So, the Queen left Ireland today after a very historically & politically relevant 4 day visit and it’s all gone better than expected but I have a bone to pick with the news coverage of the whole situation. For the most part, the TV footage I watched was full of contradictions and as such, I was not impressed. I saw a couple of short reports and 1 longer documentary and in each of them there was little or no mention of the protest/riots the visit had caused – it had been all glossed over and although I understand why they did this I think it was wrong. News is supposed to be what happened not about pick ‘n’ mix facts that only tell half a story.
Then there was Sin Féin. One minute reporters were saying that Sin Féin’s support for the visit was key to the whole thing going ahead, the next minute they said there were members/supporters of Sin Féin involved in the riots (obviously meaning they didn’t support the visit at all) then they showed party leader Gerry Adams saying they had raised concerns about the visit but they had been satisfied with the response to their concerns and were happy it all went ahead. Which is it?
I’m ashamed to say, I found myself shouting at the TV when I saw the head of the UDA had been invited to events organised for Queen. Why, why, WHY on earth would anyone invite a terrorist to an event let alone the leader of the entire terrorist group! Obviously he posed no threat to the Queen as the UDA fight in support of unity with the monarchy (or at least, that’s what they claim to represent) but he should not have been invited on principal – he’s a criminal for pity’s sake! It’s like Britney Spears inviting a mass murderer to her birthday party because he enjoys her songs – absolute madness!
On another, heavily related, note… too often I see protests turning into riots. It’s almost inevitable and I think both the protestors and the police often have equal blame in this i.e. both sides could handle the situation better. It really sickens and terrifies me to watch it happening on the news. So much so that I completely refuse to go to a protest or demonstration at all – regardless of what cause it’s for or how strongly I feel about it. Emotionally I just can’t handle that level of violence. Not to mention the amount of people (crowds make me extremely nervous, but that’s a different story!).
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