Sunday Independent not a Fountain of knowledge

The Sunday Independent paper this weekend carried a story about the horrendous murder of Coleraine man Kevin McDaid, who was buried yesterday.

 It is extremely important that there is accurate and informed reporting of sectarian tensions. Unfortunately, Jim Cusack’s report fell short on both.

 First, he described how “following McDaid’s death last weekend, the tiny Protestant enclave of the Diamond .. was attacked by Catholic youths for two nights”.  What he didn’t say is that there have been clashes on this interface for around a month.  Deeper into the story has been the actions of the UDA in and around the Fountain simmering for around a year. 

 Cusack goes on to say that the Bishop Street fence “protects them from regular stone and petrol bomb attacks from the Catholic youths from the adjoining Bogside. NBNW – like many people – saw first hand what went on over the past few weeks.  The nationalist youths were also to blame but it is simply a half-truth to describe such clashes as being perpetrated upon the Fountain from the nationalist side. 

 It is no coincidence that the UDA showing its muscle inside the Fountain – intimidating many law-abiding residents in the process – is not a contributory factor.  It is. If anything, it is the greater factor over recent times.

Finally, Cusack seems to explain Kevin’s murder by saying that “sectarian tensions around the north-west area to a large degree derive from the effective ethnic cleansing of Protestants from the Cityside of Derry/Londonderry”. Where is the evidence of this?  First, it suggests to readers that pogroms took place to force unionists off the west bank, which did not happen (unlike the Shankill attacks on the Falls in 1969). Of course the IRA campaign played a part in this but this must be reported accurately.

 Second, there is no evidence that sectarian tensions in Coleraine have anything to do with that migration.  Sectarianism is riven through loyalism.  It has been for at least 3 centuries.  The Sunday Independent should reflect that in its reporting rather than presenting Kevin McDaid’s murder as some delayed response to the drift from Derry’s west bank.