Letter from the Editor

TODAY we’re reporting on historic and fast-moving events. That doesn’t happen as often as we’d like in Sunday journalism, so our deadline day has had a different feel to it. It started slowly and is ending with a great, mad rush to the finishing line as we finetune our politics coverage.

Regular readers will have noticed we’ve given photojournalism greater prominence in recent times.

That will continue to be the case. David Conachy’s superb picture on the front page of a happy Micheal Martin striding down the corridor of power at Leinster House says more than a thousand words could hope to convey.

It’s a defining image of a man who has finally arrived on the biggest stage, after surely wondering if it would ever happen for him. Inside, we’ve assembled a cross-section of writers to offer different takes on a day that has — to some extent, at least — changed the game in Irish politics.

Not everyone is holding their breath. “Let’s be honest,” writes Eilis O’Hanlon on page 26, “no one is exactly dancing in the streets this weekend as they contemplate the next four or five years.” True, but after 140 days it doesn’t take a lot to quicken the pulse for some of us.

More than one commentator in the Sunday Independent — as well as the editorial column, twice — made the case strongly that the Green Party had no business turning down the opportunity that the electorate presented to it. So, naturally, we welcome this deal and congratulate the new office-holders and their families. Time will tell if they can deliver for the country and we’ll have plenty to say about that as events unfold.

Meanwhile, the biggest news event of a generation is a long way from over and our comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the coronavirus pandemic continues. And naturally we mark the end of Liverpool’s long wait for the Premier League title – I recommend a superb piece of writing by Tommy Conlon on page 2 of Sport.

Enjoy the new freedoms available to us all tomorrow.