The Phoenix is an Irish political and current affairs magazine established in 1983. Inspired by the British magazine Private Eye it was edited for thirty years by Paddy Prendeville. The publication is generally fortnightly, with a larger annual issue each December.
History and structure
The magazine was launched in January 1983 and is published by Penfield Enterprises Ltd. The magazine was established by John Mulcahy. It had an ABC-audited circulation of 19,014 for 2004 and 18,268 in 2007. The current editor is Paddy Prendiville, editor since about a year after the magazine was started. The name Phoenix is a reference to its "emergence from the ashes" of two of Mulcahy's previous publications. These were the republicanpolitical magazineHibernia, which ceased publishing in 1980 after a libel action, and the Sunday Tribune newspaper, which first collapsed financially in 1982. The magazine secures much of its material from "insider" sources, and promotes contact with its Goldhawk phone line.
Layout and style
Features in the magazine include a news column; detailed profiles ; "Affairs of the Nation", which looks at political scandals; "Bog Cuttings" which consists of humorous and unusual events outside Dublin, "Hush Hush" and "On the beat", which deals with security and intelligence matters; and a satirical section, "Craic and Codology". It also has an extensive financial column, "Moneybags". Like Private Eye, the cover features a photo montage with a speech bubble, putting ironic or humorous comments into the mouths of the famous in response to topical events. Other features include an "Apology" section, "That Menu in Full", the use of and their derivatives, and the Christmas Gift lists, where implausible gifts with ridiculous features are offered for sale. In contrast to Private Eye, the Phoenix is printed on magazine stock rather than newsprint, and uses colour, including photography, quite extensively.
A fixture in The Phoenix magazine is a full-page parody of the Taoiseach of the day, always located in the "Craic and Codology" section:
Bertie Ahern, whose Northside Dublin accent and frequent habit of using mixed metaphors and phrases was noted, was parodied in the Diary of a Nordsoide Taoiseach which consisted of a phonetic translation of his broad north Dublin accent.
Brian Cowen had his personal gaffes, misfortunes and bad luck mentioned in Biffo's Briefs, which were a variety of memos, letters and emails from beleaguered government ministers, his predecessor Bertie Ahern or enquiries from foreign politicians.
The Workers' Party of Ireland was also a frequent target of satire and investigation in its 1980s heyday over its funding methods which resulted in John Mulcahy receiving threats from the Official IRA. More recently, it has been highly critical of the Corrib gas pipeline and supports the Shell to Sea and Pobal Chill Chomáin campaigns against the laying of the pipeline. It published a supplementary summary and commentary on the Goldstone Report on the siege of Gaza and attacked the actions of the Israeli government over the illegal use of Irish passports in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, and the Gaza flotilla raid. The magazine was highly critical of the 2007–2011 Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition. It called for the 2011 Irish budget to be defeated and pointed out that the money loaned as part of the EU stability fund would come at the cost of a crippling rate of interest
