MR. HACK No. 101

 

 
There is need for a bit of glamour and more humour around this place ... hence our two pictures this time out, both kindly supplied by Derek Black. Photographer John Harrison liked to snap funny moments as well as the business he was attending. This time he was caught himself along with Stephanie Bell and Sue Corbett  at a fancy dress ball in the Calgorm Manor some years ago. The second picture sees Derek managing to avoid a knock-out punch from Henry Cooper at the National Training Awards at the City Hall in Belfast.

Comments

[chairman]

Yes. More glamour. Thats what we need. I recall there were many very pretty girls working in newspapers, radio and TV news. Not all journalists but all part of the media family. A few pictures of some of these wonderful women would be welcome. Not necessarily Page 3 pics (although I know our Blogmaster wouldn't turn them away) but just a few photos to remind us of the warm smiles that made getting out of bed and going to work bearable on a cold Monday morning. (No wardrobe malfunctions please. Particularly from Alastair McQueen's wardrobe.)

[Chris Ryder]

I gather there is to be some special recognition of the late John Harrison at the CIPR Media Awards next week in the Europa. A well deserved tribute to an irreplaceable and skilled photographer who died far too prematurely.

[Sue Corbett]

Oh my word! The glitz and glamour of my days in journalism - a world away from the life of a press officer! Happy memories of good days, and great friendships. John is sadly missed. This photo is so typical - his smiling face and, ever the professional, making sure Steph and I are 'striking the pose'. Good times.

Sue Corbett (ex Sunday Life, now Belfast City Council Press Officer)_

[Alastair McQueen]

My old friend and colleague Eddie McIlwaine - The King Of The Byline Brigade - is bylined in the Irish edition of the Daily Mirror today .............nearly forty years after his name last appeared in lights in the Mirror.

[Graham]

...\and more than 50 years since Eddie was first by-lined in the Belfast Telegraph. Isn't it time Eddie got a Lifetime Achievement Award, at least?

[ruthie]

Great to see Steph and Sue in the picture.
Full of craic as usual and John is Shirley Basseying them for the pic.
I can just hear them giggling.
John very much missed from the media room at the Royal Ulster Show this year, but loved and always remembered.

[Graham]

After the wild full-page tirade on Sir Alex Ferguson in the Daily Mail earlier this week - "a lout", the Daily Telegraph's Jim White takes a different view:

"For every sweary, shouty characteristic he displays, he has a dozen that endear. An accomplished pianist, French speaker, wine connoisseur, military history buff and Twitter-phobe, he is as cultured an individual as any in modern life."

Isn't the range and diversity of the British press amazing?

[sm]

But his team, Man. Utd, was soundly beaten by Barcelona tonight! (3-1)

[Blogmaster]

The i has won the Platinum Award at the 2011 Newspaper Awards for 'innovaton and creativity' and amusing articles must come into that somewhere ... Here is a piece from yesterday's recently launched Saturday edition ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ninety-gaffes-in-ninety-years-2290148.html

[Graham]

...missing from these quotes from Prince Philip is: "The Daily Express is a bloody awful newspaper"

(I gather that some of the Express people, perversely, were delighted at this quote, that they had irritated Philip so much)

[Blogmaster]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
The improvement in his handwriting has revealed his inability to spell ... This boy does not need a scripture teacher. He needs a missionary.

- Robert Chalmers, writing in i on what teachers used to be able to write in school reports.

[Michael]

Might I return to the Baird v. Thomson discussion, as it brings back many memories that are important to old people (!)

I had only three years under Baird ownership, six under Thomson, but it's hard to say which was best. Vast changes were in the offing and I can't make up my mind whether the Thomson commercialism brought about these changes, whether its commercial approach was necessary to cope with them, or whether the benign, indeed paternal leadership of the Bairds could have coped with them.

The same goes for the Henderson family. For all our lambasting of Captain Bill, I think he did very well by his staff certainly when compared with the money-machine proprietors of today.

I've been working with a friend who has written a book on Bobby Baird and only now realised that by the time of his death in 1954 he had driven the BT almost into the ground in financial terms. Thomson had the money to invest for the changes of the future.

Certainly JES, who as I'm never tired of saying gave me my chance, did his utmost to maintain editorial integrity. In the mid-sixties, when the increasingly important ad-men wanted to know which car was subject of my weekly road-test so they could sell ads to the local dealers, JES said no. When an angry dealer principal threatened to pull his ads if I published a letter from the frustrated owner of an unreliable Sunbeam Rapier, JES told him to go ahead, and the letter was published despite pressure from Down Below. (The ads were pulled for a couple of months).

On the subject of picture editors, I remember Powell with no affection, but he wasn't the first of his kind. When Harry McMaster died in 1961 (I think) his replacement was a man called Metcalfe who had been News Chronicle picture editor at the time of its death. Hastings McGuinness, normally the kindest of men, summed him up neatly: "There's a typical Englishman who holds this place and everyone in it in contempt. The only reason he's here is that he can't get a job anywhere else". Few mourned Met's departure a year or so later.

[A.McQ.]

