NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
Why do the ‘11,000’ babies buried in Belfast bog not get international media coverage, like Tuam?
BY PAUL CONNOLLY – 04 JULY 2014
I often wonder whether old inter-media rivalries in Belfast are seriously clouding editorial judgments. I have plenty of examples of compelling stories, many from the Belfast Telegraph but from other outlets too, not being followed up by other media. Usually I put my bewilderment down to a personal mixture of cynicism and prickliness.
However, the latest example really does give greater cause for concern. Consider, if you may, two stories from last month.
In the first, nuns are accused of presiding over an uncaring regime that featured unnaturally high death-rates and the ‘dumping’ of babies’ bodies in unmarked mass graves.
In the other, nuns are accused of presiding over an uncaring regime that featured unnaturally high death-rates and the ‘dumping’ of babies’ bodies in unmarked mass graves.
Yes, you read that correctly. The same issue. The first story is from Tuam, Co Galway. The second from Belfast.
The Tuam case made, and continues to make, international headlines and is the subject of a high-level Government inquiry.
The Belfast case? No fuss, virtually no follow-ups and certainly no inquiry.
The most disturbing allegations in both the Tuam and Belfast cases have yet to be proven, but in both, detailed and credible concerns have been raised.
In my opinion the reaction to the Belfast story speaks volumes about the state of the media, the health of our body politic and an apparent lack of interest from the public. The long shadow of the Troubles is allowed to overly dominate discourse.
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