Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

This week at The Archive we are celebrating the beginning of Advent and the approach of Christmas with the addition of a trio of brand new titles, and 200,872 brand new pages in all. Meanwhile, we have a bonanza of updated Scottish titles for you to enjoy this week, with nineteen newspapers from Scotland enjoying updates and 27 of our titles being updated overall.

So read on to discover more about our new and updated titles of the week, and also to learn how Advent was marked in nineteenth century Ireland, Britain and beyond.

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The Anglo-Celt

Our first new title of the week hails from Cavan, the county town of County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland, and it is the Anglo-Celt. As Katrin Urschel in her essay ‘Towards diversity within ethnic majorities: Deconstructing the ‘Anglo-Celt” explains, this was one of the earliest uses of the phrase ‘Anglo-Celt,’ and as the first issue of the newspaper outlines, the choice was a deliberate one.

The debut editorial of the newspaper, which appeared on 6 February 1846, explained how:

We are neither Saxons nor Celts. We are Anglo-Celts, every mother’s son of us – at least the exceptions are so trifling as but to prove the rule…It is merely the statement, in one word, of a great fact – a fact which it behoves Saxons and Celts (so called) to meditate long and lovingly, if they wish the welfare of their common country.

Anglo-Celt | 31 August 1849

Such a philosophy positioned Irish identity as a union, a synthesis. Politically, the Anglo-Celt was Liberal, supporting reformist principles, and perhaps this coalition of Anglo-Saxon and Celt was an attempt to draw for the newspaper the widest possible support.

Appearing every Friday and filling eight pages with news from Ireland, parliament, and further afield, the Anglo-Celt in the mid-nineteenth century cost 2d. Circulating in the ‘counties of Cavan, Meath, Westmeath, Leitrim, Fermanagh, and Longford,’ the Anglo-Celt was said to enjoy ‘a very large circulation,’ as it printed the ‘fullest local and general intelligence,’ with particular attention being given to ‘the agriculture and commercial interests of the country.’

Anglo-Celt | 22 October 1870

From 1865 John F. O’Hanlon took over editorship of the paper, and the Anglo-Celt became markedly more nationalist. Meanwhile, by 1928 an advert in the Dublin Leader described the paper as the ‘pioneer of the Agricultural Cooperative movement in Ireland.’ The Anglo-Celt was by this time acting as ‘the most up to date journal for farmers in this country,’ which was ‘read by all classes.’

The Anglo-Celt is still published today as weekly local newspaper, printing the local news from Cavan and its surroundings. In 2016 it switched from broadsheet to tabloid form.

The Glasgow Argus

With nineteen of our Scottish titles updated this week, it’s only fair that we added a duo of brand new Scottish titles too for you to enjoy. First up we have the Glasgow Argus, which was inaugurated in 1833. Known as the organ of ‘The Clique,’ a group headed by Liberal M.P. James Oswald (1779-1853), according to Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine in 1836 the Glasgow Argus was ‘one of the ablest papers in Scotland,’ with thoroughly Liberal principles.

Appearing twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays at the cost of 4 1/2 d, the Glasgow Argus printed all the latest intelligence from home and abroad, alongside correspondence, ecclesiastical news, and shipping updates.

Glasgow Argus | 4 November 1844

Enjoying popularity as the Glasgow Liberal paper, indeed, as The Poets and Poetry of Scotland put it in 1877, it was a ‘journal dedicated to the advocacy of advanced Liberal opinions,’ this title supported the abolitionist movement and the repeal of the Corn Laws.

In 1844 poet and journalist Charles Mackay (1814-1889) became editor of the Glasgow Argus. After disagreeing with the paper’s management, he left in 1847 to join the staff of the Illustrated London News. He became editor of that particular title sometime later, whilst the Glasgow Argus did not survive his departure, its last edition being published on 29 November 1847.

The Hawick Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette

That brings us to our final new title of the week, the Hawick Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette. Established in the Scottish border town of Hawick in 1854, this Liberal paper appeared every Saturday priced at 1d. With an ‘extensive circulation,’ the Hawick Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette focused its pages on ‘the extensive woollen manufacturing, agricultural, and pastoral interests of the south-east or border districts of Scotland.’

Hawick Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette | 20 December 1879

Filling some four pages, the paper printed local and district intelligence from the likes of Denholm, Jedburgh, Lilliesleaf, and Galashiels. Alongside such local news the Hawick Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette published poetry, agricultural notes, reviews, a Christian treasury and notices of births, marriages and deaths.

Our updated titles of the week

With 27 updated titles this week, The Archive is the Advent gift that keeps on giving. Our biggest update of the week is to the Pontefract & Castleford Express, to which we have added over 62,000 brand new pages, whilst another 44,000 brand new pages have joined the Yorkshire Evening Post. If you’re in need of a little Pick-me-up, a ‘literary and artistic tonic for the mind,’ we’ve added another 20 years to this lively title.

Pick-me-up | 2 November 1889

We have of course updated 19 of our Scottish titles, with particular updates of note being to the Aberdeen Free Press, the Banffshire Herald, and the Orcadian. Meanwhile, we have updated a duo of Welsh titles, namely the Montgomeryshire Express and the wonderfully named Monmouthshire Merlin, alongside two titles from the Republic of Ireland, the Cork Constitution and the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette.

Marking Advent in the nineteenth century

The joy of our newspapers is their breadth of geographical coverage. Take one of our new titles this week, Cavan’s Anglo-Celt. From its pages, we can learn about Advent celebrations, for example, from not only Cavan, but from London, and from even further afield.

An Advent service at the Lord Mayor’s Chapel | Illustrated London News | 27 November 1909

Advent celebrations, however, in Cavan in December 1866, were not without some controversary. On 8 December 1866 the Anglo-Celt described how at Cavan Cathedral, on the first Sunday of Advent, the Most Rev. Dr. Conaty ‘earnestly denounced Fenianism,’ before he ‘proceeded to inculcate the due of observance of Advent.’

Meanwhile in 1868, the Anglo-Celt described the celebration of Advent in London. The Archbishop of Canterbury preached at St. Luke’s Church at Berwick Street, where ‘the church was appropriately vested for Advent, and on the altar were two large candles unlighted, with a cross at the back.’ The Archbishop took as his sermon subject Solomon’s temple, in which he ‘spoke warmly of ceremonial worship.’

The Sistine Chapel | Illustrated London News | 2 March 1878

In the same year, 1868, the Anglo-Celt looked even further afield to Rome, and the celebration of ‘the first Sunday of Advent’ there.’ On 26 December 1868 the newspaper described a ‘beautiful and devout ceremony’ at the Sistine Chapel. A Latin sermon was preached, with the Pope, Pope Pius IX, afterwards leaving from the Sistine Chapel to the Pauline Chapel.

Illustrated London News | 11 July 1846

Rome was busy not only with those celebrating the Advent period, but also, as the Anglo-Celt relates, with those feeling the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Discover more about Advent traditions and customs from across the world, the history of Christmas celebrations, and much more besides, in the pages of our Archive today.

New Titles

Updated Titles

This week we have updated 27 of our existing titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a free sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.