Meeja WA WAtch tch BY LLOYD GORMAN
Western Australia, and the rest of the country, are never far from the hearts and minds of many in Ireland, particularly those who have lived and worked here or amongst those still with family still here. Interest in WA in particular is high if this sample of news and feature articles amongst some of Ireland’s traditional print media are anything to go by....
Pandemic rains on this parade! On March 19, The West Australian carried this short article with photograph about the impact of Coronavirus on the cancelled celebrations for St. Patrick's Day. The story is one the newspaper would have picked up from a news agency. The photograph does capture the scene and sense of emptiness and isolation forced onto a city that should be in full festive flow, not lockdown. It doesn't make any difference to the story at all, but there is a small mistake that most Dubs would probably be able to pick up. The article says the street trader "stands in a deserted O'Connell Street". Nearly right but not quite. There are enough clues in the photograph to pin point his exact location. The lone 'sole trader' is actually pictured in Middle Abbey Street, which is just off O'Connell Street and not really worth quibbling about. Just above the tricolour to the top right of his cart is a small Guinness sign. That sign belongs to the Oval Bar, a good old fashioned Dublin pub, which sits at the side of the Eason's on O'Connell Street.
Rebel spirit channelled for Coronavirus clampdown If the 24 hour news cycle wasn’t already in place, the media concept would have had to be introduced as a result of the pandemic. The early weeks of the outbreak particularly saw the government, media and everyone else scramble to try and come to terms with what was happening. It was a real case of ‘rí rá agus ruaille buaille’ (chaos and confusion). So much happened so quickly and things changed so much that it was hard to keep up with the unfolding crisis. Announcements and developments that would under other circumstances would be major news stories in their own right came thick and fast only only to be replaced quickly by a new wave of rolling updates. It was a blitzkrieg of sorts. The media had the important job of trying to communicate all this information to the public, quickly and accurately. In all the coverage and reporting in the media one there is one headline that we think stands out head and shoulders above anything else. Tabloids newspapers are renowned for catchy headlines and punchy stories but in this case some clever sub-editor at the Irish Daily Star excelled at their craft. On April 8, the Dublin based paper reported to a country already under siege that the lockdown had been extended, which meant Irish people would be forced to stay at home for even longer. The headline ‘Go out your back and tan’ summed it up brilliantly and may well be one of the outstanding headlines ever in an Irish newspaper. Anyone Irish will understand and appreciate the double meaning of the headline but a quick explanation for those without an Irish background might be useful. The inspired headline is a play on the famous Irish rebel song ‘Come out ye Black and Tans’. If you don’t know who the Black and Tans were, google them. In any case it exemplifies how with just a few words a headline can really lift a story and capture a moment in history.
THE IRISH SCENE | 12
