Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Irish Times was founded by Lawrence E. Knox and published its first edition on the 29th of March 1859. Knox was a 22-year-old army officer who initially published a thrice-weekly paper before converting it to a daily.
The Irish Times is owned by The Irish Times Trust, a non-charitable trust with no beneficial shareholders that cannot pay dividends. Ownership was transferred to the Trust in 1974. Any profits must be reinvested into the newspaper.
Cruiskeen Lawn was a satirical column that debuted in The Irish Times in October 1940, written by Brian O'Nolan under the pen name Myles na gCopaleen. The title is an anglicised form of the Irish phrase crúiscín lán, meaning "little full jug". The column appeared until O'Nolan's death in 1966.
The Irish Times was founded in 1859 as a moderate Protestant nationalist paper, but shifted to a pro-unionist position after its sale to the Arnott family following Knox's death in 1873. It became closely associated with the Irish Unionist Alliance. In the 21st century it describes itself as "liberal and progressive" and centre-right on economic issues.
The Irish Times launched its online presence in 1994, making it the first newspaper in Ireland and one of the first 30 newspapers in the world to establish an online edition. It reintroduced a paywall on the 23rd of February 2015.
The Irish Times Literature Prizes were established in 1988, with the inaugural International Fiction Prize awarded in 1989 to Don DeLillo for Libra. The prize was co-sponsored by Aer Lingus until 1992 and ran until 2001. Winners included A. S. Byatt, E. Annie Proulx, J. M. Coetzee, and Michael Ondaatje.