I received a text from Gavin last evening informing me of the trouble outside Dail Eireann. I immediately switched to RTE for an update but apparently the national broadcaster was as much in the dark as I was.
Morning Ireland just about managed to cover the story slotting it in as a low priority piece after a story about a dead bird.
Some of those involved were interviewed on Today with Pat Kenny. Revealingly, Kenny opened with the following advice to listeners.
If you want you can check out the events on utube, there’s TV3 footage available there.
There are unconfirmed reports that the bulk of RTE News staff are still up in Northern Ireland desperately searching for stories like, for example, the breathtaking report of a few days ago that a policeman was slightly injured in a row outside a pub.
Think RTE were kept purposely in the dark – maybe in the northern dark, I don’t know! – over this. Vinnie B would be a bit of a favourite of the lads involved. Not a chance he would just coincidentally have a camera down there…
I was on that march and there must have been at least 1,500 on it. Yet, RTE and most national papers said there were about 500 on it. Very deliberate misrepresentation of the facts. And the trouble was very minor and short lived.
There is a very strong core establishment who don’t want their cosy control of this state upset in any way.