Eddie Holt, who has died aged 60, was an award-winning columnist, an astute critic and a much respected university lecturer in journalism.
His lifelong friend journalist Niall O'Dowd described him as a great Irish journalist whose opinions refused to bend to contemporary groupthink, adding: "For years, Eddie's columns in The Irish Times warned of the excesses in Irish society at a time when the Celtic Tiger flag was being waved and no criticism was being accepted. Eddie spoke out against the excesses and warned of the inevitable outcome long before the financial edifice collapsed."
An underlying theme in Holt’s writing was the inequitable distribution of power and wealth. His outspokenness resulted in him being singled out for criticism by those who apparently knew better.
In 2006, he wrote that “consumerism is probably on course to consume itself”. One of his critics complained in 2007 that Holt had failed to acknowledge Ireland’s fantastic economic performance, “one of the great capitalism success stories in the world, and a living refutation of his worldview”.
On graduating from university in 1977, Holt initially worked as a teacher and then as a sports reporter in Drogheda. He went to Britain in 1979, where he worked as a journalist in Kent and London and led a bohemian lifestyle.
He returned to Ireland in 1981, working initially with the Irish Press as a feature writer before joining the Irish Independent in 1982 as a critic, writer and sub-editor. He remained there until 1994.
A former colleague at the newspaper, John O’Sullivan, said even those who disagreed with Holt could not help but like him because of his sense of humour.
He started to write a weekly TV column, which proved very popular with readers and journalists alike. Although ostensibly about TV, the column was in fact about anything Holt thought important. He was named Critic of the Year at the National Newspapers of Ireland Awards in 1990.
Lecturer in journalism
He left the
Irish Independent
in 1994 to become a lecturer in journalism at Dublin City University’s school of communications, where he remained until he retired prematurely because of illness.
The Irish Times poached Holt and his TV column from the Irish Independent in the same year. Former Irish Times features editor Sheila Wayman said: "He elevated the criticism of TV programmes to mainstream commentary. With the astute eye and acerbic wit of somebody who always stood outside the establishment, he was able to select disparate programmes and knit his reviews of them into a cohesive, entertaining and elegantly written social commentary – week after week."
The TV column grew into something bigger and, as the years passed, focused on media and politics, both national and international. On top of his critique of neo-liberal economic policy he vehemently opposed the second invasion of Iraq and criticiced the media for reporting the war with lies, half-truths, limited truths and facts out of context. His criticism of American foreign policy lost him friends in the US, which he regretted.
As a university lecturer, he took teaching very seriously but wore his scholarship lightly lest it put off his students. He assisted novice journalists in their mission to become professional writers, using the journalistic work of George Orwell and Strunk & White's classic The Elements of Style as foundations on which to build successful journalism careers.
The numerous tweets and emails from former journalism students on his passing speak to his popularity and effectiveness as a teacher who cared and who mattered. He was variously described therein as a great journalism lecturer, one of Ireland’s finest and a man who was provocative, engaging, talented, witty and kind.
Holt was raised in Drogheda, where he attended primary and secondary school at St Joseph’s CBS. His undergraduate degree was from UCD and his graduate degree from Boston University, where he was the recipient of a prestigious William Shannon Fellowship.
Rock-climbing
Apart from work, he lived for his family, for football, WB Yeats, Anglo-Irish literature, Irish history and, prior to his illness, rock-climbing.
He told the story of climbing a sheer rock face on Ireland’s Eye off Howth one sunny Sunday afternoon many summers ago. As he reached the top with a companion, a shag, a cormorant-like seabird, emptied its bowels in his face.
"Although unpleasant," he said, with a wry smile, "it wasn't as bad as working for the Irish Independent."
For literary critic Declan Kiberd, Holt was "a brilliant journalist of the old school, exact in language, honest in feeling". "Eddie understood that without journalism there would have been no Irish Revival. His work on Yeats alerted a whole generation of scholars to the way in which the Irish risorgimento was conducted as fully in newspapers and journals as in books of high culture."
“Throughout his career,” his friend David Quin said, “Eddie kept asking irritating questions such as – quoting Jung – ‘How do you recognise the tiger that has swallowed you?’ Hopefully his students will continue the tradition of asking awkward questions of those in power.”
He is survived by his widow, Dympna, his son, Joe, his sister, Theresa, and her husband, Michael.