Michael IRISH

1938 - 2016

IRISH, Michael
Michael Irish - newspaperman, entrepreneur, bioterror survivor, part-time prophet, veteran pilot - on October 22, 2016, charted his final course after a short illness. Mike was born in Bury St. Mary, Lancashire, England, on October 9, 1938, joined the Royal Air Force in 1958 and left in 1960 with the rank of senior aircraftman. He worked as a young reporter for local papers before moving to the journalistic hub of Fleet Street and making a reputation among London's hard-living newshounds. By 1971, he was set to run the Ulster edition of the Daily Mirror - but when the I.R.A. blew up the paper's Belfast printing facility, he left the U.K. for a job at the National Enquirer. Upon landing in the States, before coming in to work - before even checking into his hotel - he immediately went to a car dealership and bought the biggest convertible on the lot. Soon, he traded that for a bright yellow E-Type Jaguar. In addition to fast cars, he loved large dogs, powerboats, and small aircraft (volunteering with the Lantana Cadet Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol and alarming air traffic controllers up and down the East Coast with his maneuvers). He augmented his income from National Enquirer and Globe publications with successful real estate dealings, but despite several attempts to retire, he was always drawn back to the weeklies. He was the editor-in-chief of Sun in 2001, when an anthrax attack claimed the life of his friend and photo editor Bob Stevens, and kept the paper going for more than decade after, delivering cutting-edge stories on such topics as flying cars, Nostradamus prophecies, Mothman sightings and stem-cell therapy. His final berth was overseeing a section of the National Examiner dedicated to news of the future. He is survived by his wife Berdier Barbary Irish, two half-siblings, his son Michael Paul Irish, his daughter Sarah Burdick, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Friends will be gathering at the Blue Anchor, at 4:00PM Monday, November 7 to toast his memory.
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