Content
The newspaper is a general Sunday newspaper, covering news and politics. It is published in five sections: News, Sport, Business, Property, and Living, as well as a magazine section. In terms of news, while the newspaper maintains a broadsheet outlook, it has come in for much criticism lately due to its increasing emphasis on lifestyle features in the main section. It has also been criticised for regularly tending towards sensationalism, and for the often opinion-focused, rather than news-focused nature of its articles. It is probably better described as a middle-of-the-road newspaper, rather than a newspaper of record. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Deputy Editor was Anne Harris. .
The Sunday Independent has become one of the most controversial publications in Ireland; an article in Magill magazine about the newspaper stated, "Its critics have characterised it as nasty and narcissitic,its supporters as lively and libidinous, a tornado of fresh air in a stale and shrinking industry".
Noted for its trenchant support for Fianna Fáil, and particularly Bertie Ahern and latterly Brian Lenihan, it usually contains articles focused that party and its policies, often at the expense of other political groups in the state. The Government's former Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea writes a weekly column for the newspaper. The former partner of Bertie Ahern, Celia Larkin has also started writing as a columnist for the newspaper following the closure of her beauty salon business.
Popularly nicknamed The Sindo, the paper has been a zealous critic of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin for many years. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Sunday Independent was reproachful toward SDLP politician John Hume, whom the newspaper accused of being insufficiently attentive to the needs of the Ulster Unionists. Many of the Sunday Independent's columnists also criticised Hume for negotiating with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, accusing Hume of being naive about Adams.
Read more about this topic: Sunday Independent
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