Yes, I know I have talked about this before but it irritates me the way in which BBC Northern Ireland continually files stories about the Republic of Ireland under home news. It’s not. Take this tripe about the great news that unmarried mothers are being allowed to take part in the annual Rose of Tralee competition for the first time held in County Kerry. All very wonderful I am sure for these putative child bearing roses and cause for liberal celebration, but damn all to do with Northern Ireland. I wish that the all-Irelanders in the local BBC would take a hike with their incessant propagandising. To think that OUR British license taxation is being used to fund republican fantasies dressed up as news and spewed out through the State broadcaster. The problem in Northern Ireland is that seem unclear which State they work for.
A Good Year for the Roses?
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By far not the 1st time this issue has arisen. See Galway to Gaza BTW has the BBC reported that the woman and her daughter were released from arrest in Egypt? If so, I couldn’t find it. Perhaps because the original story was a Gaza story (heavily reported) and the follow-up was an Arab/Egyptian story (lightly reported)?
Does anyone know another instance where a country is persistently accessed on the BBC site from the wrong region? ❓
Apologies It’s a little ambiguous but Egyptians free Irish Gaza entrant after pleas from Irish Ambassador to Egypt to several ministers in the Egyptian government.
Still reported as Northern Ireland news, though. 🙁
I’m in Wales and spent many years in NI with the security forces…and thought it was only me who could see the disgraceful propoganda here from this shite Government and the BBC about how great the Republicans are and how bad the Loyalists are.
Thanks for affirming that it is not just me.
The competiton is open to ‘young women of Irish descent from around the world’ not just from the Republic.
A few years back I was in the Strand Bar in the Maiden city, you may know it David. I can’t remember exactly what it was about,(I’d had a few) but a long line of ‘roses’ were paraded through the bar and there was a presentation. So its not as if interest in the competition is exclusive to the Republic.
Besides, how this indicates a bias I don’t know. Do you think it’s covered because it might be of interest or because it is suggesting that there is a united Ireland. Nonsensical. Who are these people you represent. Is the audience that stupid?
Issues and developments within the Republic are of interest to BBC NI’s audience and may often affect/directly involve local people.
Coverage seeks to reflect the social, cultural, economic and other connections which exist between both jurisdictions. Such stories are an integrated feature of the local news online offering. This has no wider political significance.
It is likely that as the structure and functionality of BBC NI’s news website develops it will include a facility which will allow for the grouping of stories by geographical area. This should facilitate the easier location and signposting of RoI-related stories. Most of BBC NI’s newsgathering and coverage however, will remain focussed on Northern Ireland.
I don’t understand your problem. BBC covers NI matters because people in NI pay their licence fees! It’s not, as you say, “To think that OUR British license taxation” As for the references to the Rose of Tralee and such “republican” matters – who gives a toss?. I defy you to spend a week watching BBC NI’s pathetic output of local(NI)productions. So twee and innoffensive. NI is a very small entity – and very short these days on news!! Surely this is a good thing when compared with the recent horror.
By your logic BBC should not report on any matter in Ireland – north or south.
by the way – here I am http://kerryview.blogspot.com/
in case you wondered.
Total tripe. BBC Northern Ireland follows a politcally driven agenda and seeks to continually run stories about the Republic of Ireland as if i was part of Northern Ireland. It refuses to accept the constitutional reality that the Republic is a foreign country. Simple as, and no passes extended.
Issues and developments within the Republic are of interest to BBC NI’s audience and may often affect/directly involve local people.
Richard Paquette | Homepage | 05.04.08 – 10:35 am
Is this some form of Irish joke? (How very un PC of me)? Do you suggest that the Northern Irish are too stupid to click on the Europe link? Or do you suggest that Republic of Ireland residents instinctively know that for local news they must look to the UK?
I prefer John Reith’s (?) suggestion that BBC journalists post where they are based. This would be more convincing if the Rep. of Ireland bureau (assuming there is one) occasionally cross the border and then post under Europe.
Personally I generally prefer ‘incompetence’ theories rather than ‘conspiracy’ theories. It doesn’t seem too unlikely that the BBC website is programmed to link all Rep. of Ireland stories to Northern Ireland.
Still I repeat my earlier question.
Does anyone know another instance where a country is persistently accessed on the BBC site from the wrong region?
“BBC NI…continually run stories about the Republic of Ireland as if it was part of Northern Ireland.”
I would ask again, who are these people in the audience that get confused about this? Are these people in NI who have the wit to switch on a computer by themselves but dont know the difference between NI and ROI?