Well, neither the Baird nor Thomson ownership can have been anywhere near as incompetent as the current one - it is Sunday, May 29, and The Sunday Life website has not been updated for a fortnight. The last edition on view is that of May 15.

[A.McQ.]

And why are posts on this blog suddenly appearing in bold? Is it to make it easier for The Best Chairman We Ever Had to read after his Sunday lunchtime snifter(s)?

[Blogmaster]

Apologies A.McQ ... that was a typographical error ... problem quickly solved but thanks for drawing my attention to it.

[Graham]

I have previously said it is not my desire to continue the debate that's been going on here about who were the "best owners" of the Belfast Telegraph. But the more that other Copyboys proceed to continue the debate, the more I remember about the Thomson regime. So I will give another example.

In 1964, I covered a concert by the Rolling Stones at the Ulster Hall. The venue was desperately overcrowded. There were no seats. It was mayhem. Ambulance men dealt with dozens of casualties as people were in danger of being trampled. I wrote an honest account of what had happened. The paper published a front page story, with a second more detailed story of the near-disaster inside the paper.

I then received a phone call from a Thomson advertising man, asking me if I could "pop down for a minute" to his office. When I got there the Thomson advertising man castigated me for my report. Another man by his side, unidentified, and who was not introduced, then also began to criticise my report and went on to allege that I "didn't like" the promoters; that I "had it in for them"

I felt that I was being put under pressure. Then this unidentified man went on to say that perhaps I had been "actuated by malice". Alarm bells rang; this last phrase alerted me. I told him I suspected that he was a lawyer. He made no comment.

I said that I would leave to get to with my work. I reported the matter to the editor, who stony-faced and tight-lipped, made no comment but thanked me for the information. At no stage during the interview with the Thomson executive and his mysterious companion (seemingly designed to be intimidatory) was any inaccuracy in my report pointed out. Indeed, Mick Jagger,who spoke to me the morning after before I wrote my report, said to me: "Things got a bit out of hand last night" and I quoted him as such. Subsequent proceedings at Belfast Corporation (City Council) confirmed his view and mine about conditions at the venue

This is another example of what was the Thomson way of doing things in Belfast - in addition to the examples I have already given! And believe me, I don't have, as has been alleged "a sour taste in my mouth" or want, as a result to be told: "I feel sorry for you" I've been intimidated and patronised by experts, so I just move on.

I do hope that we can continue with free expression without being personal, but in this case I'd like to draw this debate to a close

[Graham]

O'REILLY

Long interview in the Guardian today with Gavin O'Reilly, boss of the Independent group, including the Belfast Telegraph

Click here; http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/30/interview-gavin-oreilly-independent-media?CMP=twt_fd

[Chris Ryder]

I well remember that Rolling Stones concert. I was on the balcone overlooking the stage. Never seen anything like it before or since.

[Chris Ryder]

Balcony of course. Often saw Paisley from the same vantage point in those days.

[A.McQ.]

Yes, Graham, I was also there and it was chaos. I think I was with Larry Nixon who was covering it for the News Letter.

[MS]

Whew, thank god the debate over best-owner of that paper is over. That's one of those things that can never be resolved -- like whether Joe Louis or Cassius Clay was the better boxer. Personally, I'd say . . .

[Graham]

Well, I'm not afraid to state my opinion, even if I run the risk of being scolded for it.

The answer is - neither of the above. The better boxer was Muhammad Ali.

[A.McQ.]

At the risk of starting it all over again I don't think Graham was "scolded". Different people have different opinions. As journalists we express our opinions forcibly at times which comes, I think, from having to bite our tongues when we are reporting. However I have to say I found Graham's account of his encounter with the Thomson Suit and anonymous man sinister in the extreme. And I am sure that, behind the scenes, JES did not let it go unchallenged.

[Eddie McIlwaine]

WHO HAS HAD THE
MOST BYLINES? ...

As one of the veterans still working for a paper I haven’t a lot of time to write for Copyboys, but I am chuffed at my first byline in the Daily Mirror in 37 years.

It must be a candidate for the Guinness Book of Records. Can’t say for sure, but I think my last byline in ’74 was about Bernadette who was a good contact.

The coincidence is that the yarn that got me a byline now was about Barry McGuigan and DM sports writer the late Alex Toner. And just before it appeared in the paper my former colleagues in the Mirror Sid Young and Chris Buckland paid me a visit at at home and stayed for lunch on their way to a fishing trip.

Bill Freeman who was northern editor in ’74 and Leo White who was news editor in Manchester are still around, but Irish editor Fred Penn is gone. Staffers in the Belfast office like Jack Milligan, Bert Eastwood and Stanley Bonnet are dead. Stanley Matchett another colleague in Mark Royal House is still around taking pix.

Curious thing about the McGuigan story – he was in town launching his autobiography – is that I did a story for the Belfast Telegraph about him nearly quitting the ring after the death of an early opponent but alas they didn’t use it.

PS Can someone who likes to do research check if any other journalist anywhere has had bylines with so many years between. There are probably dozens!!!!!!

