DILLON REDISCOVERED
The Newspaperman Who Befriended Kings, Presidents and Oil Tycoons
By KEVIN RAFTER
Publishing April 2025
Emile Joseph Dillon witnessed some of the most dramatic events the world has ever seen including, the assassination of a Russian Tsar, the Dreyfus court martial and bloody massacres in Armenia.
At a time of shifting geopolitics and the birth of modern journalism, Dillon rose to prominence as a special correspondent with The Daily Telegraph of London. Dillon was, however, more than a newspaper journalist – he was a university professor, author of books on theology, and an adviser to statesmen; he reported on wars but also helped broker international peace treaties.
This is the previously untold story of a life that transferred from the slum streets of Victorian Dublin to the scrumptious salons of Tsarist Russia, from high politics in European capitals to the American oil rush in Mexico in the 1920s.
Drawing on never-before-seen letters and notebooks, this book reveals a complicated personal life including, marriages in Russia and Bulgaria, a divorce in Paris and family conflict beyond his death in Barcelona in 1933.
Kevin Rafter is Full Professor of Political Communication at Dublin City University and a specialist in the politics and media of modern Ireland. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston College in 2024. His books include Taoisigh and the Arts and Resilient Reporting: Media & Elections in Ireland since 1969. He has chaired the two national bodies responsible for the arts in Ireland, the Arts Council and Culture Ireland, and has served as a board member of several commercial and not- for-profit organisations. He was previously a leading political journalist in Dublin working with media outlets including, The Irish Times, The Sunday Times and RTÉ, the Irish national broadcaster as well as editor of Magill magazine.
‘An illuminating study and superbly readable story of a time when foreign correspondents were all-powerful recorders of the world’s news’
Jill Abramson, former Executive Editor, The New York Times
‘An authoritative, colourful, previously untold story of a picaresque, controversial Irishman who became a world-travelling historic figure of his time in journalism, politics, foreign and domestic affairs, and all manner of intrigue’
Leonard Downie Jnr., former Executive Editor, The Washington Post
‘Daily Telegraph writers like Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill have led extraordinary lives. Here, with E.J. Dillon, we read the story, not just of a man, but of an era; and all seen through the eyes of a remarkable witness, who changed the way we think of foreign correspondents’
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, columnist, The Daily Telegraph
The Newspaperman Who Befriended Kings, Presidents and Oil Tycoons
By KEVIN RAFTER
Publishing April 2025
Emile Joseph Dillon witnessed some of the most dramatic events the world has ever seen including, the assassination of a Russian Tsar, the Dreyfus court martial and bloody massacres in Armenia.
At a time of shifting geopolitics and the birth of modern journalism, Dillon rose to prominence as a special correspondent with The Daily Telegraph of London. Dillon was, however, more than a newspaper journalist – he was a university professor, author of books on theology, and an adviser to statesmen; he reported on wars but also helped broker international peace treaties.
This is the previously untold story of a life that transferred from the slum streets of Victorian Dublin to the scrumptious salons of Tsarist Russia, from high politics in European capitals to the American oil rush in Mexico in the 1920s.
Drawing on never-before-seen letters and notebooks, this book reveals a complicated personal life including, marriages in Russia and Bulgaria, a divorce in Paris and family conflict beyond his death in Barcelona in 1933.
Kevin Rafter is Full Professor of Political Communication at Dublin City University and a specialist in the politics and media of modern Ireland. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston College in 2024. His books include Taoisigh and the Arts and Resilient Reporting: Media & Elections in Ireland since 1969. He has chaired the two national bodies responsible for the arts in Ireland, the Arts Council and Culture Ireland, and has served as a board member of several commercial and not- for-profit organisations. He was previously a leading political journalist in Dublin working with media outlets including, The Irish Times, The Sunday Times and RTÉ, the Irish national broadcaster as well as editor of Magill magazine.
‘An illuminating study and superbly readable story of a time when foreign correspondents were all-powerful recorders of the world’s news’
Jill Abramson, former Executive Editor, The New York Times
‘An authoritative, colourful, previously untold story of a picaresque, controversial Irishman who became a world-travelling historic figure of his time in journalism, politics, foreign and domestic affairs, and all manner of intrigue’
Leonard Downie Jnr., former Executive Editor, The Washington Post
‘Daily Telegraph writers like Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill have led extraordinary lives. Here, with E.J. Dillon, we read the story, not just of a man, but of an era; and all seen through the eyes of a remarkable witness, who changed the way we think of foreign correspondents’
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, columnist, The Daily Telegraph
The Newspaperman Who Befriended Kings, Presidents and Oil Tycoons
By KEVIN RAFTER
Publishing April 2025
Emile Joseph Dillon witnessed some of the most dramatic events the world has ever seen including, the assassination of a Russian Tsar, the Dreyfus court martial and bloody massacres in Armenia.
At a time of shifting geopolitics and the birth of modern journalism, Dillon rose to prominence as a special correspondent with The Daily Telegraph of London. Dillon was, however, more than a newspaper journalist – he was a university professor, author of books on theology, and an adviser to statesmen; he reported on wars but also helped broker international peace treaties.
This is the previously untold story of a life that transferred from the slum streets of Victorian Dublin to the scrumptious salons of Tsarist Russia, from high politics in European capitals to the American oil rush in Mexico in the 1920s.
Drawing on never-before-seen letters and notebooks, this book reveals a complicated personal life including, marriages in Russia and Bulgaria, a divorce in Paris and family conflict beyond his death in Barcelona in 1933.
Kevin Rafter is Full Professor of Political Communication at Dublin City University and a specialist in the politics and media of modern Ireland. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston College in 2024. His books include Taoisigh and the Arts and Resilient Reporting: Media & Elections in Ireland since 1969. He has chaired the two national bodies responsible for the arts in Ireland, the Arts Council and Culture Ireland, and has served as a board member of several commercial and not- for-profit organisations. He was previously a leading political journalist in Dublin working with media outlets including, The Irish Times, The Sunday Times and RTÉ, the Irish national broadcaster as well as editor of Magill magazine.
‘An illuminating study and superbly readable story of a time when foreign correspondents were all-powerful recorders of the world’s news’
Jill Abramson, former Executive Editor, The New York Times
‘An authoritative, colourful, previously untold story of a picaresque, controversial Irishman who became a world-travelling historic figure of his time in journalism, politics, foreign and domestic affairs, and all manner of intrigue’
Leonard Downie Jnr., former Executive Editor, The Washington Post
‘Daily Telegraph writers like Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill have led extraordinary lives. Here, with E.J. Dillon, we read the story, not just of a man, but of an era; and all seen through the eyes of a remarkable witness, who changed the way we think of foreign correspondents’
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, columnist, The Daily Telegraph