What about the coverage of Berie Ahern’s resignation? It wasn’t just on BBC NI, it was on network as well. Is that the BBC ‘refusing to accept the constitutional reality that the Republic is a foreign country’. Are viewers seriously going to believe that England is part of ROI.
Also, the stories you talk about, presumably make it clear where it is they are talking about. ie. Joe Bloggs appeared in a Dublin court today.
This is preposterous!
Joel,
So, please advise which OTHER BBC regional site continually posts on stories that occur in a foreign country? Answers on a postage stamp please…
God I trust that deegee does not stand for Director General. His question must rank as the most idiotic ever. Will BBC Wales cover the Olympics if there are no welsh competitors? let me think……..
I dunno. If FIFA can make a clear distinction between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, why the hell can’t the BBC?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_%28UEFA%29
Will BBC Wales cover the Olympics if there are no welsh competitors? let me think……..
kerryview | Homepage | 05.04.08 – 1:17 pm
Perhaps the question should be will BBC Wales cover the Olympics if there is a Welsh competitor? Given the size of the BBC contingent to Beijing I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Will the British contingent to the Olympics be covered under the heading of Sport or will it all be UK England news? What if there is a mixed nations team? We’ll have to wait and see.
There isn’t really a similar comparable situation in the rest of the UK to the situation between NI and ROI. But if you want an objective measure of the BBC’s coverage, what about UTV and every single newspaper published in NI. Even RTE report NI news, they must be in on it too.
The US Federal Reserve is run by a socialist, so I don’t see how America is better.
Joel,
Yeag, and once UTV force us to pay to watch their provision we’ll tackle them too. The State broadcaster which is unsure which State it serves in Northern Ireland is at issue here.
Mr Vance:
The State broadcaster which is unsure which State it serves in Northern Ireland is at issue here.
But what if a fair proportion of the people it serves – who, indeed, help pay for it – are interested in pan-Irish matters because they exercise the right to joint citizenship?
Would that be more or less than 1.5% of the population? Or 4.5%, taking the most generous estimate?
.
Richard Paquette:
Issues and developments within the Republic are of interest to BBC NI’s audience and may often affect/directly involve local people.
Says you, and you would say that wouldn’t you?
Nopw instead of pontificating, if you discussed the issue…
Typical BBC and why it is soon for the chop. Just think of how you will be able to ignore the people even more when you have to work for a living outside in the real world.
By your logic BBC should not report on any matter in Ireland – north or south.
No, just matters South in Eire.
It is after all a foreign country.
By your logic we should be reporting everything French too as local news in the south of England.
Deliberately obtuse is how I would mildly put your comments.
kerryview:
God I trust that deegee does not stand for Director General. His question must rank as the most idiotic ever. Will BBC Wales cover the Olympics if there are no welsh competitors? let me think……..
Thats RIGHT MORON!!! It won’t!!!
The olympics will be reported on as national news and BBC Wales will report on local issues…being in Wales I can tell you that.
“It is after all a foreign country.”
not according to the nationalist population in NI. and they pay the telly tax too.
now , if they were exempted and paid RTE instead – and if their income taxes went to Dublin instead, then you might have a point.
but the BBC has to serve everyone who lives in N.I.
what the hell do you want it to be – a mouthpiece for Unionism?
“By your logic we should be reporting everything French too as local news in the south of England.”
why not. damn fine idea that is, considering the amount of holidays and 2nd homes the Brits have in France.
which would you rather – Orla friggin Guerin moaning yet again from Pallywood or some nice report of some carnival in Cherbourg.
i know which i would prefer.
i would like the BBC to be given a big kick up the arse and to start reporting from our nearest neighbours for a change.
Hillhunt.
Still no response on the fact that 30% of the electorate get a 4% hearing on Question Time? I understand it’s a tad tricky for you but you could TRY to answer.
Archduke,
I could not care less what the nationalist population THINK, the fact IS that the Republic of Ireland is, as a matter of law and constitutional treaty, a foreign land.
And as for your claim that since they pay their TV tax their tastes must be catered for – the fact that overwhelmingly nationalist towns top the polls for non payment of the license rathers contradicts it.
The BBC may resent the British in their name, but some of us rather seek to remind them of it.
Mr Vance:
Still no response on the fact that 30% of the electorate get a 4% hearing on Question Time? I understand it’s a tad tricky for you but you could TRY to answer.
