Days after the world’s conscience was shocked by the image of a dead toddler washed up on a Turkish beach, all that was stopping more refugees from making the same crossing was the media frenzy on the shore.

A Syrian woman and her two young sons who drowned on a desperate voyage from Turkey to Greece were buried in their hometown of Kobani, returning to the conflict-torn Syrian Kurdish region they had fled.

ON THURSDAY evening, as he talked of “leadership” and how Ireland will accept “thousands [of migrants] over the coming months and years”, Environment Minister Alan Kelly was asked why it had taken a heartbreaking picture of a three-year-old boy lying dead on a beach for Government to act.

The father of two toddlers who drowned with their mother and several other migrants as they tried to reach Greece identified their bodies yesterday and prepared to take them back to their home town of Kobani.

The family of two small boys whose bodies washed up on a Turkish beach were Syrian refugees who had been trying to emigrate to Canada, according to reports.

Irish Examiner readers have been sharing their thoughts since the difficult decision was made to publish the deeply disturbing photograph of Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi’s body washed up on a beach in Turkey.

An image of a drowned toddler washed up on the beach in one of Turkey’s prime tourist resorts swept across social media after at least 12 Syrian refugees died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.

Rightly or wrongly, it has long been the tradition of news media companies, including this one, to not publish some of the most disturbing photographs that emanate from war zones, areas of conflict and man-made or natural disasters.