[A.McQ.]

The legendary Daily Express editor Arthur Christiansen wrote a book called Headlines All My Life. If Eddie wrote one it would have to be called Bylines All My Life!

[Blogmaster]

Surely, the local journo with possibly the most bylines (and more than dear Eddie) would have to be Malcolm Brodie ... he has been writing a long time and, again like Eddie is still hard at work turning out sports stories and nostalgic trips down memory lane ...

[Blogmaster]

Some obviously liked our Quote of the Week about what teachers write, or used to write in school reports. We have been asked for the name of the book which is Could Do Better: School Reports of the Great and the Good by Catherine Hurley. One more from it is worth retelling. From Alan Coren's physics teacher:"Had he lived in an earlier eon, I have little doubt but that the wheel would now be square and the principle of the lever just one more of man's impossible dreams ...."

[Graham McKenzie]

My modest claim to bylines is that I was first bylined in the "Ireland's Saturday Night" in 1957 and was still being bylined regularly in the "Ulster Tatler" in 2007 (during a ten year stint when I wrote 120 3-page personality profiles) That's 50 years between bylines.

But, with some years in radio and television production in between, I can't claim to have near the number of bylines as Eddie, or indeed Malcy, or so many years in between.

[By ALASTAIR McQUEEN]

In news pages Eddie has to be up there - well up there - and you have to remember that in the 50s and 60s in particular news reporters had to EARN bylines. Sport was, and is, different. These days bylines aren't worth the paper they're printed on because they always have the "teaser" email address attached. Even shorts have bylines on 'em.

[peter mcmullan]

First byline a B.T. feature dated January 1955 (fee three guineas)
headed, most likely by Tom Carson 'Hitch-hiking 4,000 miles across Canada' with the sub-head Peter McMullan, a 19-year old Belfastman, tells of his adventures on a 12-day trip from Vancouver to Toronto that cost him less than 2d a mile. Latest byline, 56 years later, a feature on artist Dave Hall 'American Angling Treasure' in the May issue of Chasing Silver Fly-Fishing Magazine, published in Finland. Also from those early days, when JES tried his very best to discourage me from considering a life in the Sports Dept under byline king MB...'Ups and downs of life in a submarine'..... 'RESCUE BY HELICOPTER' (yes, in caps)...'A night at sea with the Portavogie fishermen'....'Beer tax paid for the Lagan Canal'...and 'When the Lough Neagh trout have the last laugh'. Later came the series Night Shift with Cyril Cave the assigned photographer. Looking back on those distant days now I wonder how many young journos have as much fun going to work as I did. Not many I guess for it really was a wonderful introduction to a profession that continues to enthrall after so many years.

[A.McQ.]

Peter hits the nail on the head with question about how many young journos of today have as much fun going to work as he did. Reporting was FUN, it was an adventure and although EVERY day wasn't different it was a varied and exciting way of life, particularly for those who had endured the austerity of the WW2 years. And that's the point - it was a way of life, not a job. If you treated reporting merely as a job you never got the buzz you got while "living the dream." For me a lot of it was about being sent on stories in places I couldn't afford to visit and staying in hotels you wouldn't normally be able to afford a pot of tea in! Yes, I stayed in some hovels and lived in holes in the ground and in cellars but I also stayed in a lot of luxury hotels all paid for by the firm. Malcolm Brodie is a fine example of what journalism means - at his age he's still battering a keyboard and catching planes and that's what keeps him going. Life to Malcolm and a lot of others is still a great adventure. But I have to say reading PMcM's fishing posts makes me green with envy even though I haven't picked up a fishing rod for nigh on thirty years.

[Michael]

@P McM
Peter, what happened to your lovely green Triumph TR1 for which I lusted all those years ago?

Looking down into Library St I still see you driving off on another job while I was stuck inside for another dreary ISN afternoon ... I still shudder when I see a pink scorecard.

[peter mcmullan]

Ah yes, the green Triumph 1800 TR1 Roadster. What a monster. Far too powerful for my meagre driving skills as a stone wall on the way to a rugby dinner in Cushendun will attest. What became of it? Who knows? It followed a 350 cc Royal Enfield, a 500 cc BSA, a Triumph convertible with a home-made canvas and wood strut body, pictured one day propped up on a brick in Library Street, and then, after the TRI, a four door Riley Lynx Sprite with a
pre-selector gear box, all belts and pulleys. Later, when my sports corr income was at its peak, came a new Hillman Minx and then one of the first Minis, a red Morris (sp?) that leaked from all points from day one. Back to the Triumph that Michael coveted. It was really far too dashing for my lowly journalistic status but definitely impressed those young ladies we wished to impress. The bench front seat was spacious beyond belief while the separate dickie seat, with its own fold-out windscreen, was wonderful on a rare summer's day but quite useless for most of the year. Amazingly, in 16 years between 1955 and 1971, I only had one bad accident,
parting company with the BSA outside Caledon when a herd of cows came charging out of a gate. I was on my way to Lough Erne
at Mayfly time and still managed to fish the week out despite
various abrasions and a badly bruised shoulder. Now fishing trips around British Columbia are conducted in a 1994 four wheel drive Ford Explorer, a typical North American SUV that gulps gas almost as fast as the Triumph at probably two or three (or much more) times the price we paid back then. Thanks Michael for bringing it all back so vividly. Those really were fun times.

