Lies, smears and deception - the stock-in-trade of the Ireland on Sunday "newspaper"
On October 13th 2002, a week before the Nice II referendum, Ireland on Sunday published the article above. When we became aware of it I rang the newspaper's office on the following Wednesday and asked to speak to one of the two journalists concerned. Neither Valerie Hanley nor John Mooney responded to my message as left on their voicemail. I sent a letter of complaint to the newspaper's editor. It has not been published, nor has any correction or apology. To set the record straight, I am posting the text below...
David Kerr
October 31st 2002
The Editor
Ireland on Sunday
50 City Quay
Dublin 2
Éire
October 16th 2002
Dear Editor
In the past fortnight, representatives from RTÉ and other Dublin newspapers have approached me for comments regarding a review of Mr Justin Barrett’s book The National Way Forward, which we published almost two years ago in our journal, Ulster Nation, and our website. This review was written by a regular contributor and is in keeping with the broad general tenor of our Ulster-nationalist viewpoint. As I was happy to tell these reporters and researchers, we have reviewed books from all over the political spectrum – unionist, loyalist, nationalist, globalist, leftist and rightist. The appearance of a review is not to be taken as implying a political link with the author of any work featured; otherwise, for example, the Derry Trotskyist Eamonn McCann would have similarly ‘forged links’ to Ulster Nation.
For the record, Ulster Nation is not as stated by Valerie Hanley and John Mooney, ‘the Northern Ireland branch of the British National Party’. If your reporters had even bothered to contact us, we would have been glad to put them in the picture. Ulster Nation is not even an organisation. It is a journal published in support of the registered political party, Ulster Third Way, which campaigns for independence for Northern Ireland. U3W does not believe that there is a ‘British nation’ so it is unlikely to be part of an organisation that claims to be the ‘British National’ Party.
As for Mr Barrett, I can confirm that he definitely has shared a platform with terrorists. I saw him on RTÉ One television the other Monday night sitting beside Gerry Adams MP. Funny enough, Michael McDowell, Gay Mitchell and Patricia McKenna also shared a platform with this terrorist! Perhaps that story will be in next week’s paper?
Let me put the record straight here too. Ulster Nation and U3W have not ‘forged links’ with Mr Barrett or any of his organisations. No-one on our editorial board has ever met him. We have no plans to meet him. Our reviewer liked his book. I liked his book too. That’s all there is. End of story.
Surely the Yes to Nice campaign can’t be so desperate that they are trying to undermine Mr Barrett on the strength of this nonsense – can they?
David Kerr
Ulster Nation
First Floor
316 Shankill Road
Belfast
BT13 3AB