The Republican Press
The faith in the power of the press as a tool of political education led United Irish radicals in Belfast to found their own newspaper, the Northern Star, early in 1792. They sought to establish a newspaper which would take Irish political education beyond the mainstream whiggism provided by Henry Joy's Belfast News-Letter. The proprietors of the new Northern Star consisted of 12 Presbyterian radicals. Samuel Neilson, the principal shareholder, was its first editor. They had come together to secure the reform of parliament and to promote the union of all Irishmen. The evidence of the Northern Star's influence and its radical content is provided by the government's repeated attempts to suppress it as a voice of radical opposition in Ireland.
Keywords: Northern Star, Belfast News-Letter, Henry Joy, republican press, Samuel Neilson
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