The (Belfast) News Letter, the oldest existing English language newspaper in the world, is founded in Ireland in 1737, printed in Joy's Entry in Belfast.

The Joys are a family of Huguenot descent who have added much to eighteenth-century Belfast, noted for their compiling materials for its history.

Francis Joy, the father of Henry and Robert, had come to Belfast early in the century from the County Antrim village of Killead.

In Belfast, he had married the daughter of the town sovereign, and set up a practice as an attorney.

He obtains a small printing-press in settlement of a debt, and in 1737 uses it to publish the town’s first newspaper at the sign of ‘The Peacock’ in Bridge Street.

The family will later buy a paper mill in Ballymena, and are able to produce enough paper not only for their own publication but for the whole province of Ulster.