[Graham McKenzie]

The Co. Down Spectator is reported to be going compact from next week. Is this the last of the broadsheets in N Ireland?

[Graham McKenzie]

Newtownards Chronicle also tabloid (oops, "compact") from next week. Will this mean shorter stories, less coverage, lower costs?

Am told Coleraine Chronicle will now be Northern Ireland sole broadsheet newspaper.

[ruthie]

What about the Observer Group in Dungannon. They are broadsheet and according to Des Mallon will remain so. I think printed in seven towns.

[Blogmaster]

There's a new picture, rather a portrait in our album Journos at Large ... it features our esteemed colleague and friend Alf McCreary. The portrait appeared in last week's Co. Down Specator in a story about Sea Bangor Festival on June 18 and 19. Alf is one of the speakers during the Sunday events at 1pm on the 19th when his topic will be his book "Titanic Port - The Illustrated History of Belfast Harbour". Alf tells us, "The pic of me in the hat was taken one day on spec in the Harbour Office when John Harrison was down on another assignment. I was looking for a special portrait, and being such a good, obliging man, he took this one of me. It was the last time I 'worked' with him, so the pic is very special for me." It is, we agree, a special picture by a special man.

[A.McQ.]

Is The Northern Constitution not a broadsheet any more? And what about The Ulster Herald, Fermanagh Herald and The Impartial Reporter? I think we should be told.

[Blogmaster]

Ian Alexander has written a good introduction to his weekly Grumpy Old Man column in this week's Co. Down Specator announcing the arrival of the paper on June 9 in compact format from broadsheet..."or as it is generally known, tabloid though hopefully it will not mimic the more outrageous manifestations of the genre." We shall wait and see ... not sure the word manifestations appears in the tabloids too much.

[MS]

I get the Coleraine Chronicle now and then, from my sister -- and it is definitely tabloid.

[Graham]

Apologies to MS. My info about the Coleraine Chronicle still being a broadsheet came from a journalist...albeit based in Belfast. So I think this means every newspaper produced in N Ireland - weekly, daily or Sunday is now tabloid...I mean...er, "compact"

[Graham]

I saw the Impartial Reporter recently - and it is a tabloid. Didn't seem the same!

[Blogmaster]

We deal with requests as best we can ... Derek Black thinks our album of John Harrison pictures is a bit thin so kindly sent us three shots taken by him for covers of an Omnibus magazine which was once dealt with by DB while he worked happily at Stormont ... the cover shots of Lord O'Reilly, Father Myles and girls from Lagan College are now up for all to view in the appropriate album.Ps ... the Visual Jokes album now has five new efforts to bring a smile to our faces.

[Blogm]

Reading an article yesterday about a college library retaining only a quarter of its stock and 55,000 other books being sent to Africa ... all to keep pace with the apparent move by readers to the kindle system. Thought it might be interesting for the rest of you to read if you did not happen to see it ... The heading on the article was

THERE'S MORE TO A BOOK
THAN JUST THE TEXT

Here is the link: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-theres-more-to-a-book-than-just-the-text-2292305.html

[Chris Ryder]

Wonderful recognition of John at CIPR Media Awards in Europa last night. Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness attended and both paid fulsome tribute and his son replied in eloquent terms. A fitting memorial. Other journos who passed away last year also named and remembered.

Sir Billy Hastings, an impresive 82, also spoke to mark the Europa's unique relationship with the ladies and gentlemen of the media in advance of the hotel's 40th birthday falling on 9 July.

Revealed that BBC have made a documentary about the history of the Europa to be broadcast in the autumn.

[Cal McCrystal]

Copyboys may be interested/amused/persuaded by the following which has just reached me via one of my sons:-

Dear Mr. Cameron,
Please find below our suggestion for fixing England’s economy.
Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.   
 
You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:
There are about 10 million people over 50 in the work force. 
Pay them £1 million each severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:
1) They MUST retire - ten million job openings - unemployment fixed
2) They MUST buy a new British car. Ten million cars ordered - car Industry fixed
3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - housing crisis fixed
4) They MUST send their kids/grandkids to school/college/university – Crime rate fixed
5) They MUST buy £100 WORTH of alcohol/tobacco a week.....and there's your money back in duty/tax etc
6) Instead of stuffing around with the carbon emissions trading schemes that makes us pay for the major polluters, tell the greedy xxxxx to  reduce their pollution emissions by 75% within 5 years or we shut them down.
It can't get any easier than that!
And if more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances
If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know. If not, please disregard.

