The original An Phoblacht was founded as the official organ of the Dungannon Clubs in Belfast in 1906 and its first edition was printed on 13 December 1906 under the English-language version of the title The Republic. A year later, the paper merged with a Dublin title called The Peasant, however the title An Phoblacht was again used from 1925 with Patrick Little (PJ Little) as editor and continued
until 1937 with a tumultuous history of internal splits and constant state oppression. Peadar O’Donnell took over as editor in April 1926 following a split in the Republican Movement. Frank Ryan also edited the paper for some time. Other contributors were Maurice Twomey, Seán MacBride, Frank Gallagher, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Fr Michael O'Flanagan. The title appeared again in 1966 as the paper of a small IRA splinter group based in Cork. Its modern version emerged under Jimmy Steele immediately following the Sinn Féin split in January 1970 and supported the armed resistance of the Irish Republican Army and the political campaigns of Sinn Féin. In 1970, An Phoblacht was at first circulated only in the South with another republican paper also established the Six Counties in 1970, Republican News, under the editorship of veteran republican Jimmy Steel. Located at 2a Lower Kevin Street in Dublin’s south inner city, it moved to the northside of the capital, to Kevin Barry House, 44 Parnell Square, in August 1972 and remains there to this day. In October 1972, it became a fortnightly publication under the editorship of Éamonn Mac Thomáis and later went weekly. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s particularly, An Phoblacht and Republican News were vital information platforms for the republican struggle fighting not just against state oppression by the British Army and RUC in the North but state censorship of TV and radio in the South. An Phoblacht was regularly raided by the Special Branch in both states and its staff arrested and jailed. Delivery drivers and printers were targeted for harassment in bids to disrupt distribution. It had become clear in the 1970s that a single paper for the whole of Ireland was required to provide a clear and coherent line from the leadership and so, on 27 January 1979, the first issue of the merged publications, under the banner of An Phoblacht/Republican News, appeared under the editorship of Danny Morrison. In 2010, faced with a fast-changing media world, An Phoblacht also changed and moved to a monthly publication schedule with a new look, more pages and a more modern website.
