May 16th: Day Eleven
Today was a pretty jam-packed day! To start the day Kira, Paula, Maddie, Sydney, and I all went to three different museums in the morning. The first two were photography galleries, with the first being a showcase of curtains. The second gallery was in the library, with photos ranging from the late 1800’s to the mid 1900’s. We then went to the National Gallery of Ireland, where we saw some old art.
We went straight to the CEA Center afterwards for our guest lecture about history of media during the troubles, by Niall Gilmartin. One fact that shocked me was that there were approximately 3,700 conflict related deaths, and as many as 40,000 physically injured. Only 3,700 people being killed is even more shocking. If that was present day America, that would be a small dent in our very large population, versus Irelands small population during that time.
It was interesting to learn that people became addicted to the news. Niall said that his grandmother would sit with the news playing all day and would fall asleep listening to it. I could not imagine even wanting to listen to the news all day in today’s world. I guess it makes sense though knowing everything that was going on during that time.
The term “British Soldiers” being deemed tricky to use in the news because it implied that Northern Ireland was not as much part of the United Kingdom. I never thought they would have to be particular when coming up with news headlines and stories. The words “deaths”, “shootings”, and “massacres” were deemed inappropriate for media. Those words are very commonly used in news headlines and stories today, so I wonder why it was so different back then.
A final thing that stuck with me was the Broadcasting Ban of 1988. It was a real abuse of power move by the government. Eleven broadcasting organizations were banned due to what they were reporting and showing, “Ban was assisting the government to fight terrorism”. They did get their karma eventually since the ban only further hindered Britain’s international standing.
Later that night, Kira, Paula, Maddie, Sydney, Ryan, Ayden, and I all went to a pub. Kira and Ayden played a game of chess which I found funny. We later went to the club, where we probably stayed out a little too late than we should have, but it was an absolute blast!
