''The Irish Family'' (later ''The Irish Family Press'') was an Irish weekly

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

newspaper from 1992 to 2008, providing news and commentary about the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and social issues. It was traditional Catholic in outlook, supporting the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or ''usus antiquior'' (), Vetus Ordo or the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in ...

and critical of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. It was founded as ''The Democrat'' in 1992 after the

X Case ''Attorney General v X'' 9921 IR 1 (more commonly known as the "X Case") was a judgment of the Irish Supreme Court which established the right of Irish women to an abortion if a pregnant woman's life was at risk because of pregnancy, including th ...

. Shortly thereafter it changed its title to ''The Irish Democrat'', which was later changed to ''The Irish Family'' to avoid confusion with the paper of the same name run by the Connolly Association. In its first years it was run by Dick Hogan, a Mullingar-based local newspaper proprietor and Catholic activist. It published a regular column on Marian devotion by the theologian Fr Michael O'Carroll. It was strongly hostile to European integration and supported attempts to establish an independent Catholic political party. Other contributors included Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle and Ann-Marie Madden. Editor until early 2006 was

Gerry McGeough Terence Gerard 'Gerry' McGeough (born 1958, near Dungannon, County Tyrone) is a prominent Irish republican who was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), a former Sinn Féin activist and editor of the defunct '' The Hiberni ...

, an IRA activist who until 2003 was on the Sinn Féin executive, and who had spent a number of years in prison for various arms offences. He left to set up a new nationalist newspaper, ''The Hibernian''. He was jailed in February 2011 for the shooting of an off-duty UDR soldier in 1981 and membership of the IRA. He was followed as editor by Lorcan Mac Mathuna, who had previously been associated with the anti-abortion movement

Youth Defence Youth Defence is an Irish organisation that opposes legalisation of abortion. It was founded in 1986 (during the 1986 divorce referendum), lay dormant, and was reformed in 1992 following the judgment in the X Case. It shared offices with the ...

. The newspaper was not doing well financially. The company's accounts show it made a loss of €58,272 in the year ended 30 September 2005. It announced in August 2008 that it was ceasing printing and would go online. However, an online version does not seem to have appeared.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irish Family Newspapers published in the Republic of Ireland Catholic Church in the Republic of Ireland Euroscepticism in Ireland Newspapers established in 1998 Traditionalist Catholic newspapers Defunct newspapers published in Ireland Newspapers disestablished in 2008 Traditionalist Catholicism in Ireland