Magill
Irish politics and current affairs magazine
Magill was an Irish politics and current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne and others in 1977. Magill specialised in investigative articles and colourful reportage by journalists such as Eamonn McCann (who wrote its anonymous Wigmore column) and Gene Kerrigan. It was relaunched in 2004 after an earlier closure before closing again in 2009.
Berry diaries
It first achieved a nationwide profile when it published the diaries of Peter Berry, the former Secretary (administrative head) to the Department of Justice in which he alleged that former Taoiseach Jack Lynch had been less than forthright publicly about the truth surrounding the 1970 Arms Crisis which brought down two ministers, including Charles Haughey.
In the 1980s as Ireland underwent rapid political change it became the major Irish magazine covering politics.
Changes in editor
Browne later appointed a series of editors with him becoming managing editor. Its early editors included Fintan O'Toole, John Waters and Colm Tóibín. (Tóibín went on to achieve renown as a novelist.) However clashes of personalities with Browne led each editor in turn to quit the post as did one of its major writers Gene Kerrigan.
Closures and relaunches
Magill ceased publication for a period in the 1990s before returning in 1997 as a joint effort between Browne and Michael O' Doherty, publisher of VIP Magazine. Its editors in its second incarnation included John Ryan, Emily O'Reilly, Harry McGee, Kevin Rafter, Eamon Delaney and Niall Stanage.
“Magill” enters the record as irish politics and current affairs magazine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Magill, Irish and politics can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3843205. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 2004, 2009 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “Magill” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.