Book review: The Press Gang

The journalists at the Irish Press group were as hard drinking as they were hardworking. Sue Leonard hears many tall tales and true from David Kenny, who was there before its demise in 1995.  

DAVID KENNY comes from a line of journalists and writers stretching back five generations. His father worked on The Irish Press; but when, as an 18-year-old, David decided to eschew the place he had won at college, and instead applied for a job on The Press, he didn’t inform his father, who had recently retired.

He duly turned up at Mulligan’s pub in Poolbeg Street for his first interview with the chief sub, Seán Purcell.