Colin Murphy: Old-school journalists using astonishing new resources and expertise to uncover truth
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Irish Times
07-07-2025
- Irish Times
Never employ a cat. They are ‘unreliable, capricious and liable to absenteeism'
Do you ever wonder if something you are doing now will be remembered in 100 years? When humorist William L Alden sat down to write a jokey article in 1876, he hardly thought it would still be cited today. And yet here we are. His article in the New York Times wondered why no effort had been made to develop the intellectual powers of the domestic cat. He then spun a yarn about the Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat investigating the possibility of using cats to deliver the post. A sort of Postman Cat, if you like. He claimed 37 cats were called into service in Liège as part of the great experiment. They were released a long way from home and tracked to see how long it would take them to arrive back. They all returned within 24 hours. This was proof, he declared, that their homing instinct could be harvested to deliver messages from nearby villages. The letters would be fastened around their necks in waterproof bags. No doubt the article provoked a chortle from a few readers and was then promptly forgotten about. Until 2018. This was when the Twitter account of the New York Times's archive posted a screenshot of the article. And from then on, it was reposted regularly as fact by people you think might know better. READ MORE As expected, some people were outraged at the harnessing of cats to do the work of humans, while others used it to promote their anti-cats agenda or to disparage the population of Belgium. And to this day, the article is still being reposted as fact on the platform, now known as X. But cats have found gainful employment with at least one post office network – the institution that is the British Post Office. According to the Postal Museum in London, the Post Office employed cats from 1868 to keep the mice at bay. They started with an allowance of one shilling a week and got a 6d per week pay rise five years later. The matter arose in the House of Commons in the 1950s when it was noted with some outrage that the cats had not had a pay rise in decades. Defending the pay scheme the Assistant Postmaster-General told the MPs that the cats were 'frequently unreliable, capricious in their duties and liable to prolonged absenteeism' and he also noted that there had been no complaints about the wage freeze from the cats. Tibs, who was stationed at Post Office headquarters, was the most famous feline employee of them all and received an obituary in the Post Office magazine when he died in 1964. Our own An Post could find no evidence of similar arrangements when I inquired if the GPO ever had any cats on the payroll. Perhaps the Irish cats were too busy being muses for the literary establishment? From WB Yeats to James Joyce to Maeve Binchy, there is scarcely an Irish writer who has not written about cats or been photographed with a feline friend. Brendan Behan owned a cat called Beamish, according to his biography by Michael O'Sullivan. Apparently Behan taught him to stand on his hind paws and 'give the IRA salute'. He was so proud of the cat that he entered it in the Mansion House cat show. As he didn't own a cat basket, he brought the cat to the show in a meat safe. Records do not show if Beamish won a prize, or if arriving in a meat safe took away some of his prestige. But the most outrageous story about writers' cats belongs to Oscar Wilde – if it actually happened at all. It was reported that Wilde once found a cat happily dozing on his favourite fur coat. He needed the coat but did not want to disturb this peaceful tableau and so he cut the sleeve from his fur coat and left with the rest of his coat. He must have looked a bit lopsided when he arrived at the soirée but no doubt he charmed everyone present with another sparkling anecdote. There is more than one hole in this story – and that's not counting the armhole of the fur coat. Surely a flamboyant clothes horse like Oscar Wilde would have had more than one coat to choose from? The man had more capes and cloaks than a Harry Potter convention. And surely such a style icon wouldn't be caught dead wearing a coat with one sleeve hacked off? I fear Oscar Wilde's one-armed fur coat belongs with the 37 post cats of Liege. At least the non-existent cats will be kept warm by the imaginary fur coat.
The Journal
03-06-2025
- The Journal
Say Nothing wins prestigious Peabody Award
SAY NOTHING HAS won a prestigious Peabody Award in the Entertainment category. The nine-part series, based on the best-selling book of the same title by author Patrick Radden Keefe, focuses on the disappearance of Jean McConville. Nobody has ever been charged with McConville's killing, who was taken from her home in west Belfast in December 1972 and murdered by the Provisional IRA. Her remains were found by a walker in August 2003 on a beach in Co Louth. The Peabody Awards celebrate storytelling that reflects the social issues and the emerging voices of our day. Established in 1940, the Peabody Award was originally created to honour excellence in radio broadcasting and was the radio industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes. However, it was later expanded to include television and now includes podcasts, social media videos and streaming media. Advertisement The Board of the Peabody Award said it seeks 'excellence on its own terms' and 'stories that matter' and that it awards storytelling rather than popularity or commercial success. (L-R) Brad Simpson, Michael Lennox, Monica Levinson, Joshua Zetumer, Anthony Boyle, Lola Petticrew, Hazel Doupe, Nina Jacobson and Maxine Peake, winners of the Peabody Award for Say Nothing Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Say Nothing was among the scripted series winners in the Entertainment category, alongside Netflix's Baby Reindeer. The Board remarked that Say Nothing was successful because it explores 'the social power of radical political belief, the code of silence that bound believers to secrecy, and the haunting emotional and psychological consequences of extreme violence on the lives and families of those who were lost and those who survived'. At the awards ceremony, Joshua Zetumer, creator and executive producer of Say Nothing, said: 'When bad things happen – and believe me they're happening right now – the most dangerous thing we can do is stay silent.' Speaking to ABC on the read carpet before the 85 th annual Peabody Awards, Lola Petticrew said it was 'amazing' to be at the ceremony. Petticrew plays a young Dolours Price in Say Nothing. She said that 'everything the Peabody Awards stand for is something that really resonates with me'. 'The reason why I want to tell stories and to be an artist is to tell the stories that are meaningful.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Independent
18-05-2025
- Irish Independent
Colin Murphy: Old-school journalists using astonishing new resources and expertise to uncover truth
I was in New York when the Pulitzer Prizes were announced earlier this month and my old colleague from Village Magazine, Malachy Browne, invited me to join him at the in-house ceremony at the Old Gray Lady herself, the New York Times.
