Incitement to hatred (of Travellers)

The Sunday World of 24 July included several articles that exhibited deep prejudice against Travellers. Vincent Browne reports

On the front page the headline: "Killed by the 'Pig', Hunt for Traveller gang behind trainer's murder". The 'pig' was identified as a member of the Traveller community. No sources, no back up authentication for the claim that a Traveller gang had been identified as the lead suspect in the murder of horse trainer Dick Forristal.

Across pages six and seven the headline: "Hunt for Vicious Pig", accompanied by a photograph of an executive-type male with face blurred out, supposedly a photograph of the 'pig'. A secondary headline: "Traveller thug said to be behind breeder's killing". Again no source identified, aside from "a Sunday World source".

On page 16 there was a news feature by crime correspondent, Paul Williams, on John Ward, the Mayo Traveller killed by farmer Pádraig Nally, who last week was acquitted of the murder of John ward, but convicted of manslaughter. The piece headed: "Did 'Frog' Ward get what was coming to him?"

The article went on to recite the facts of John Ward's killing with the observation: "No man deserves to die in the fashion that John Ward perished". And then "But there is a sense of anger at John 'Frog' Ward. How dare he go around the country terrifying the living daylights out of the ordinary God-fearing people of rural Ireland". It continued: "The tragic reality is that John Frog ward, a violent thief who preyed on the elderly helped to create the circumstances of his own downfall". No substantiation in the article that John Ward had ever preyed on the elderly, or had done anything to merit to terrible beating and then death inflicted on him by his assailant.

Curiously, there was another piece on the case on page nine by reporter Niamh O'Connor, which was sympathetic to the Traveller community and commented on the unfairness of the trial of Pádraig Nally. It stated: "The 12 members of the randomly selected jury were plucked only from the settled community. And the court was convened in the accused's home county. A steady stream of well-wishers came in off the street and queued up to shake the hand of Nally, a bachelor farmer who admitted 'It was like hitting a stone or a badger. You could hit him but you could not kill him'".

Niamh O'Connor reported: "(John Ward) had 12 previous convictions for larceny and violent assault and that threatened a gardaí and civilian with a slash hook… On the day of his death he had opiates, cannabis and tranquillisers in his system".

She ended her piece with a quotation from a brother of John Ward who attended the case: "It was blood murder. If a Traveller killed a settled person would they have got away with it".