NEWLY-RELEASED State Papers have revealed concerns over the British media's reaction to deaths during the Troubles.
Irish Ambassador Joseph Small contrasted the reaction of British politicians and the media to the Warrington bombing on March 20, 1993, to subsequent retaliatory attacks in Northern Ireland.
In a confidential memo dated April 1, Small claimed that some in the British Press believed the IRA's bombing campaign was being orchestrated in Dublin.
The memo, sent to Seán Ó hUiginn, Assistant Secretary of the Anglo-Irish Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs, came in the wake of the Warrington bomb, which claimed the lives of three-year-old Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry, 12.
While there was understandable widespread outrage at the attack, Small says the situation was not helped by the reaction in the British media, who portrayed the Irish Government as 'ambivalent' to the IRA.
"Unfortunately, those attitudes were not helped by this weekend's damaging article in the Sunday Times suggesting that the IRA's campaign in Britain is masterminded from Dublin," wrote Small.
"This has since been picked up by other papers as evidence of the ambivalent nature of the Irish Government's attitude to the IRA."
'No room for Northern Ireland killings'
The Warrington bombing, which also left 56 people injured, was followed by retaliatory attacks in Northern Ireland.
These included the shooting to death of four Catholics in Castlerock, Co. Derry, on March 25 and the separate fatal shooting of a 17-year-old in Belfast later that day.
Both attacks were carried out by the UFF.
In his memo, Small compared the political and media reaction to the different attacks.
He wrote that there was no reference made to the Castlerock killings in an exchange between Prime Minister John Major and Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown at the House of Commons, despite them having occurred earlier that day.
Contrasting this to the reaction to Warrington, Small said it showed "deaths in Northern Ireland do not count for much".
"This omission was reflected in the popular press," he added.
"In a week dominated by images from Warrington there was simply no room for coverage of, or editorial indignation at, the horrific killings in Northern Ireland."
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