Sunday Independent's rising tally of bogus 'exclusives'

Twenty-one Sundays into 2006, the Sunday Independent has published eight front page lead stories that were bogus. By Vincent Browne15 January: Haughey and old pal Ahern bury hatchet. This was written by Jody Corcoran. He wrote: “The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and his patron Charles Haughey have had a secret rapprochement which has led to a series of private meetings between the two men, which both are said to cherish.” This was a piece of nonsense.
As had happened over many previous Christmases, Bertie Ahern visited Charles Haughey at the latter's home. There was no “secret rapprochement”, simply inconsequential conversation lasting about an hour.

19 February: Haughey will Quit FF if not made minister. Again Jody Corcoran, this time accompanied by Daniel McConnell, wrote: “Sean Haughey, the Fianna Fáil TD overlooked for promotion last week, is threatening to contest the next election as an Independent candidate if he is not appointed to a ministerial position, the Sunday Independent can reveal.”
The Sunday Independent could reveal no such thing because it was entirely untrue. Sean Haughey made no such threat.

26 February: Dublin burns. Again Jody Corcoran, this time joined by Ciaran Byrne and Jerome Reilly. They wrote: “Hardcore republicans spent weeks orchestrating yesterday's Dublin riots, which saw 14 gardaí and civilians – including RTÉ's Charlie Bird – injured. Millions of euro in damages was caused in the orgy of violence. Hundreds of highly-organised republican demonstrators – including members of Sinn Féin and dissident groupings – descended on the capital, to forcibly stop a Love Ulster rally involving Orangemen and relatives of IRA murder victims.”
The claim that “hardcore republicans spent weeks orchestrating [those] Dublin riots” is now known to be entirely false.

26 March: Ahern ready to serve with SF: McDowell. Written by Willie Kealy. He wrote: “Justice Minister Michael McDowell believes that Bertie Ahern will go into government with Sinn Féin after the next election – if that party gets enough pivotal seats to make them Dáil kingmakers.”
Inside that issue of the newspaper the interview with Michael McDowell was published and it quoted McDowell: “Asked if blocking Sinn Féin was still a valid reason to vote for the PDs, given the Taoiseach's assurance that he would not go into government with Sinn Féin, Mr McDowell said: ‘If Sinn Féin got 12 seats in the next Dáil and if they were pivotal seats, which represented the balance of power, they would be – to use Martin McGuinness's phrase – kingmakers. Whatever people say in advance about what they would or would not do, doesn't correspond with what happens afterwards'.” This bland observation was the sole basis on which the headline was constructed: “Ahern ready to serve with SF.”
2 April: Exposed: SF's secret plan to stir up unrest. We have already commented on this article in Village. The story was written by Jim Cusack. Cusack later told Village the article was based on an internal Sinn Féin document, the annual report of the Six County Executive of the party. However, nothing in the document suggested any intention to “stir up unrest”. We asked Jim Cusack how the document substantiated his claim that there was a Sinn Féin plan to “stir up” unrest. He refused to answer our question.

9 April: Provos hired hitman to kill Donaldson. The article was based solely on anonymous Garda sources (or source?) and, far from suggesting that the IRA leadership had been responsible for the murder, the suggestion was that it was dissidents within the organisation, acting in defiance of the leadership.

30 April: Haughey nears end, tends to last duties. In fact that weekend Charles Haughey's health was better than it had been for some weeks. He was at home in fine form, receiving visitors.

7 May: ‘We were all blotto at FF party think-in'. This was based on an “exclusive” interview with James McDaid, who admitted to having been “blotto” himself and therefore in no position to say whether anyone else was and certainly not in a position to say that “all” at the party “think-in” were “blotto”.