The murders of two British soldiers and a policeman in Northern Ireland by dissident republican terrorists have cast a depressing spell over the territory.
It's a curious reflection of the calculating nature of news - and how Northern Ireland has changed dramatically - that the killings would barely have hit the front pages had they happened in Iraq of Afghanistan.
In the days after the atrocities, the British media paid huge attention to the language used by Sinn Féin politicians in their response. Radio 4's Today programme interrogated Sinn Féin leaders on the subject two days running, leading to Gerry Adams accusing John Humphrys of living in the past. The Daily Mail in a leader demanded that Gerry Adams express genuine sorrow for the soldiers' killings. It added that Adams' "callous and ambiguous response makes us all suspect that Adams hasn't really renounced violence at all".
Like many, I found Sinn Féin's words - it said the killings were "counterproductive and a strategic mistake" - chilling. But the Daily Mail's leader writers are the last people to understand or care about the sensitivity of language in Northern Ireland. It simply ignores the fact that the dissidents are at war with Adams rather than the British authorities. We may loathe Gerry Adams, but his painstaking efforts have carried the vast majority of the republican community with him on the road to peace. It's no comfort to the families of the victims, but the fact no British soldier died in Northern Ireland between 1997 and last Saturday reflects that achievement.
Northern Ireland secretary Sean Woodward chastised Today's John Humphrys this morning for imagining worst case scenarios. The people and politicians of Ulster have shown greater maturity than the media in their response to the tragic events of recent days. It's time for journalists to exercise greater responsibility in reporting what we all hope will be an aberration in Ulster's new era of peace.
PS: There's a certain incongruity at the chirpy message: "Hey there! sinnfeinireland is using Twitter"! But Gerry Adams' message via Twitter was clear: "These people [the dissident killers] are traitors to the island of Ireland".. "they don't deserve to be supported by anyone". Time for the Daily Mail to follow Sinn Féin on Twitter!
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