JJ Walsh, former Chairman of The Munster Express who also edited the newspaper for over 50 years.
It’s fully 150 years since The Munster Express was first published in the week of July 7th, 1860 – a century and a half in which Irish society has changed beyond all recognition.
The newspaper has enjoyed uninterrupted publishing in the interim, even during the outbreak of civil war hostilities in Waterford when our Quayside premises was occupied for as a Republican fort for several days in 1922 – and still has the bullet holes to prove it!
Social unrest and depression were no strangers to the region and The Munster Express has survived two world wars, a civil war and their uncertain aftermath.
We may think we are experiencing hard times now, with the recession having hit business and heightened unemployment. But inventions like the car, telephone and electricity, not to mention the welfare state and the availability and choice of food, have made modern life – with all its conveniences and means of communication – much easier than in ‘the good old days’.
Our story started with the Anglo-Irish Fisher family, who left Scotland for Youghal, from there they established the ‘Waterford Daily Mail’ in 1823.
An improving Irish economy afforded them the opportunity to base a title in Waterford, The Munster Express, which also served South Tipperary and South Kilkenny.
A liberal and uncompromising newspaper of the time, the then-editor William Garrow Fisher was jailed for contempt in 1880s due to his support for Parnell and the Land League movement.
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