Parties battling for tabloid hearts at election time is a UK trend likely to catch on in Irish politics, writes Paul Daly

Last week, all eyes were on a modest chimney set atop one of the most powerful institutions in the land. As evening set, a plume of smoke rose, declaring to the world that an historic decision had been reached.

The event in question didn't occur amid the splendour of St Peter's in Rome, but in the rather less grand environs of suburban London.

In a shameless parody of the papal election, the Sun newspaper erected a chimney on the roof of its HQ in Wapping last Wednesday. Just after 7pm red smoke billowed from the chimney, signalling the decision of Britain's most popular newspaper to back Tony Blair in the general election.

In Britain the power and influence of the tabloid press is highly valued by politicians and opinion formers. Latest circulation figures show that between them the Sun and the Mirror sell nearly five million copies a day. They are, respectively, the first and the third largest selling newspapers in Britain. In comparison the Times sells approximately 630,000 copies a day and the Guardian 340,623.

Political parties in Britain have always fought for favour from the tabloid press. In the 1980s the Sun's backing of Margaret Thatcher and its venomous assaults on Labour leader Neil Kinnock were crucial in winning and retaining support for the Tories among skilled and unskilled workers. It was not only the massive circulation of the Sun that carried clout, it was also the fact that Sun readers were less committed to a political party, and thereby more likely to be influenced by the paper's editorial line.

The Sun has always trumpeted, and indeed exaggerated, its political influence. The day after John Major's surprise election victory in 1992, it famously declared, "It Was The Sun Wot Won It". The paper claimed credit for a late swing to the Tories in key marginals such as Basildon, which had the highest Sun circulation of any constituency in Britain.

Whatever about the truth of this claim, the bruising lesson of the 1992 election was not lost on incoming Labour leader Tony Blair. In August 1994, within a month of becoming Labour Leader, Blair had his first tête-à-tête dinner with Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Sun. The following year, Blair travelled to the Australian resort island of Hayman to address executives of Murdoch's Newscorp.

The courting of the Murdoch press paid off for Tony Blair. In March 1997 Blair wrote a piece for the Sun entitled I'm a British Patriot; the following day, page one of Britain's largest selling tabloid declared, "The Sun Backs Blair" .

Hugo Young of the Guardian interviewed Blair in 1997. According to Young, Blair placed a high level of importance on the backing received from the Sun: "Nobody, he [ Blair] vigorously insisted, should underestimate the matchless importance to his victory of the endorsement he received on the first day of the campaign from the Sun newspaper."

For many people, tabloid newspapers are synonymous with celebrity gossip, page three and "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster" headlines. There is no denying that in many cases this characterisation of the tabloid press is well deserved. But tabloid newspapers matter to the thousands of people who read them every day and trust them as a source of news and opinion.

The Irish political class has not placed the same emphasis on tabloid newspapers as their counterparts in Britain have. That is changing. Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, for instance, has developed a very supportive relationship with Fianna Fáil since 1997, which culminated in a front page editorial urging voters to "Back Bertie" in advance of the 2002 general election.

The most recent Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for the Irish daily newspaper market (July-December 2004) show that the six main daily newspapers sell 645,539 copies per day. The Star, the Irish Sun and the Irish Mirror account for 46.5 per cent of this market. No one interested in influencing public opinion can afford to ignore this fact. The battle for tabloid hearts and minds that has raged in Britain for decades may soon become a permanent element in the Irish political landscape too.

Paul Daly is a director of DHR Communications; he was formerly a press officer with the Labour Party