Dossier 114 - Morning Post: or, Dublin Courant

2 items; Newspaper

The file contains two copies of the ‘Morning Post: or, Dublin Courant’ newspaper. The two editions are Vol. IX, No. 128 (27 October 1796) and Vol. IX, No. 30 (10 March 1796).

The paper is extremely fragile, and care should be taken in handling these items.

Founded in 1788 by Peter Cooney (c.1755-c.1798), the ‘Morning Post’ was, unusually for the period, an opposition newspaper. By the end of the eighteenth-century Dublin had emerged as an important print and news hub and the government was keen to exercise control over the supply of information in the Irish capital. Increasingly radical political views were aired in some Irish newspapers in the 1790s which led to a suppression of the opposition press.

The printing of official Dublin Castle proclamations and notices was a valuable source of revenue for newspapers and the withdrawal of government advertising from papers whose loyalty was in question, was frequently enough to ruin any print enterprise. Moreover, Cooney was sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment for the libelling of a pro-government journalist and official in December 1794. On his release he found it increasingly difficult to finance his newspaper and it ceased publication in March 1798.