One of the best known personalities in the history of Skibbereen is Frederick Peel Eldon (Fred) Potter. For many years he was owner and editor of the Skibbereen Eagle newspaper, which was founded by the Potter family in 1857. An entrepreneur, he opened the Eldon Hotel in Skibbereen in 1885, ran his own auctioneering business and, apart from the Eagle, he was associated with a number of newspapers in Cork. In public life, on a number of occasions he was elected as an Independent to the Skibbereen Town Commission. Throughout his career he not only reported the news, but as a master self-publicist he often courted being in the news, and is best remembered for stating that as editor of the Eagle he was ‘keeping his eye on the Czar of Russia’.
But who was the real Fred Potter and are the stories about him true? An article in this year Skibbereen Historical Journal entitled ‘Fred Potter and the Skibbereen Eagle’ by the late Tim Cadogan answers these questions. As you would expect from the pen of Tim Cadogan, this is a detailed account of Potter’s life, examining both his public and private life, including his two marriages and the birth of his children.
The core of the article is about Potter’s stewardship of the Skibbereen Eagle newspaper. Some of the facts may surprise you. For example the newspaper went through numerous name changes and was never officially known as the Skibbereen Eagle – the closest it came to that name was the Skibbereen and West Carbery Eagle: or South-Western Advertiser, and for much of its life its official title was the Cork County Eagle and Munster Advertiser. The newspaper operated from a number of different premises in Skibbereen. At one stage its offices were in New Street, now Townshend Street. While there it printed its address as Eagle Street, Skibbereen. The Eagle is often remembered for having Loyalist sympathies. While its editorial line was always against physical force republicanism, for the most part it favoured constitutional nationalism and in the years before World War I it supported William O’Brien and his All for Ireland League – which was then the dominant force in Cork politics. Potter’s own political views were also complex and he saw himself as a champion of the urban labouring class.
Of interest to many will be the story of how Potter became associated with the phrase that he was ‘keeping his eye on the Czar of Russia’. An online search will tell you that he used this term in an editorial in 1898 and that this event went on to symbolise hubris in the newspaper industry. However, as with most of the facts associated with Fred Potter, this is far from the full story. The origins of the phrase date back before the Skibbereen Eagle and Potter initially became associated with it in the 1870s – by the 1890s he was using it as a way to draw attention to himself and thus sell newspapers. To discover the full facts you will need to get your hands on our 2024 Journal and read this interesting article.
Before we leave this subject, a quick few words about the author and how publishing this article came about. Tim Cadogan was a native of Aughadown parish and for many years he worked for the Cork County Library service, where his encyclopaedic knowledge and his willingness to help others benefitted many. Aways a good friend of our Society, he launched our first Journal in 2005 and we were saddened by his all too early death in 2014. Two years ago I was fortunate enough to receive some of Tim’s papers and among them I found the article on Fred Potter. He had originally written this for the Southern Star Centenary Edition in 1989, and an abridged version of it appeared in that publication. We are grateful to Tim’s family for their permission to print the article in full in our 2024 journal, a year that marks the tenth anniversary of his death.
Copies of the new Journal are on sale in Skibbereen and outlets throughout West Cork. See the video below for an overview of the articles in this year’s Journal. This volume, and a selection of back issues, can also be purchased online at https://biblio.ie/bookstore/coolim-books-skibbereen/shj/39607814
William Casey