Publisher
In 1900, he bought the insolvent Irish Daily Independent from the Parnellites, merging it with the Daily Nation. In 1900 he re-launched this as a cheap mass-circulation newspaper, which rapidly displaced the Freeman's Journal as Ireland's most popular nationalist paper. In 1906, he founded the Sunday Independent newspaper.
He refused a knighthood from King Edward VII in 1907 after organising a controversial International Exhibition in Herbert Park, Dublin (it was opposed by many nationalists because it was cosmopolitan and encouraged the purchase of imported goods). In fact, the King Edward VII was in the process of knighting Murphy when he refused. Murphy appears to have been motivated by pride; he did not wish to have it said that he had angled for a title and compromised his nationalist principles.
Murphy was highly critical of the Irish Parliamentary Party; from 1914 he used the Irish Independent to oppose the partition of Ireland and advocate Dominion Home Rule involving full fiscal autonomy (which the 1914 Home Rule Act would not have granted).
Read more about this topic: William Martin Murphy
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