Grumpies of the World Unite!
Other points you might consider:
Put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home, then the pensioners would have access to showers, hobbies and walks. They'd also receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc. They'd have constant video monitoring so if assistance was needed they'd have immediate help. Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be washed and ironed as needed.  
There would be a guard to check on them every 20 minutes and staff to bring their meals and snacks to their cell.
They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.
They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counseling, pool and education.
Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ's and legal aid would be free, on request.
There would be private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens for anyone who felt the need to exercise.
Each senior could have a PC a TV radio and daily phone calls and there would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and all guards would
have a code of conduct that would have to be strictly adhered to.
The criminals would get cold food, be left all alone and unsupervised day and night.  Lights off at 8pm, and showers once a week; live in a
tiny room and pay £600.00 per week without any hope of ever getting out.
Think about this (more points of contention):
*****
COWS
 
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that, during the mad cow epidemic, our government could track a single cow, born almost three years ago in Appleby, right next to the stall where she slept in the county of Cumbria?
And, they even tracked her calves to their individual stalls.. But they are unable to locate 125,000 illegal immigrants wandering around our country.
Maybe we should give each illegal immigrant a cow.
******

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse or Parliament, is this -
You cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal', 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and
politicians..... It creates a hostile work environment.
******
Also;
Think about this ... If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone -- YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!
It is time for us grumpy folk of Britain to speak up!

[Graham McKenzie]

JOHN E SAYERS
A biography

We have been given kind permission to reproduce this biography of John E Sayers, legendary former editor of the "Belfast Telegraph"

Extract from the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography (9 vols, Cambridge University Press, 2009, and Online 2011 going forward)

John Edward (‘Jack’) Sayers, by Bridget Hourican

John Edward (‘Jack’) Sayers (1911–69), editor of the Belfast Telegraph, was born 13 July 1911 in Belfast, son of John Sayers, journalist on and later editor of the Belfast Telegraph, and Elizabeth Sayers (née Lemon) of Strandtown. John Sayers (1879–1939) was born 1 December 1879, probably in Co. Down, eldest son of Robert Sayers of Mountpottinger, Co. Down. He was educated at the Methodist College, Belfast, and in 1895 joined the Belfast Evening Telegraph as a reporter. An omnivorous reader with an encyclopedic memory for facts and a descriptive flair to his writing, he was a great asset to the paper and covered areas as disparate as political, military, legal, religious, and sporting affairs. His great area of expertise was Belfast shipbuilding. His liberal unionist political views accorded with those of the paper, and about 1914 he was made leader writer. After the war, at the request of the Ulster Unionist Council, he wrote a short history of the Ulster Division and travelled to the Somme and Flanders on research. In 1925 he toured Canada for a series of articles. When Thomas Moles (qv) was made editor, Sayers became assistant editor and effectively ran the paper as Moles was also a Stormont and Westminster MP and deputy speaker of the NI parliament. In 1930 the Northern Whig offered Sayers the post of editor at twice his salary. The owner of the Telegraph, Sir Robert Baird (qv), asked Sayers to name his price, which turned out to be modest. He wanted Baird to take on his son, Jack, as a cub reporter, against Telegraph policy of not employing children of employees.

In 1937 Sayers was finally made editor, while his brother, Robert M. Sayers (below), was made assistant editor about the same time. John Sayers's biggest innovation was the introduction of a highly popular magazine section in the paper. In January 1939 he was made president of the Institute of Journalists. This was a prestigious role and it was only the second time in the history of the institute that it was filled by an Ulsterman. However, Sayers had not long to enjoy it. On 16 September 1939 a ship, HMS Courageous, carrying his son, was torpedoed and the original list of survivors did not name Jack Sayers. News of his safety came on 18 September – a Stormont debate was interrupted to confirm it – but Sayers was badly shaken and a few weeks later he suffered a heart attack and died at home on Kirkliston Drive, Belfast, on 15 October 1939. He was survived by his wife, his son, and two daughters.

His younger brother, Robert McMaster Sayers (1884–1964) took over as editor. Also educated at the Methodist College, he worked briefly in the Belfast ropeworks before joining the Belfast Telegraph as a junior reporter in 1902. During the first world war he was a war correspondent and visited the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow just before the battle of Jutland. As well as serving as assistant editor and leader-writer in the 1930s, he also edited the Telegraph's sister publication, Ireland's Saturday Night, a sports weekly. His fourteen-year editorship of the paper (1939–53) was solid but unadventurous. Dignity and decorum were his watchwords. He condemned any intrusion into privacy and any offence against good taste. Journalists were kept in line by his tongue-lashings; he supported neither fools nor sycophants. The paper was profitable; Sayers referred to the readers as the ‘red corpuscles’, respected their preferences, and made no new demands of them. The more adventurous among his staff found him unbending, parochial and frustrating to work with. His hold on the purse-strings was so tight that an office joke circulated that a bonus would be awarded to the first employee who swam the Atlantic, both ways, unescorted. However, though frugal he was charitable and used the Telegraph to sponsor appeals such as the Spitfire fund and the Whitehouse fire fund. A pillar of the community and a devout methodist, he initiated the best-kept town and village competition and was chairman of the Newspaper Press Fund, governor of the Royal Victoria Hospital, vice-president of the Belfast chamber of commerce, and founder member of the Belfast mariners' club. A member of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland and senior grand warden of the grand lodge of Antrim, he was on the Ulster Unionist Council's standing committee and was happy to maintain the Telegraph's strong links with the UUP.

