trust’s chairman Matt Dempsey, the man who was in the CEO chair at the time of The Irish Field’s acquisition from The Irish Times.

Matt went on to outline how the purchase was completed and the decision to approach this writer was made. The deal was sealed over a lunch at the now defunct Brown’s Barn, and the wheels were set in motion to build a team.

On Wednesday it was a tribute to the loyalty of that team that two of the three key editorial members who were present on the first day of business on Monday, September 22nd, 2003 – Mark Costello and Margaret O’Connor – are still driving the paper forward, Mark as general manager.

Domhnall Dervan, a key member that first week in production, is also still on the team, while Brendan McArdle was poached a little later from Punchestown to spearhead the advertising department.

In the intervening years a number of personnel have come and gone, but relatively few in numbers. Today the editorial team also comprises Isabel Hurley, Olivia Hamilton, Anne Marie Duff, Judith Faherty, Ronan Groome, Rachel Moriarty and Brian O’Keeffe, while Niamh McCarthy and Mary Gordon work with Brendan in marketing and advertising.

Team

The head of production in The Agricultural Trust is Garrett Allen and he has made, and still does make, a significant contribution to the paper’s success, while Niall Connolly is a key man in terms of putting shape and style on the pages, week in and week out.

Add to this a large team of photographic experts, circulation, IT and accounting services and much more, and you can see that it is a real team effort to get up to 128 pages a week together for your delectation.

Now we head into our first week of our 151st year with enthusiasm, confidence and optimism and offer our readers, at home and around the globe, many means to access our publication.

We thank you, our readers and commercial supporters, every success and hope you will continue to enjoy this journey with us.

Finally, I will end with an emailed letter we received on Wednesday which encapsulated a lot about what the paper means and has meant to people.

Dear Leo and all at The Irish Field,

Happy Birthday and long live The Irish Field.

Back in the late fifties and early sixties, I was a delivery paperboy in a small town in the midlands and every Saturday I had only one copy to deliver. Guess who it was for? It was for the parish priest.

I must confess I did have a good ‘peep’ in advance (could not afford it at the time), but once I got my first job it was a priority on my shopping list and now I am a happy subscriber to the e-paper.

Thanks again to all at The Irish Field who have contributed to the Trojan work that goes on behind the scenes.

Regards,

Mike Martyn

Best wishes from us all.

Leo Powell

Editor