Can’t think why, but I’m strangely unconvinced by your guesstimate. Call it intuition, but I don’t believe that a man as obsessive and full of loathing for entire categories of people as you are might be capable of rational assessment.
Exhibit A:
And as for your claim that since they pay their TV tax their tastes must be catered for – the fact that overwhelmingly nationalist towns top the polls for non payment of the license rathers contradicts it.
See what you do there? Dredge up a random statistic – let’s assume you got it right – leap from that to the assumption that it’s nationalists only who fail to pay up, and then leap again to argue that none of them are therefore worthy of consideration as taxpayers.
For all your crowd-pleasing rants about Muslims, we still get to see the wee man marinaded in the anti-Catholic bigotry which you soaked up in your days at the Free Presbyterian Church.
It’s that, no doubt, which fuels your mind-bendingly trivial whinges about tail-planes, Roses of Tralee and other harmless Irish stuff on BBC web pages.
Biased BBC: No Surrender
Hillhunt,
Your devotion to demonstrating a/Your general ignorance of Northern Ireland matters and b/ Your own nasty little prejudices would be touching if you didn’t take up space on this site.
I have no further interest in your participation on this site.
” David Vance | Homepage | 05.04.08 – 8:53 pm”
what gives you the right to think that you can conquer a foreign land? for indeed that is what the British have done in Ireland.
who said to you that you have that right? God?
“And as for your claim that since they pay their TV tax their tastes must be catered for – the fact that overwhelmingly nationalist towns top the polls for non payment of the license rathers contradicts it.”
irrelevant. if britain lays claim to majority nationalist areas, such as Tyrone and Armagh, and will not cede them to the Republic, then they are obliged to cater for those populations, in order to integrate them into the UK, rather than push them away into the clutches of the IRA.
to think otherwise is to endorse ethnic cleansing and endless conflict.
archduke,
I now understand your risible Irish republican mindset and am glad this post has illuminated it. I wanted to talk about why the British Broadcasting Corporation fails to diustinguish between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – you want to talk about the British “occupation” of “Ireland”. Well, that is not the objective of this blog and I will not dignify your tripe with any further comment.
well it is occupied. do deny that is to deny history and to deny reality.
irrelevant. if britain lays claim to majority nationalist areas, such as Tyrone and Armagh, and will not cede them to the Republic,
How can you cede something to an entity that is in itself not a historic structure? If NI had once been a part of a united Ireland then maybe, but the only united Ireland there has ever been was under British rule.
I suppose we should have some kiddie porn to cater for the paedophiles too on the BBC news eh?
Eire foreign, BBC UK state…no foreign news, simple as that.
Fort all your rubbish about nationalists and their needs and demands, if they don’t like it then they can always move. Mind you, nobody ever accused the IRA scum or Nationalists of being overly fond of the rule of law, natural or otherwise, or indeed of democracy.
You are a fine advert for keeping NI British, and don’t worry about the BBC…they are soon to be privatised and will need to change or disappear.
archduke:
well it is occupied. do deny that is to deny history and to deny reality…etc etc. etc. etc. bla bla bla
A nationalist taking the moral highground is just so funny and tantamount to black irony.
” Shotgun | 06.04.08 – 12:42 pm ”
it is notable how you have no knowledge of the Kingdom of Ulster
and to invoke “padeophiles” shows the lack of depth of your knowledge. so you revert to tried and tested scare words in order to scare everyone else away from the concept of a pre-unionist Ulster.
never heard of the O’Neill clan so? if you are in love with Ulster, then you surely must have heard of them?
this is, of course, a complete fucking waste of time.
why i got myself involved in this is beyond me.
sorry folks. i’m outta here. there is no point with argueing with a one-braincell unionist dipshit.
at least the beeboids have two braincells , so they are somewhat more alive.
We are not discussing political aspirations but bias in the BBC surely.
It is obvious isn’t it?
The Republic of Ireland is a seperate country to the United Kingdom so it should not be reported as though it were in the UK.
Norther Ireland is not part of the Republic so it should not be reported as though it were.
On the other hand it is the only country with a border with the UK and it does have a special relationship with the UK and in particular with Northern Ireland.
There are cross border ties and commonalities and individuals particularly from the substantial minority community in Northern Ireland look to the Republic for many things and their aspirations.
Therefore go ahead and report the Republic of Ireland with a higher prominence than any other part of the world outside the UK.
Give them their own news section or whatever.
But do not confuse Northern Ireland and the Republic as being the same they aren’t and must not be reported as such.
Surely none of this is beyond the wit of man.