Browne, Harry and Coulter, Colin and Flynn, Roddy and Hetherington, Vanessa and Titley, Gavan
(2019)
‘Pitstop of Death’: Irish newspaper coverage of Iraq
war protests at Shannon airport.
Irish Political Studies, 34 (1).
pp. 92-112.
ISSN 0790-7184
Abstract
The airport at Shannon, County Clare, in the west of Ireland, has been a
strategically important US military stopping-point in the wars of the twentyfirst
century and consequently has at times become a focal point for the
various forms of protest that have been adopted by the Irish peace
movement. This study, drawing upon a database of Irish national newspaper
articles dealing with the anti-war movement from September 2002 to May
2003 – a period covering the build-up to the invasion of Iraq to its immediate
aftermath – examines how the US military’s use of Shannon and the protests
against it were framed in the print media. The focus on Shannon made Irish
media coverage different from that in other European countries: the authors
find that a period of Irish government equivocation about the military
significance of the airport permitted campaigners to attract some sympathetic
attention by providing information about troop movements there –
successfully promulgating a ‘counterframe’, i.e. a news frame that ran counter
to the government line – but that as the war approached this gave way to a
newspaper focus on the dangers of protest, including the ascription of violence.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Ireland; anti-war movement; Iraq War; media coverage of protest; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
11952 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2018.1515073 |
| Depositing User: |
Colin Coulter
|
| Date Deposited: |
03 Dec 2019 10:54 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Irish Political Studies |
| Publisher: |
Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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