Sometimes the Sun just goes too far ... yesterday's Irish edition fomented xenophobia with pure fiction, writes Peter Murtagh
Looking for incitement to ethnic hatred in the guise of populist reporting? Then, look no further than yesterday's Sun, specifically the incarnation sold here as the Irish Sun.
On Page One, labelled "Sun Special Investigation", there was the headline "See you in May" , or rather, the shouted version, "SEE YOU IN MAY". Its sub-headline read: "Thousands of travellers are on their way."
Inside, under the banner "IRELAND'S OUR DREAM", Oliver Harvey reported from Kezmarok in Slovakia that "hundreds of thousands" of poverty-stricken people in eastern Europe "are preparing to flood" into "Ireland and Britain".
"As many as 50,000 could come to the Republic alone," Harvey wrote.
Nowhere in the report is there any evidence to support this assertion. Sure, 50,000 people could come here; even 100,000. But will they? Is there any evidence that significant numbers will come here en masse? No - no more than tens of thousands of poor Portuguese, Sicilians or Greeks came here.
The article reports - correctly - that Britain and Ireland, unlike other EU member-states, granted immediate entry rights to citizens of the 10 accession states of eastern Europe, plus Cyprus and Malta, when those states become members on May 1st.
The remainder of the report is a farrago of quotes from poor people, some said to be Roma, in Poland and Slovakia describing the wretchedness of their lives and their desire for betterment.
Nowhere, not once, is there an expression of a wish to come to Ireland. England, yes. But no "Ireland" in dreams or otherwise.
Now hook up to the Sun online (www.thesun.co.uk), essentially the cyber version of the UK edition. Front page - "SEE YOU IN MAY" but with the more specifically nasty sub-head: "300,000 gypsies heading for Britain".
Inside there are also strategic differences. The overarching headline, the one that shouted "Ireland's our dream" reads: "ENGLAND'S OUR DREAM".
The article is the same as the Irish edition - or almost. Gone is the prediction that 50,000 people could come to the Republic, replaced by "1.5 million Roma who will suddenly become EU citizens". And yes, there are several quotes from people saying they would like to live and work in Britain.
(There is one other difference - the online map of Europe identifies correctly the location of Poland. In the Irish Sun, Poland, in a comic reversal of 20th century history, has become Germany. No matter!)
In both editions, there is an accompanying commentary by Trevor Kavanagh, the Sun's long-serving political editor, who has been described - with some accuracy - as the most influential man in Britain.
The Kavanagh commentary in the Irish edition carries quotes from Mary Harney stating that which we all know: people in any member-state of the EU can work anywhere in the EU. And from Áine Ní Chonaill, the anti-immigration campaigner, saying it would have been better had the Government, like most other EU governments, retained some entry restrictions.
The Sun sells about 3.3 million copies a day in UK and 115,454 in the Republic. When the Sun is serious, Kavanagh is the brain behind the grinding axe.
The UK has a problem with the EU and many in the UK have a problem with foreigners. But the Sun's attempt to globalise and export here its sometimes poisonous perspectives should be resisted and condemned.
Migration of people always provokes tensions. But no service is done by whipping up fears where none exist or by making scary predictions based on wider political or ideological antipathies.
Up Yours Kavanagh!
• Peter Murtagh is Foreign Editor of The Irish Times