- R. M. Smyllie
Robert Maire "Bertie" Smyllie (1894-1954), who was editor of the
Irish Times from 1934 until his death in 1954, is one of the legendary figures in Irish journalism. Short-sighted, massively overweight, given to wearing a poncho and sombrero, and cycling to work with his typewriter slung over the bars of his bicycle and a half bottle of Scotch sticking out of his pocket, he was one of the sights ofDublin .Smyllie was born in
Glasgow . His father was a Scottish journalist who moved toSligo to edit the Sligo Times. Smyllie was educated at Sligo Grammar School. He enteredTrinity College Dublin in 1912. Working as a vacation tutor to an American boy in Germany at the start of World War I, he was interned inRuhleben , nearBerlin , during the war. As an internee, he was involved in drama productions with other cosmopolitan internees and gleaned a wide political education. On returning, he reported on theVersailles Treaty for the Irish Times, then edited byJohn E. Healy . He contributed to the still ongoing “Irishman’s Diary” column of the paper from 1927. In 1934, he was appointed editor of the paper, in succession to Healy. He established a non-partisan profile and a modern Irish character for the erstwhile ascendancy paper; for example, he dropped “Kingstown Harbour” for “Dun Laoghaire ”. He was assisted byAlec Newman andLionel Fleming , recruited Patrick Campbell and enlistedFlann O’Brien to write his thrice-weekly column “Cruiskeen Lawn ” asMyles na gCopaleen .Further reading
"Mr. Smyllie, Sir", by Tony Gray, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 1991, ISBN 0717117901
"Irish Media: A Critical History Since 1922", by John Horgan, Routledge, 1991, ISBN 0415216419, (pages 37,39,44-45,48, 62)
"Propaganda, Censorship and Irish Neutrality in the Second World War", by Robert Cole, Edinburgh UniversityPress, 2006, ISBN 0748622772, (pages 26,37,45,59,77,87,104,138,144,176,183)
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