Media

Two RTÉ series reporting on Irish development aid are part-funded by Irish Aid – RTÉ perceives no conflict of interest. By Colin Murphy

On Tuesday 4 April, the Minister for Justice revealed that Denis Donaldson's body had been found with one hand almost severed. The Irish Independent took this detail and turned it into a mutilation in their editorial of the next day.

Irish media ignored an Irish story that made it big internationally.

For a team roughly five games from their first double, Chelsea have taken a sustained kicking from media, pundits and fans. Some of it has clearly been deserved, but much has been mob overreaction to something akin to innovation. The rubbish spouted about the soul of the game has been tellingly absent from conversations about Alex Ferguson's record as a manager and a human being over the past 30 years.

Despite the underlying current of criticism from the establishment media, Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fáil are completely unfazed by the half-spoken opposition to their plans to reinstitute a public celebration of the 1916 Rising. Fianna Fáil believes that the time is right to stress the spirit of freedom that 1916 represents, and is convinced that it has put all the other parties on the wrong foot.

The above is what Patrick "Dutchy" Holland said to reporters after he was conviced of cannabis trafficking in 1997, meaning that media coverage had helped convict him. John Byrne looks at some of the press that surrounded his release from prison on 8 April

The Sunday World 'World Exclusive' claim of "bombshell" evidence that proves Patrick Holland murdered Veronica Guerin is insignificant. By Vincent Browne

So the aide turns out to have been loyally following his leader's dictates, rather than going around his back to peddle secret information.

On 2 April the Sunday Independent led with the headline "Exposed: SF's secret plan to stir up unrest". The article was written by Jim Cusack, who writes for the newspaper on security issues. According to an exchange with Jim Cusack on Monday 10 April (this was after a commentary in last week's Village on that Sunday Independent article) he stated 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".

He stood at the Woodside bar last Friday night, looking up at the television. He looked like a man who'd been kicked in the chest. The blood went from his cheeks. His hands shook. He bit the inside of his lip. He asked the bartender to turn the news up. He wasn't quite sure if he had heard correctly. The report was just 30 seconds long, but often a half minute is enough to know that the nightmare we are enduring is, in fact, our own life.