Introduction

The nine counties of Ulster cover a geographical area of just under 22,000 square kilometres, making it the second-largest Irish province after Munster. However, during the 1914–21 period it was by some distance the most populous province. According to the 1911 census, the nine counties of Ulster boasted a population of 1.58 million. Even with the considerable population of Belfast (387,000) excluded, the province of Ulster still possessed the largest population. At 204,000, County Down had the greatest population while County Fermanagh had the lowest at just under 62,000.

In addition to having the largest population, the province also boasted the largest number of provincial newspaper titles. A total of forty-six local papers were published in Ulster between 1914 and 1921. Four of them, the Impartial Reporter, Londonderry Sentinel, Anglo-Celt, and Donegal Democrat are scrutinised in this chapter. Apart from the Londonderry Sentinel, these titles were published in urban centres with relatively small populations. The unionist Impartial Reporter was based in Enniskillen which had a population of just under 5,000. Its main competition for unionist readership was the Fermanagh Times, also based in Enniskillen. The town was also home to the nationalist Fermanagh Herald. The aforementioned population of County Fermanagh was 56 per cent Catholic with most of the remainder unsurprisingly comprised of Protestant denominations.

Amongst these the Church of Ireland was most dominant at 34 per cent, with 7 per cent Methodist and 2 per cent Presbyterian.

With a population of 41,000, the city of Derry was the largest urban centre of population outside Belfast. The county had a total population of just under 141,000 which was served by two Coleraine newspapers, Coleraine Chronicle and Northern Constitution, while the Londonderry Sentinel's main rivals in the city were the unionist Derry Standard and the nationalist titles, the Derry Journal and the Derry People. The split of religious denominations was somewhat different in County Derry compared with County Fermanagh. In the city of Derry, the population comprised roughly 56 per cent Catholic, 18 per cent Church of Ireland, 21 per cent Presbyterian, and 3 per cent Methodist. In the county, the figures were 42 per cent Catholic, 20 per cent Church of Ireland, 34 per cent Presbyterian, and 1 per cent Methodist.