After the death of the Telegraph's proprietor, Robert Baird, in 1953, Robert Sayers was made chairman of the board and a joint managing director, while his nephew Jack (see below) became the third of the family to edit the paper. Sayers pointed out that management was not his métier, but typically he accepted the responsibility of joint managing director as a duty, and continued in this position until 1962, when he retired after sixty years with the paper, having been made CBE (1956). He died on 19 October 1964 and was survived by one son and predeceased by many years by his wife, Louisa.
Jack Sayers (1911–69), as he was always known, was, like his father and uncle, educated at the Methodist College, Belfast, where he was head boy, and on leaving school (1930) followed his father into the Belfast Telegraph as a junior reporter. In 1937 he signed up for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. In November 1939, six weeks after the torpedoing of Courageous, Sayers was recruited by his friend Richard Pim (qv), future head of the RUC, to Churchill's ‘map room’. This was an extraordinary makeshift room which moved with Churchill from Admiralty House to Downing St. to conferences abroad; it was entirely fitted out with maps of the war zones and with naval, air, and civil defence statistics. Here the course of the war was plotted. Sayers manned this room for six years and was called by Churchill ‘the Ulsterman with the card index memory’ (Gailey, 19). Very shortly after the war Sayers married (October 1945) a widow, Mrs Daphne Godby (née Pannell), and returned to Belfast, where he was appointed political correspondent of the Belfast Telegraph under the editorship of his uncle, R. M. Sayers. He also undertook, from 1946, fortnightly radio talks on BBC Northern Ireland entitled ‘Ulster commentary’, where he discussed political matters and tried to bring to bear his relatively cosmopolitan outlook on the province. These talks were in no way radical: Sayers was an old-fashioned liberal unionist deeply attached to the province, who had a faintly nostalgic, imperialistic preference for a united Ireland within the commonwealth. A member of Eldon Lodge, the most prestigious lodge in the Orange order, he was well regarded by the country's elite and in 1950 was asked by the prime minister, Sir Basil Brooke (qv), to accompany him as his press officer on a prolonged tour of America.
In 1953 Sayers became the third successive member of his family to edit the Belfast Telegraph when his uncle was made chairman. Sayers began making tentative changes to turn the paper into an organ of a democratic, cosmopolitan society; these included ensuring proper coverage of international issues such as the Suez crisis, and holding the government to account for unemployment and welfare problems. He had turned down an offer from the Daily Telegraph – a decision he allegedly came to regret – and was determined to cast the Belfast Telegraph in the guise of a provincial evening Daily Telegraph. His priority was reform of the Unionist party and the unionist mentality. In leaders and articles he demanded that unionists address the province's sectarianism and cultivate the middle-class catholic vote. He presented this argument most cogently in the comparatively safe confines of a chapter in Thomas Wilson's Ulster under home rule (1955). In November 1959 he tried to calm the furore surrounding a speech by the attorney general, Brian Maginess (qv), inviting catholics to join the unionist party, with an editorial quoting Edward Carson (qv). The attitude of the Orange order to Maginess's speech led Sayers to take the unprecedented step of resigning from his lodge. Thereafter he became more vociferous in his calls to address minority wrongs, commissioning two articles in 1961 on housing discrimination in Fermanagh and provocatively praising the Republic for its positive role in the UN. This led the Irish Times to write (18 May 1961) of the quiet liberal revolution he was bringing about, and Hibernia (1968) to name him Ireland's most courageous editor.

Sayers hitched on to Terence O'Neill (qv) as a rising star in a new order and almost turned the paper into an election manifesto for him. He was one of the architects of ‘O'Neillism’, the politics based on creating a consensus of moderate opinion, and of conciliating catholics by raising their standard of living, epitomised by O'Neill's notorious post-resignation speech: ‘if you give Roman Catholics a good house, they will live like good protestants’ (Lee, 426). A devout and committed Christian, Sayers kept in touch with leading catholic clergymen and urged communal church action, but he had less contact with the broader catholic community and little appreciation of the extent of their disillusionment. After the violence of the October 1968 civil rights march, he urged sweeping reforms on unionists and optimistically envisaged that eruption being the last. A Belfast Telegraph campaign following O'Neill's keynote address on 9 December 1968 resulted in 50,000 signatures of support in just twenty-four hours. It was Sayers's last gesture for the premier. He retired on 17 March 1969, in poor health and disheartened over the turn of events. He died five months later on 30 August 1969 of a heart attack, and was survived by two daughters.
Jack Sayers was among the most dynamic of Northern Ireland's postwar editors. The Stormont civil servant Ken Bloomfield thought he had the vision, presence, and dignity to edit one of the great London papers. However, his reforming zeal made him over-optimistic about Northern Ireland's direction and led him out of step with many of his readers.
Stephen J. Brown, The press in Ireland (1937); Ir. Times, 31 Aug. 1969; Belfast Telegraph, Times, 16 Oct. 1939;Belfast Telegraph, 23 Nov. 1969; Terence O'Neill, Ulster at the crossroads (1969); WWW; C. E. B. Brett, Long shadows cast before (1978); Hugh Oram, The newspaper book (1983); Malcolm Brodie, The Tele: a history of the Belfast Telegraph (1995); Andrew Gailey, Crying in the wilderness (1995)

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'The Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography is published online (dib.cambridge.org). To subscribe email onlinepublications@cambridge.org; for further information see www.dib.ie'. 


