JB Malone and the Evening Herald

(John Bernard) JB Malone (1913-89) was a prolific writer and promoter of hillwalking from the 1930s through to the 1970s. He did much for the development of the Wicklow Way and is commemorated on a well known boulder overlooking Lough Tay in Wicklow.

The daily newspapers of the time were the Facebook of the day for JB, with about 950 articles appearing in the popular Evening Herald. In his heyday, these appeared weekly without a break, varying between the Thursday and Friday editions. They were obviously geared towards the weekend and the great escape from the city & work life. Remember many rural people had moved to Dublin for work in these decades and if they didn’t return home at weekends, then cutting turf or wandering in the Dublin & Wicklow hills were popular alternatives.

I’ve been reading through these and you can’t help but notice the amount of news in them, both world affairs but also the many ordinary matters that make up Irish daily life.

This random edition of 80 years ago (1943) proves the old adage: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – the more things change, the more it’s the same thing. The Russian/ Soviet army is surrounding Kiev (Kyiv), held by German forces at this time. Meanwhile on the inside pages, we see JB’s characteristic sketch map and a description of a walk to Croghan Moira near Glenmalure. Along with gardening advice and adverts for various shows and films.

#eastwestmapping #eveningherald #hillwalkingireland