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All Outputs (12)

Naming and blaming: civic shame and slum journalism in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Manchester and Birmingham (2022)
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. (2023). Naming and blaming: civic shame and slum journalism in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Manchester and Birmingham. Journal of Urban History, https://doi.org/10.1177/00961442221127055

This study analyses slum journalism in the British provincial press and reveals that it continued to be a major theme until well into the twentieth century. Instead of the rather moralising reporting of the earlier nineteenth century, this journalism... Read More about Naming and blaming: civic shame and slum journalism in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Manchester and Birmingham.

Municipal matters : local government reporting and news values in England’s provincial press, 1900-1950 (2022)
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. (2022). Municipal matters : local government reporting and news values in England’s provincial press, 1900-1950. Media History, https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2022.2051461

This study examines local government reporting in the English provincial press from 1900 to 1950. It has two main findings – firstly, that the press moved from verbatim council reports in the early part of the century to selective news stories that... Read More about Municipal matters : local government reporting and news values in England’s provincial press, 1900-1950.

‘The magnetic pull of the metropolis’ : the Manchester Guardian, the provincial press and ideas of the north (2020)
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. (2020). ‘The magnetic pull of the metropolis’ : the Manchester Guardian, the provincial press and ideas of the north. Northern History, 57(2), 270-290. https://doi.org/10.1080/0078172X.2020.1800932

The newspaper globally known as the Guardian began its life in Manchester as the Manchester Guardian. This paper examines the reactions of readers of the newspaper in the context of the decision to remove the word ‘Manchester’ from the its title in 1... Read More about ‘The magnetic pull of the metropolis’ : the Manchester Guardian, the provincial press and ideas of the north.

Creating a critical civic consciousness : reporting local government in the nineteenth century provincial press (2018)
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. (2020). Creating a critical civic consciousness : reporting local government in the nineteenth century provincial press. Media History, 26(3), 249-262. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2018.1530975

This paper examines two themes in local government reporting in the nineteenth century – municipal governance and social reform and the reporting of municipal elections, electioneering and scandals. These themes formed part of the discourse of politi... Read More about Creating a critical civic consciousness : reporting local government in the nineteenth century provincial press.

A blot on the landscape? Civic memory and municipal public parks in early twentieth century Manchester (2017)
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. (2017). A blot on the landscape? Civic memory and municipal public parks in early twentieth century Manchester. Landscape History, 38(2), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2017.1394066

This paper examines the decision to locate the façade of Manchester’s old Town Hall in a public park (Heaton Park) in 1912. It argues that, in so doing, the city’s Parks and Cemeteries committee was attempting to refine the didactic space of the park... Read More about A blot on the landscape? Civic memory and municipal public parks in early twentieth century Manchester.

“Dirt, death and disease” : newspaper discourses on public health in the construction of the modern British city (2014)
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. (2014). “Dirt, death and disease” : newspaper discourses on public health in the construction of the modern British city. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 15(2), 207-227. https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.15.2.04ore

This study makes use of a range of local and national British newspapers and periodicals to examine the discourses of public health during the nineteenth century. It argues that many newspapers and periodicals used a very limited and limiting discour... Read More about “Dirt, death and disease” : newspaper discourses on public health in the construction of the modern British city.

“We have gone recreation mad” : the consumption of leisure and popular entertainment in municipal public parks in early Twentieth Century Britain (2013)
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. (2013). “We have gone recreation mad” : the consumption of leisure and popular entertainment in municipal public parks in early Twentieth Century Britain. International Journal of Regional and Local History, 8(2), 112-128. https://doi.org/10.1179/2051453013Z.0000000009

This study examines the development of popular entertainment in the municipal public parks of a variety of British cities in the early decades of the twentieth century. It seeks to extend the debate about the social role of the urban park beyond the... Read More about “We have gone recreation mad” : the consumption of leisure and popular entertainment in municipal public parks in early Twentieth Century Britain.

Re-ordering the landscape : landed elites and the new urban aristocracy in Manchester (2011)
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. (2011). Re-ordering the landscape : landed elites and the new urban aristocracy in Manchester. Urban History Review, 40(1), 30-40

This paper examines the relationship between the landed aristocracy in the vicinity of Manchester and the ‘urban aristocracy’ of the municipal authority and their role in the development of municipal parks in the city in the late nineteenth and early... Read More about Re-ordering the landscape : landed elites and the new urban aristocracy in Manchester.

From ‘the people’ to ‘the citizen’ : the emergence of the Edwardian municipal park in Manchester, 1902 - 1912
Journal Article
O'Reilly, C. From ‘the people’ to ‘the citizen’ : the emergence of the Edwardian municipal park in Manchester, 1902 - 1912. Urban History, 40(1), 136-155. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926812000673

This paper argues that the Edwardian municipal park represents a significant transition from the highly regulated and formal space of the Victorian park. It takes as a case study Heaton Park in Manchester purchased in late 1901 and suggests that this... Read More about From ‘the people’ to ‘the citizen’ : the emergence of the Edwardian municipal park in Manchester, 1902 - 1912.