John Mulcahy

John Mulcahy (b. 17 May 1932, d. 7 September 2018), was an Irish journalist, magazine and newspaper editor, who founded The Sunday Tribune and The Phoenix.

Biography

Born in Australia in 1932, Mulcahy was educated at Clongowes Wood College and Trinity College, Dublin. He worked in the financial sector before becoming a full-time journalist. He was writing for monthly The Hibernia Magazine before 1968 when he became the owner and editor of it, he changed its ethos to be more left-wing and republican and moved it to a fortnightly.

Following the closure of Hibernia in 1980 due to a lawsuit, he founded The Sunday Tribune. After the turmoil in the tribune, in 1983 he founded the political and current affairs magazine, The Phoenix. In 2002 he became the proprietor of The Irish Arts Review. Another effort at launching a magazine in the early 1980s was Digger, his father's nickname since he was involved in the mining industry in Australia.

Married to Nuala, who worked alongside him at Hibernia and The Phoenix. His son Aengus worked for The Phoenix, his daughter Brigid is also a journalist, and his son Michael Mulcahy was a Councillor, TD and former Lord Mayor of Dublin.

He retired from The Phoenix in 2007 and he died aged 86 in 2018.