The Phoenix

The Phoenix is a fortnightly political magazine founded by John Mulcahy in 1983, which covers current events, often through a satirical, irreverent lens. It is frequently likened to the UK’s Private Eye magazine. In contrast to Private Eye however, the Phoenix is printed on magazine stock rather than newsprint, and uses colour, including photography, quite extensively. As of 2018, the print magazine had a circulation of just under 12,000 copies.

The name Phoenix is a reference to its "emergence from the ashes" of Mulcahy's two previous publications - the republican political magazine Hibernia, which ceased publishing in 1980 after a libel action, and the Sunday Tribune newspaper, which collapsed financially in 1982.

Features in the magazine include a news column; detailed profiles ("Pillars of Society" and "The Young Bloods"); "Affairs of the Nation", which looks at political scandals; "Bog Cuttings" which consists of humorous and unusual events outside Dublin (often bizarre court cases), "Hush Hush" and "On the beat", which deals with security and intelligence matters; and a satirical section, "Craic and Codology". It also has an extensive financial column, "Moneybags".

The magazine is notable for its willingness to criticize those in power, with an edge rarely seen in the mainstream. Targets of these critiques range from individual business owners and politicians, to larger, more significant government policies and projects, both domestic and international.

Critics of the magazine, who often include politicians and prominent media figures, have dismissed the Phoenix for its “muckraking”, its juvenile humour, and described it as a “gossip rag”.