The ''Northern Whig'' (from 1919 the ''Northern Whig and Belfast Post'') was a daily regional newspaper in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

which was first published in 1824 in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

when it was founded by

Francis Dalzell Finlay Francis Dalzell Finlay (1793–1857), was an Irish journalist. Finlay was the son of John Finlay, tenant farmer, of Newtownards, County Down, by his wife, Jane Dalzell, was born 12 July 1793 at Newtownards, and began life as a printer's apprent ...

. It was published twice weekly, Monday and Thursday, until 1849 when it increased publication to three days a week, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. F.D. Finlay died in 1857 leaving the paper to his younger son also called Francis Dalzell Finlay. In 1858, The Northern Whig became a daily paper. In 1874 the paper became a limited company and it was sold to John Arnott who owned the Irish Times for £17,500, he disposed of it following an attack on Catholics. Samuel Cunningham became Chairman of the paper, and the family owned throughout the 20th century until its demise in 1963, after the second world war

James Glencairn Cunningham James Glencairn Cunningham OBE (1903–1996) was a unionist politician in Northern Ireland. Cunningham was from an Ulster family; his father was Samuel Cunningham, and his brothers were Josias Cunningham, stockbroker, Dunlop McCosh Cunningham, o ...

became the owner and managing editor of the paper. In its early years the paper as its editor and owner Finlay was in favour of

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

and supported the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. Its editorial line was liberal and unionist and it was seen as reflecting a Presbyterian slant on the news. Among its most notable editors was Joseph R. Fisher, B.L., from 1891 to 1913, who was in 1924 appointed Unionist commissioner of the

Irish Boundary Commission The Irish Boundary Commission () met in 1924–25 to decide on the precise delineation of the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the Irish War of Independence, provided for such a c ...

. The company changed its name to Northern Whig and Belfast Post in 1919. Three years later The Northern Whig moved to new premises on Bridge Street, where it remained until the paper ceased in 1963. These were damaged during the Belfast Blitz on 15 April 1941, when Bridge Street was almost decimated by the German Luftwaffe. On Thursday, 17 April 1941, the paper reported, ‘A heavy death roll, possibly 200, is expected as a result of yesterday morning’s German air raid on Northern Ireland. Residential districts in Belfast were the main targets, and sections of the city far removed from military objectives were laid in ruins’. From 1963 until 1997 the building housed offices. In 1997, the building was renovated and turned into a pub, The Northern Whig. The artist

Andrew Nicholl Andrew Nicholl RHA (4 April 1804 – 16 April 1886) was an Irish painter. He was a founding member of the Belfast Association of Artists and in 1847 was elected as an associate member to the Royal Hibernian Academy, becoming a full member in 1 ...

apprenticed with F.D. Finlay, and worked for the Northern Whig. James Simms was editor of the paper in its early days, who left in 1851 to find ''The Mercury''. Following the demise of the newspaper in 1964, the company survived as ''The Northern Whig printing company''. It went into administration in 2012 with the loss of 17 jobs.

References

Newspapers published in Northern Ireland Mass media in Belfast {{NorthernIreland-newspaper-stub