[Cal McCrystal]

The above does justice to JES, although a touch lukewarm. Having enjoyed his editorship for eight years and admired the direction he sought for the Belfast Telegraph, I would have no hesitation in regarding him as one of the greatest Ulstermen of his generation.

[Graham]

MEDIA AWARDS

Journalists, editors and programme makers from across the print, broadcast and online media in Northern Ireland came together at Belfast’s Europa Hotel last night for the annual Coca Cola CIPR NI Media Awards hosted by Nicholas Witchell, the BBC’s Royal Correspondent.

Over 300 people from the world of media, public relations and business attended the 18th awards ceremony held by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) to honour the best that local journalism has to offer. A panel of distinguished media figures from across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland chose the following winners:

Coca-Cola CIPR Martin O'Hagan Memorial Bursary Newcomer of the Year – Amanda Poole - Belfast Telegraph

Coca-Cola CIPR Photographer of the Year – Mark McCormick - Sunday Life

Coca-Cola CIPR Newspaper Production Journalist of the Year – Kevin Farrell - Irish News

Coca-Cola CIPR News / Current Affairs Broadcaster of the Year – Mandy McAuley - BBC NI

Coca-Cola CIPR Magazine / Supplement of the Year – uberdog

Coca-Cola CIPR Media Website of the Year – Belfast Telegraph

Coca-Cola CIPR Specialist Journalist of the Year – Seanin Graham - Irish News

Coca-Cola CIPR Environmental Journalist of the Year – Linda Stewart - Belfast Telegraph

Coca-Cola CIPR Feature Journalist of the Year – Gail Walker - Belfast Telegraph

Coca-Cola CIPR Sports Journalist of the Year – Paddy Heaney - Irish News

Coca-Cola CIPR Business Journalist of the Year – Adrienne McGill - News Letter

Coca-Cola CIPR Political Journalist of the Year – Liam Clarke -Belfast Telegraph

Coca-Cola CIPR Columnist of the Year – Ronan McSherry - Tyrone Herald

Coca-Cola CIPR News / Current Affairs Programme of the Year – Bloody Justice - UTV Insight

Coca-Cola CIPR Weekly Newspaper Journalist of the Year – Joanne Fleming - Down Recorder

Coca-Cola CIPR Print News Journalist of the Year – Hugh Jordan - Sunday World

Coca-Cola CIPR Scoop of the Year – Anne Madden - Belfast Telegraph

Coca-Cola CIPR Weekly Newspaper of the Year – Derry Journal

Coca-Cola CIPR Newspaper of the Year – Irish News

Coca-Cola CIPR Journalist of the Year – Mandy McAuley - BBC NI

Coca-Cola CIPR Lifetime Achievement Award – Rob Morrison - UTV

The event began with an emotional tribute from the First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, as they presented a Special Recognition Award to the family of the late John Harrison - one of Northern Ireland’s most distinguished and renowned photographers.

Congratulating the winners, Chartered Institute of Public Relations Northern Ireland Chairman Ross Williamson said:

"The CIPR in Northern Ireland has been organising this event for 18 years as an opportunity to show local journalists that we value their work and contribution to Northern Ireland life. The awards represent our collective gratitude on behalf of all readers, viewers and listeners as our world would be less colourful, less informed and a smaller place without our local print, online and broadcast media.

We are very grateful that the Harrison family was able to attend this event as we remembered the work and life of John who was a strong supporter of the CIPR over the years. The fact that the First and deputy First Ministers attended this event in order to honour John highlights the affection and esteem with which he will always be held by so many across Northern Ireland.

I would also like to thank Coca Cola, our title sponsors for its continuing support, along with associate sponsors Rose Energy and additional sponsors including the Europa Hotel, Phoenix Natural Gas, Sport NI, Holiday Inn Belfast, Harrison Photography, Belleek Living and mxbrand.com who made it possible for us to hold the event."

Gillian Shields, PR Executive for main sponsor Coca-Cola HBC Northern Ireland also congratulated the winners and paid tribute to all of the media professionals who work and report in Northern Ireland and the extremely high standards of journalism they display.

Remembering his time as a Northern Ireland correspondent for the BBC in the 1970s, Nicholas Witchell introduced Sir William Hastings, chairman of Hasting Hotels to mark the Europa’s 40th anniversary and to highlight the role that the hotel has played in hosting journalists from across the world over the years, covering the highs of Presidential visits and the lows of the troubles.

[Michael]

Am I the only ancient hack to see the irony in the Chartered Institute of PR holding an awards ceremony for journalists?

