One of a Kind

Michael Cullen remembers Sunday Independent editor Aengus Fanning who has died, aged 69

Aengus Fanning was a towering figure. Since his death from lung cancer, there have been many words used to describe him: intuitive, flamboyant, idiosyncratic, bohemian and a force of nature with Hollywood looks who could make other people feel special. He held to the maxim that boring newspaper readers was a no-no and bus lanes were open to all.

Aengus Fanning with former finance minister Brian Lenihan.

Speaking after the Mass in St Joseph’s Church in Glasthule, Co Dublin, his son, Dion, a sports writer with the Sunday Independent, touched on his individuality:“Dad’s inability to understand that the accepted procedures in a situation might have to apply to him – from Kosovo to Ethiopia to parking meters in Blackrock, all had the same beginning.”

Anne Harris said her husband was someone who chose “the artist’s way”. He hated what he called “the bleedin’ obvious” and loved anything original, no matter how tiny or simple. His editorial agenda was never to give comfort to terrorists. He thought of terrorism as a chameleon which had the power to reinvent itself with a smiling face.

Noirin Ni Riain led the liturgical singing. At the top right hand side of the church, jazz singer Mary Coughlan led the band with a soft rendition of Closer Now My Lord to Thee. Another of Fanning’s sons, Stephen, of The Last Tycoons, sang Abilene. The coffin was carried from the church to the strains of Fanning’s own song, The Last Wave.

Born in Tralee, Co Kerry, in 1942, Aengus Fanning played Gaelic football for Austin Stacks and later for the county minors team. He played rugby for UCC and Tralee. In 1964, he left Tralee and went to work with his uncle’s Midland Tribune in Birr. It was there be met his first wife, Mary O’Brien, the mother of his three sons, who died in 1999.

He joined the Irish Independent as a news reporter in 1969. He became the paper’s agricultural correspondent in 1973 and news analysis editor in the early Eighties. In 1984, he was appointed editor of the Sunday Independent in place of Michael ‘Mick’ Hand. As his son Dion said “he died with his boots on… he didn’t see the point in retirement.”

The Sunday Independent, or the Sindo, as it was often referred to by fan and foe alike, saw readership rise to over one million in the late 1990s. Helped by his deputy, former Image editor Anne Harris, the paper held store in opinionated columnists – “more columns than the Acropolis” – and photos of young, good-looking women.

Fanning’s first big scoop was the Kerry Babies story and many more followed. But there were trials too, not least after the report on the circumstances of Liam Lawlor’s death in a car crash in Moscow and the “world exclusive interview” with Bishop Eamon Casey. Undoubtedly, the saddest day in his career was Veronica Guerin’s murder in 1996.

Writing in the Sunday Business Post, former Sunday Independent business writer Martin Fitzpatrick, said Tony O’Reilly would make the odd sortie into the office in the 1990s.On one visit, he was heard to ask: “Who edits this paper, anyway? Aengus Harris or Anne Fanning?” As sales were ‘flying’, the question did not require an answer.

INM management at the funeral included chairman James Osborne, chief executive Gavin O’Reilly; chief operating officer, Vincent Crowley; deputy INM (Ireland) managing director Joe Webb; INM chief executive for Northern Ireland Michael Brophy, Eoin Healy, Declan Carlyle, Lucy Gaffney and managing editor, Michael Denieffe.

Many staff journalists and contributors from the Sunday Independent attended, including Willie Kealy, Campbell Spray, Liam Collins, Brendan O’Connor, Eoghan Harris, Gene Kerrigan, Gay Byrne, Declan Lynch, Siobhan O’Connor, Colm McCarthy and cartoonist Jim Cogan. Kevin Myers, John Waters, Eamon Dunphy and Emer O’Kelly also attended.

Sunday World editor Colm McGinty; Gerry O’Regan, editor, Irish Independent; Stephen Rae, editor, Evening Herald; Ger Colleran, managing director, Irish Daily Star and Michael O’Kane, editor, Irish Daily Star were joined by other non-INM newspaper editors, including Paul Drury, Irish Daily Mail and Tim Vaughan, Irish Examiner.

Frank Cullen, National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI); Ian Young, Irish International; Alan Cox, Core Media; Tim Healy, Mercator Market Research; Rhona Blake, Fleishman-Hillard; Michael Colgan, The Gate; John Rocha, Brighid McLaughlin, Michael Mortell, Brendan Balfe, John O’Shea, Goal; Fianna F