The Irish Daily Mail responds to Bartlett's letter

Features, News — By on December 7, 2011 6:12 pm

Ronan Costello
Editor
The Irish Daily Mail has responded to TCDSU President Ryan Bartlett’s letter requesting an apology regarding an article that was published in last Sunday’s Mail on Sunday edition which falsely stated that the body of Caoloan Mulrooney, who was missing at the time, had been found in the River Lee.
Niamh McLiam, marketing manager for Associated Newspapers, the parent company of the Mail newspapers, said that an apology had been printed in yesterday’s edition of The Irish Daily Mail and that the editor had personally responded to all complaints received following the publication of the article. She also said that the Managing Director had travelled to Cork to personally apologise to the family and friends of Mr Mulrooney.
Bartlett’s letter was sent following a decision made by SU Council to suspend all sales of the Mail newspapers in SU outlets pending a review of an apology from the Mail. The apology will be reviewed at the next SU council, which will take place on Tuesday, January 24th.
Bartlett’s letter:
Re; Request for an apology to family and friends of Caolan MulrooneyDear Mr Eric Bailey,I am writing to you in relation to the article by Marisa Lynch that appeared in last Sunday morning’s edition which claimed that the body of the late UCC student Caolan Mulrooney had been found in the River Lee.The publication of a story which falsely claimed that the body of a missing person had been found was gravely negligent. The search was still ongoing with hopes that Caolan would be found alive.

I cannot comprehend the anguish this must have caused for all of his friends, family and others connected to him. We in TCDSU are acutely aware of the unnecessary harm caused by the article to the students of our college that knew Caolan, and at this time our thoughts are with all those that knew wherever they are.

On behalf of the students of Trinity College Dublin I am requesting that the paper issue an apology to all those who knew Caolan for the appalling story that was printed last Sunday.

I must also inform you that all sales of the Irish Daily Mail and the Irish Mail on Sunday from our campus outlets have been suspended, as directed by the TCDSU representatives, pending an apology to the family and friends of Caolan Mulrooney, and a review of this apology at a future SU Council.

I eagerly await your response and hope to see an apology issued soon.

Regards,

Ryan Bartlett
TCDSU President

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  • owen bennett

    While the article run by the Daily Mail is wholly indefensible and has rightly been apologized for, I think the SU have set a worrying precedent in the decision to ban sales of the newspaper pending an apology.

    If every newspaper on campus was banned for similar behavior then we probably wouldn’t have anything to read. Last year, this newspaper published a completely baseless article regarding former sabbatical officer Jen Fox. The newspaper was reprimanded and forced to issue an apology yet there was never any indication that the newspaper would be banned. That in my view was a fair outcome. Banning a newspaper as a result of one false (yet highly offensive article) could potentially lead the SU down the road of censorship, a state of affairs no one wants to realize.

  • rob

    though your response does have a understandable point and view, this is completely different, best way to put it is if you put yourself in the families shoes and read the article that your son was found in the worse way possible,if the daily mail are not made a example of,that is allowing it to be ok for this type of lies to printed and get away with it. caolan was my friend, and this is disgraceful.

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