The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

The whole period was punctuated by outbursts of uproar over bannings or imposed changes, such as those in the seven-part series The Irish Way, directed by Colin Thomas. Thomas resigned in May 1978 over changes ordered by BBC Northern Ireland. Looking back at the coverage of the twenty-five years of conflict it would appear that – apart from the overall consideration of control of the news flow – there were three major concerns in the minds of the censors. Firstly, a reluctance to allow the screening of material which might tend to arouse support for the Nationalist position, in other words the policies of both the Dublin Government and the SDLP. Secondly, an extreme sensitivity to information which placed the security forces in a bad light (one of the cuts which prompted Thomas’s resignation was a shot of a tombstone which read: ‘Murdered by British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday’). Thirdly, an abhorrence of anything which depicted the IRA in situations which indicated either the possession of a degree of community support or a human face.