It was founded by cartoonists Arthur Booth and Charles E. Kelly and writer Thomas J. Collins.

[2] Launched on the eve of the Irish Civil War, the magazine's editorial stance was carefully balanced between Free Staters and Republicans, and its satire was generally gentle, albeit less so when it came to Britain and northern Unionists.

Booth's cartoons were sombre, focusing on the destruction caused by the war and the unemployment that followed, while Kelly's were more playful.

[1] Collins wrote most of the text pieces under a variety of pseudonyms, including Paul Jones, Clement Molyneaux, Lycurgus and Epictetus.

Kelly and Collins wound up the magazine in 1967 and sold it to Louis O'Sullivan in 1968, under whose ownership it returned briefly, edited by Lelia Doolan and Joe Dowling.