Anti-Harris bandwagon driven by the blogs

WITH the notable exception of the Irish Examiner and the Irish Times, there is a trend among some journalists to jump on the ‘Bash Harris’ bandwagon.

It would appear few of these people are prepared to give credit where it is due and would rather copy the juicy nonsense they elicit from internet blogs and which has resulted in much of the inaccurate and untruthful reporting in the past week or so.

The most obvious myth is that Harris claimed personal credit for Bertie Ahern’s victory in the recent general election. Not so.

In fact that honour was bestowed on him by the very people who are now trying rake up as much muck as possible. One of the few people to give Harris a fair crack of the whip was Steven King (August 8).

He is obviously a man who deals in hard, verifiable facts — not some spurious opinion pieces gleaned from the internet.

There are very few journalists with the conviction and courage of Eoghan Harris. He has, over the years, literally put his life on the line in a very lonely war of words with terrorist leaders who, in many cases, were eulogised by the very journalists who are now attacking him. And his constant reminders to the electorate of the Sinn Féin threat to stability in the South, should it become part of any rainbow government, might only be fully appreciated in years to come.

Niall Ginty

59 The Demesne

Killester

Dublin 5