Aengus Fanning

THE beginning of the year was marked by a vary sad event in the life of this paper. On January 17, Aengus Fanning, legendary editor of the Sunday Independent, died after a battle with cancer. At his funeral, his wife Anne Harris, who had just lost a partner in life and in work, summed up his singular life and storied career:

“He lived a life red in tooth and claw… He was ever alert to conventional wisdom in order to slap it down. Aengus’s boredom threshold has been much commented upon and much misunderstood. He hated what he called the 'bleedin’ obvious' and loved anything original, no matter how tiny or simple…

“His core belief, his only belief,” she said, “was Kant’s 'out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing is ever made'.”

Aengus knew this ‘crooked timber’ came as much from the journalist as the subject. As editor, he assembled a broad church of writers whose own lives and personalities often became part of the story.

During his tenure, the paper challenged received truths about Irish life and shone a light on unseen corners of our society. It was an approach that inspired criticism and admiration but under his stewardship, the Sunday Independent increasingly influenced the national conversation and enjoyed unprecedented commercial success.

As tributes poured in last January, he was remembered as a wit, a bon vivant and raconteur. But these were the public faces. The private man was introspective, loving and devoted, most of all to Anne and to his sons by his late wife Mary. He is deeply missed.