Paul Martin: "No vendetta against Ryan Tubridy"

In a suitably sensational interview, Irish Sunday Mirror editor Paul Martin pulls no punches when it comes to any subject, whether it's Ryan Tubridy's failure to sufficiently grill Ronan Keating in the wake of the singer's affair, the aftermath of the death of his friend Katy French or the phone hacking scandal that threatens to change the newspaper industry forever.

Regarding Ryan Tubridy’s Late Late Show interview with Ronan Keating, which lead to media criticism of the Late Late Show host for not asking Keating about his affair with Francine Cornell, Martin is unrepentant about his criticism of Tubridy. “I felt that Ryan Tubridy literally invalidated any right he had to be presenter of Ireland’s biggest TV show… I felt it was an insult to real journalism. And more than that, the public felt conned too.”

It was suggested to Martin – who is the youngest ever editor of a tabloid newspaper in Ireland at 33 – by Stuart Clark, who carried out the interview for Hot Press -, that there might be an impression of a vendetta against Ryan Tubridy after recent headlines suggesting that his position with RTÉ2fm was under threat.

“Look, there’s no vendetta against Ryan Tubridy at all,” Martin stated. “I think in fairness that I may have gone in a bit hard on him, and provided Ryan doesn’t wimp out of any more questions I’ll probably give him a bit of a break now.”

A subject more close to Martin's heart is that of the late Katy French. Martin considered her a close friend, and believes that her death did not have the impact on society that it should have.

“There are lots of other models on the Irish scene, well-known ones, who’ve told me they still take cocaine,” he says. “Nothing was learned from Katy French’s death. … She used to tell me that I’ll never have great sex until I try it on cocaine. She talked about taking cocaine as if she was on the Atkins Diet.”

He also reveals that he was involved in assisting with some of the media manoeuvres which Katy French executed;"Yeah, when she went to the sex shop and took those pictures, that was mine and her idea. The day she bought the animal fur, that was mine and her idea. The day she got back with Marcus Sweeney and happened to be papped at a wedding in the countryside, her and my idea. I’ve still got the texts. She played the game. She didn’t care about the media turning on her, she just cared about the media. She wanted to be on the front page no matter what it was for"

Don't miss the full in-depth interview in the new issue of Hot Press in which Martin also discusses phone hacking, the recent false allegations against Louis Walsh, the tabloid reaction to Gerry Ryan's death and David Norris' failed Presidential bid. The issue, featuring a very special Philip Lynott tribute cover, is out now!