MR Austin Channing, former managing director of the People newspaper group in Wexford and former motoring correspondent with the Irish Independent, has died aged 78.
After serving as a major with the British army in India, he turned to Ireland and began publishing and editing Morning Life. On inheriting his family's interest in the People group of newspapers, he became a major shareholder and director of the company. It was in these posts he played a key role in the amalgamation of the People group with Independent Newspapers.
He was managing director at the group for 16 years.
Mr Channing is survived by his sons Adrian, John, Mark and Eoin. His removal, from Mackens funeral home on Distillery Road, in Wexford, will take place (to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Rowe Street), at 7 p.m. tonight. Burial will take place at St Ibar's cemetery, Crosstown, tomorrow morning at II a.m.