The Phoenix is no more!

The Irish Times is reporting that The Phoenix magazine is closing down and no new issues will be published as the company has gone into voluntary liquidation.

https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2026/06/15/phoenix-magazine-closing-down-after-more-than-40-years-on-newsstands/

(Might be paywalled)

The title had been publishing deliciously caustic news snippets and political gossip, from a decidedly anti-establishment point of view since the 1980s. It was founded by veteran muck-raking journalist (I mean that in the nicest possible sense) John Mulcahy who had previously published Hibernia magazine before a libel case forced its closure. He had also been the founding editor of the Sunday Tribune although ownership of that soon passed out of his hands.

The Phoenix was in appearance and editorial policy very much an Irish version of Private Eye in the UK. Its articles carried no bylines and were generally speaking "edgier" than the more litigiously aware broadsheet newspapers. Their regular columns on the local media scene, "Fit to print" were delightfully bitchy and clearly well sourced (ie Journalists venting about their colleagues and management via the, presumably welcoming, pages of The Phoenix.

The tales of the Shenanigans regularly occurring in "The Four Goldmines" by the great and the good (and not so good) of the local business and political scene were always worth a read.

It seems they just couldn't make the magazine pay in the modern digital age where the costs of print and distribution, and the flight of advertising to the Web, have seen so many venerable print titles go to the wall.

Brave new World.

But the demise of the Phoenix is a sad loss.