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How British newspaper front pages covered the royal baby

They went all out.

YESTERDAY MAY HAVE been a long day for Kate Middleton but it was an even longer one for newspaper editors who had to wait and see if the royal baby would arrive in time for their first editions.

In the end, everything went smoothly: the boy was born at 4.24pm in the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in London, where Prince William was born in 1982. Kensington Palace said the baby’s name will be announced “in due course”.

Predictably, all of the British front pages went big on the birth: The Sun even temporarily changed its name to The Son in a moment of sub-editing smartness. The Independent, which is traditionally more republican than most other papers, used a photograph from outside Buckingham Palace but led with a main story about Prime Minister David Cameron’s attempt to crack down on internet porn – the only paper not to give over most or all of its front page to the new arrival.

The lack of any pictures yet of the new child or of the Duke or Duchess of Cambridge at the hospital meant the papers had to be  a little more imaginative in their front pages, with some using old pictures of the couple, some using photos of the official announcement of the birth, and one opting for a photo of Prince Charles looking excited.

Here’s how they looked.

The Sun

The Times

The Mirror

The Guardian

The Telegraph

The Independent

The I

The Star

Daily Express

Daily Mail

The Scotsman

(Images: @hendopolis/Kiosko.net)

And just in case you missed it, here’s the rather surreal moment when a town crier stood outside St Mary’s Hospital and announced the birth of the baby.

(Video: CNN/YouTube)

Read: A child is born: Kate has given birth to a baby boy >

Read: Third in line: Here’s the new line of succession to the British throne >

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73 Comments
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    Mute Sequoia
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    Aug 15th 2022, 1:15 PM

    The secret diary of Michael Collins, aged 28 ¾

    There is a new girl in our class. She is all right. Her name is Kitty, but she likes being called ‘Box’. Don’t ask me why.

    I might fall in love with her. It’s time I fell in love, after all I am 28 3/4 years old.

    I was seriously menaced at dail today. Eamon DeVelara threw my snaplock executive brief-case on to the gaa pitch.

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    Mute Stephen Walshe
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    Aug 15th 2022, 3:09 PM

    @Sequoia: go back to bed you

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    Mute Sequoia
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    Aug 15th 2022, 3:51 PM

    @Stephen Walshe: not a fan of the written word?

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    Mute Caoimhín Ó Seanáin
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    Aug 15th 2022, 2:08 PM

    So Tweedledum and Tweedledee are going to consummate their political inseparability at Collins’s shrine. What a pai of unprincipled carpet baggers.

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    Mute Nigel Hayden
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    Aug 15th 2022, 4:07 PM

    As much as I say the diaries sound interesting, the papers that went missing from his office after he was shot dead sound more interesting as it was rumoured that he was about to unmask a long time British agent on the Irish had he survived Beal na Blaith

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    Mute Pat Casey
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    Aug 15th 2022, 6:17 PM

    @Nigel Hayden: That was probably Dev.

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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    Aug 16th 2022, 9:57 AM

    @Pat Casey: it was absolutely dev. The only commandant to not be executed after the 1916 rising

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    Mute Ian E. Moon
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    Aug 15th 2022, 3:13 PM

    It’s a shame that two of the biggest EUphiles who are doing their darnist to dismantle the hard won independence and self determination by Michael Collins Arthur Griffiths Eamon Cennt and others, by bowing to the EU at every turn, I mean FF FG Labour Sinn Fein Pb4p SD Greens and a good amount of independent TDs willingly take the soup from the EU UN Nato and WEF all for whatever pads their pockets or a promise of a cozy job from the psychopathic so called”elites”.

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    Mute David Dineen
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    Aug 15th 2022, 2:38 PM

    As a corkman i expect to see “shaq the dubs” and i will be “emperor of Corkland” (ireland in old money)

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    Mute Irish View
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    Aug 17th 2022, 1:26 AM

    Interesting

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