In the last few weeks the newspaper world has lost two giant characters. I was privileged to work with both and they will be missed enormously.
Jim Fitzpatrick
I met Jim Fitzpatrick in the mid 1990s when he was chairman of The Irish News based in Belfast. He was a gentleman, charming from the outset, but he was also a tough and committed newspaper man. Jim was a lawyer, a Catholic, a nationalist, a father of eight, a devout family man and, from the 1980s, the owner of The Irish News.
He was also a passionate and determined supporter of peace in Northern Ireland. At his funeral the Taoiseach Micheal Martin recognised Jim’s crucial role in the early days of the embryonic peace process.
I had heard of Mike Lowe’s reputation, long before I met him. When he was editing the Derby Telegraph he brought his editorial football team on a tour of the North and played newspaper sides including The Northern Echo, the paper I was editing. I was on holiday and didn’t play but when I got back our captain, Teesside hard man Brian Page, recounted the bloodbath that had taken place. For the first time ever, he said, our team refused to go for a drink with the opposition. The story goes that, on the same trip, there was a similar experience by the Hull Daily Mail team. Mike, for most of his career, led a crazy gang.
The Irish News may have been Northern Ireland’s only nationalist paper but its repudiation of the country's violent conflict was unequivocal. I worked with Jim and his son Dominic, the paper’s chief executive, over the years.
We redesigned the paper, taking it from a broadsheet to a Euro (Berliner) format and later to a compact. I did training and, along with my colleague Mike Brough, redesigned different sections and provided camera-ready pages.
Jim, Dominic, editors Tom Collins and Noel Doran and the staff were a joy to work with. They were professional and focused but always social, generous and charming. I remember, just before the millennium, I had been working in the Donegall Street offices and was about to leave for Christmas at home. Jim presented me with a bottle of Irish News whiskey, which he had commissioned to bring in the year 2000.
It was a collector’s item that would be valuable in years to come. He handed me the bottle as a gift and said, I am only giving it to you on condition you drink it, not keep it. And I did. When he passed away aged 92 at the end of June, I raised a glass of whiskey, with an e, to his amazing legacy.
Mike Lowe
Mike Lowe
I had heard of Mike Lowe’s reputation, long before I met him. When he was editing the Derby Telegraph he brought his editorial football team on a tour of the North and played newspaper sides including The Northern Echo, the paper I was editing. I was on holiday and didn’t play but when I got back our captain, Teesside hard man Brian Page, recounted the bloodbath that had taken place. For the first time ever, he said, our team refused to go for a drink with the opposition. The story goes that, on the same trip, there was a similar experience by the Hull Daily Mail team. Mike, for most of his career, led a crazy gang.
It wasn’t until I set up the Editorial Centre in Hastings in 1995 that I actually met him. He left Derby and became editor of the Bristol Evening Post, sending all his trainees to us. He then asked me to get involved in consultancy, design and training. Mike’s view was that he could do everything I was doing, probably better, but he just didn’t have the time - so I would have to do!
The Bristol Evening Post's front page after Prince
Charles's wedding to Camilla was announced
We quickly became friends. He was forthright, knew exactly what he wanted, and happy to rip anything to pieces if he didn’t like it. There was no pussy-footing around with Mike. He was so refreshing to work with.
What soon became clear from my work trips to Bristol was that pub time was actually part of the job. In the pub we pored over everything that had gone on in the office. He was at home there - often outrageous, happy to spar with anyone on any topic but always funny and generous. In the mid-90s we had many a lively conversation about his beloved Manchester United and my Newcastle. How I relished the 5-0 victory at St James’s Park in 1996 - a rare upper hand.
Newcastle played Arsenal in the FA Cup final on May 16, 1998. It was my birthday … but tickets were like gold-dust. That morning, resigned to watching it on television, there was 'a happy birthday' message from my wife and kids chalked on the blackboard in our kitchen. Above it were pinned two tickets for the game.
How on earth did she get those? She replied with one word: Lowey.
Mike was certainly a one-off, with a reputation as a maverick and a bon-viveur. But he was also a first-class newspaperman, a real wordsmith and an inspiration with impressive instincts and vision. He edited the Gloucester Citizen, Derby Telegraph, Bristol Evening Post and then moved into magazines at Cotswold Life. They all bore his stamp. He also wrote the Grey Cardigan column in the Press Gazette, the acerbic views of a world-weary sub editor on the Daily Beast. It was always close to the bone but very, very funny. Mike died last week, far too young at 68. I, and hundreds of others who crossed his path, will miss him.
Really nice tribute to a top man. I didn't know him as well as Peter but enough to really enjoy his company - and to kick him and his Derby team all over the pitch in Darlington (and we still lost). A genuine newspaperman of a brilliant generation of top newspaper people. As Peter says, he went far too young and he will be missed.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny, isn’t it? I played for Derby in that game and don’t remember it being a particularly dirty game! I do remember that I scored the winner, nutmegging your keeper - John Dean? - to score the only goal of the game. Now, the Hull game, that was a different kettle of fish! It turned so nasty it made the back page of the Press Gazette. Playing football with Mike, which I did for many years, was an education! Perhaps the most memorable moment was his attempted overhead kick against Plymouth (?) which left him in agony. He literally crawled off the pitch to the sound of Simon O’Neil’s re-enactment of the sinking of the Belgrano. Or may be it was the post-match visit to a Hull nightclub where four men danced the night away in one t-shirt … they weren’t all wearing similar t-shirts, they were all squeezed into a single shirt. Mike’s only comment was: These are my people. We had such good times. Oh, and occasionally we went to work! Keith
DeleteFabulous tribute. Funnily enough, I worked with Mike Lowe at Lincoln and we later had a fiery relationship when he was chief sub and I was news editor at Derby. It didn’t stop him from inviting me to Gloucester as assistant editor and I was ‘sent to Hull’ (0rders from another legend Ian Park) as deputy editor around the time Lowey went back to Derby as Editor.
ReplyDeleteI arranged the inglorious match between Derby and Hull … whoops. I think he put Boy Wonder into the stands.
He took me again to Bristol as his deputy and what a brilliant editor and friend he proved to be. RIP Mike.
Lovely. I loved Grey Cardigan but never knew his identity.
ReplyDeletePeter Sands: That you Stan? Trust all is well.
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