Conor Kenny
Staff Writer
In the early hours of Friday the 2nd of December, an old classmate of mine from Cork, Caolan Mulrooney, went missing. He was seen on CCTV cameras leaving Cubins nightclub in the centre of the town, and then spotted a short time later making his way up around St. Finbarr’s Cathedral on the south side of the city. He wasn’t seen by any of his friends or family the following morning or afternoon. A search party comprised of hundreds of us subsequently searched the town inch by inch later that night, doing everything in our power to find him. Inevitably, when the examination of the streets proved fruitless, the search parties were moved down to the banks of the Marina on the south side of the city. The Daily Mail, that great bastion of accurate news reporting, decided that this was sufficient evidence to claim that Caolan’s body had been recovered from the River Lee, and then published it in their Sunday morning edition.
It was astounding that the ‘journalist’ in question, Marisa Lynch, would choose to make up a rumour about a matter so serious, so upsetting, simply to sell a few extra copies of her vile bosses’ rag. I should point out that it is not an assumption on my part to say that Ms. Lynch chose to fabricate this story. When a journalist is reporting on a scenario as devastating as this, it is imperative that they get their facts straight. If she had asked even one person searching the Marina about the investigation, never mind the Gardai, then she would’ve been told the truth. One can only assume when confronting realities such as these that Ms. Lynch either; a) Had not sufficiently researched the matter and decided it would be easier for her to make up a fantastical news story, or, b) Had researched the matter, but decided that her version of events would make for a more interesting read. This is the state of journalism today – a collection of failed newscasters with no lasting friends, who choose to manufacture outright lies for the sake of satisfying the sadistic fantasies of their editors, and boosting their own overinflated egos.
A parallel can perhaps be drawn between events like this, to the wicked reporting of another gutter tabloid. In Sheffield, 1989, a devastating tragedy occurred which shook the foundations of my hometown of Liverpool to its very core. The Hillsborough stadium disaster was a heartbreaking catastrophe which resulted in the deaths of 96 people, caused entirely by the ineptitude of the South Yorkshire Police to sufficiently monitor the turnstiles. Instead of allowing time for the families of the victims to come to terms with the event, and for a full independent investigation to be made, The Sun chose to fabricate the lie that Liverpool fans had urinated on the bodies of dead people, and stole from their pockets. Again, a malicious story which broke the hearts of real people, and for what? For the sake of selling more copies? If there is a hell, these journalists are surely bound for it.
Caolan Mulrooney has not been found yet, and the investigation is still ongoing in Cork. Anyone with any relevant information is encouraged to contact their local Garda station. But for Ms. Lynch to do what she did is a disgrace, not just to news reporting, but to human nature. I can only call on the people of Cork to react in the same way that Liverpudlians did to The Sun, by refusing to buy The Mail under any circumstances. Only by refusing to accept hurtful and malevolent journalism such as this will the tabloids ever get the message. Edward Bulwer-Lytton once said that “the pen is mightier than the sword”. He may have been right, but it’s also more cowardly.