Time was when PR tried to stop the stories people wanted to read and substitute the non-stories (ie puff) its employers wanted them to read.

Today puff fills too much of many publications, particularly magazines and the industrial sector where I finished my career. Maybe the dwindling number of journos should hold an awards ceremony for spin-doctors?

[Graham]

No, Michael. Journalists should hold an awards ceremony for journalists! PR people doing it can seem too much like "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine." - and open up a culture where favours are called in.

I was secretary of the CIPR in Northern Ireland when the awards ceremony was mooted and I expressed my reservations about it then.

Now it has grown until there are 21 categories, no less, in a small Province. So the chances of winning an award have shortened. For instance, how many business reporters are there in this small Province? (And I do not take away from people like Jamie Delargy who is superb)

Two years ago I suggested to the local CIPR that there should be a prize for the best-written News Release - a spur to raise standards in the industry. I was quickly given the brush-off by the woman chairperson who, oddly thanked me for "approaching the CIPR" Approaching? I was a member, for goodness sake - proposed for membership by Nick Hewer, Lord Sugar's right-hand man, as a result of work I did for him (Nick) in the Province.

I resigned my membership of CIPR earlier this year. I have to be honest - to me it is getting so far up itself with an air of self-congratulation that it does not always feel a comfortable place.

And as for as Lifetime Achievement Awards to journalists which the CIPR is now giving out - what about people like Eddie McIlwaine or Billy Simpson?

[Derek Black]

I remember when the awards were sponsored by Rothmans - so maybe we should blame the smoking ban for letting them fall into the hands of the gamekeepers.! Seriously, where would you get a neutral organisation with money to sponsor such award? I agree they are a bit of a nonsense in such a small area. But it was always a great excuse for a piss-up either to celebrate or drown one's sorrows. Lifetime achievement award these days is a dear John phone call after writing a column for 35 years!

Maybe the PA could sponsor the awards. Speaking of the PA, surely their staff should be in the running for the by-lines record in these days when their stuff appears in all the papers each day...

[Graham]

WELCOME TO NEWSPAPER LIVES

This is the category where, for easy reference, we store biographies and obituaries of those we have known of or worked with in the newspaper (and broadcasting) trade.

The intention is that these biographies and obituaries will first be published in the day-to-day "Mr Hack" category...but will also be archived here for long-term reference and research.

As we have no "search" facility on TheCopyboys, this should make it easier for retrieval.

Each entry will be headlined with the name of the person being referred to. Because the latest entry is always the last to be seen, you may have to scroll down until you catch the name you want.

You can find "Newspaper Lives" listed under "Categories" in the left-hand sidebar. The one on Jack Sayers is already there. Others will follow.

[Graham]

SUPER-INJUNCTIONS ARE HERE!

Four super-injunctions are in place in Northern Ireland. This has been revealed in the Assembly by Justice Minister David Ford in reply to a question from Jim Allister MLA.

N Ireland is a very small place and this revelation could spark a lot of rumour and speculation.

The Belfast Telegraph website a couple of weeks ago carried a reader's comment (attached to a story) which named one of the Province's best-known personalities in connection with a super-injunction. I was very surprised to see the comment still there next day.

No speculation here, please!

[Graham]

How reporters can reach an early climax

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/jun/06/journalism-education-local-newspapers?CMP=twt_fd

[Graham]

Now that we have super-injunctions in Northern Ireland, no doubt there'll be a debate on Radio Ulster - with careful handling, of course.

[Chairman]

Some of you may have read that story of the American woman, who gave birth to a black baby while her white soldier husband was away fighting for democracy. The lady insisted she was not unfaithful in his absence. Her explantion, apparently accepted by her soldier, was that she got pregnant while watching a 3D porn movie. The child, she says, is the spitting image of the black porn actor in the movie. I think that couple would have had a good case for a super injunction on that episode. Indeed, I'm surprised our Health and Safety fanatics have not already put out a warning about the dangers to susceptible young women from projections from 3D porn films. Perhaps as well as special goggles supplied by cinemas, they could issue cinemagoers with bullet proof knickers. There must be a petition somewhere we could sign.

[Blogmaster]

Yes, thanks ... as a by the by courtesy of sm and our Chairman, we have a new pic in our Pictures album ... it is quite brilliant in its taking and in its subjet ... an iceberg, photographed from above and below the sea. Their punchline in sending it to us was that the Titanic didn't stand a chance ... take a look.

[Chris Ryder]

How can you breach a super injunction when you don't know it even exists?

[A.McQ.]

Er..Mr Blogmaster, sir, I have been frozen on many a doorstep - and even in the Uel Young Memorial Sandhills - but that iceberg picture has nothing to do with me. I only have ice in the occasional gin and tonic or the odd Scotch.
On the subject of super-injunctions: I notice a "certain showbusiness personality" who has taken one out is receiving acres of publicity about his/her various ventures in the world of showbiz and other activities, but no mention of his/her between-the-sheets as the papers send a clear message to him/her: "We know all about you! And we're waiting. ((Iceberg err. Mistake corrected - Blogmaster)