Ireland's Own

Weekly family magazine in Ireland

Ireland's Own is a general interest magazine published weekly in Ireland. Launched on 26 November 1902 by John M. Walshe of People Newspapers with an original cover price of 1d,

Ireland's Own saw its role as projecting an image of Ireland free from "alien" influence, hence a content free from anything perceived as "scandalous" or "anti Catholic". A critic described such magazines as offering "a formula for 'healthy fireside reading' combining patriotism, pietism and national news with a minimum of foreign coverage or intellectual speculation." The concept of such a magazine is traced back to the series of pietistic family magazines launched by James Duffy in the mid 19th century. It was affected by the 1916 Easter Rising. The issue dated 24 May 1916 contained the following note for its readers: "Owing to the upheaval in Dublin we have been unable to distribute Ireland's Own as usual. Now that things are becoming more normal again, we are able to publish a limited number of copies this week. We expect to have everything running as before in a fortnight or so". and trendy 'liberalism' and that aspect of Ireland, which is pretty shallow and skin deep anyway. We're slightly old fashioned in our ways, for which we make no apologies. We attract a lot of our readership from people who probably have a yearning for what they consider to be the 'good old days, when things were better' as they see them. We do not take a hard faced attitude towards our journalism or our magazine. We accept the fact that people do have a yearning for the old days, and nostalgia is a significant part of the magazine."

Its Christmas 2003 edition contained a series of articles, both fact and fiction, on such topics as "Gathering the Holly", "Who is Father Christmas? ", "The Christmas Fairy" and "Christmas Long Ago". Kitty the Hare (A fictional old Irish travelling woman and storyteller who tells stories of the supernatural and bizarre) first appeared in 1924. Sean Nolan and Shea Tomkins edited the magazine as it reached the big 120.

For the first half of 2007, the magazine had an average circulation of 40,905, according to the Audited Bureau of Circulations.

The People Newspaper Group (which also included the Wicklow People, the Wexford People and the Waterford People) is now owned by Irish media giant Independent News and Media, now (Mediahuis Ireland).