Hot Press story proves idealism can conquer all

In a week which saw the life finally squeezed out of the Sunday Tribune, it was a small consolation that RTÉ had already decided to air the story of another publication that defied the odds from its inception – only in this case, Hot Press continues to do so.

Both share many common characteristics; they were born from idealism and imagination, staffed by some of the best writers of their generation and always remained – by design or default – somewhere towards the margins.

And that is a positive thing, because the mainstream has too much of a sameness about it – and both the Sunday Tribune and Hot Press set out to be different ... and succeeded.

Hot Press: The Write Stuff went out on RTÉ One on Tuesday night, and as it unfolded you realised that this wasn’t just the 34 year history of a music magazine – it was the story of how some of Ireland’s most talented journalists and commentators cut their teeth in the traditional way.

Some of them, like Irish Examiner football correspondent Liam Mackey, at least gave College a chance but others, like Declan Lynch and John Waters, just submitted reviews and took it one step at a time from there.

Waters, a man who inspires love and hate in equal measure, was working as a clerk with CIÉ in Westport when he began submitting his live reviews. And he almost gave up the ghost when most of his stuff seemed to end up in the bin.

But a letter of encouragement from Hot Press editor and founder Niall Stokes convinced him that he was actually good at this stuff – and thus began the writing career of one of the few commentators in Irish media who is prepared to call it like he sees it, irrespective of the personal cost.

Declan Lynch was already an aspiring writer before he put ink to paper for Hot Press, and by all accounts his first ever review – of a Louis Stewart jazz concert at UCD – immediately revealed a man with a talent for wit and caustic comment.

They were the young guns who hadn’t been shaped by the mainstream media, coupled with the energy and intellect of the late Bill Graham – and the drive of Stokes and his wife Mairin Sheehy – which provided the ingredients for the first magazine that truly reflected a changing Ireland.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.