The Phoenix magazine is to cease publication after 43 years, with the company behind it going into voluntary liquidation.
Ireland’s answer to Private Eye, combining satire, humour and gossip, it has been published once a fortnight since January 7, 1983, when it was launched by the late John Mulcahy.
It has been edited for most of that time by Paddy Prendiville, a former press officer with the Troops Out movement in Britain, who joined it in late 1983 from the Sunday Tribune, where he had been foreign editor.
The last edition of The Phoenix was published on June 5, and the next one should have appeared on Thursday. Instead, publication will cease with Volume 44, No 11, with a cover criticising Israel, a regular target in recent years.
A source at the magazine confirmed that it will not appear this week, and said staff have been told the company will be wound up voluntarily.
It is not clear if the Phoenix title is owned by the operating company, and there is a possibility it could be sold by a liquidator as part of the winding-up process.
Rumours about its possible demise had been circulating since late last week, and it is believed that an effort was being made last Friday and over the weekend to bring in fresh investment.
The magazine’s biggest scoop came in December 1996, when it reported that Charles Haughey, the former taoiseach, had received an IR£1.1m payment from the businessman Ben Dunne.
It also revealed that the late Fr Michael Cleary had fathered a child with his housekeeper, and in 2008 it reported that Irish Nationwide’s Michael Fingleton had been paid a pension of €27.6m.
The magazine’s business coverage was particularly admired, and was the main reason why its print sale stayed strong until recent years. This was down to the work of deputy editor Paul Farrell, who joined in 1990.
At its peak in the early 1990s, it sold over 20,000 copies, with an edition running to 48 pages. No sales figures have been published since 2018, when the circulation stood at 11,710 copies, while The Phoenix’s online offering struggled against its digital competitors.
The magazine changed little in its 43 years, keeping the same masthead, including a logo designed by cartoonist Tom Mathews, who also did the logos for the various sections, which kept their original names, such as “Fit to Print”, “Pillars of Society” and “Moneybags”. It was produced from an office over the former Larry Murphy’s pub on Baggot Street in Dublin.
Given its muckraking content, The Phoenix managed to avoid too many trips to defend libel cases at what it dubbed the “Four Goldmines”. The biggest settlement came in 1995 when Avril Doyle, a Fine Gael MEP, won a six-figure sum in damages and costs.
Mainly because it was written by freelance contributors, and anonymous tipsters, The Phoenix never used bylines. Instead all content appeared under the name “Goldhawk”.
Five years ago The Sunday Times revealed that Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman, had written unbylined pieces for The Phoenix before becoming a TD. His output included a number of profiles published between 2007 and 2010. Mr Ó Broin said it was a “very small amount of writing”, in the Young Blood column.
The Phoenix is owned by Aengus Mulcahy, son of John, through the company Penfield Enterprises Ltd. In its most recent accounts, for the year ended December 31, 2024, the company recorded net current liabilities of €123,152.
Losses for the year stood at €21,320, bringing total losses to €100,961. It had 10 employees. Mr Mulcahy’s directors fees were €50,000 for the year.