Southern media aren’t giving Northern politics fair coverage

Given that the political establishment and the press in the South are newly interested in what is happening in the North, I was surprised that the following story went largely unreported by media over the last couple of days.

A bullet has been found lodged in the exhumed body of Joseph Murphy, a father-of-12 and victim of what has become known as the Ballymurphy Massacre.

His body was exhumed on Tuesday, to uncover evidence from the 1971 British Army shootings.

A coroner gave the order for the exhumation, after questions were raised over how Mr Murphy died, along with ten others. One victim died of a heart attack during the incident.

The coroner said the move was necessary, as the family of Mr Murphy would “forever be left wondering if a piece of evidence had been missed in the investigation of his death.”

The victims were shot by the parachute regiment that was involved in Bloody Sunday, in Derry, a few months later.

It emerged that Joseph Murphy was shot twice — in West Belfast and again in the army barracks.

But I wasn’t surprised that such an important story was given little coverage, as the media in this country serve the powerful and rarely serve the truth.

Dan McSweeney

Toureen

Ballinhassig

Co Cork