Tonight's media has showed just how limited 24 hour news is in telling a story.
Some myths to be exploded:
1) According to the BBC reporter she was standing at the crime scene with a sprawling estate to her right. Ardowen (where we lived in 661 until 1979) is not sprawling, it's fairly average sized council (Housing Executive) estate.
2) Craigavon has been a hotbed of paramilitary/ drug violence. It is not and never was a hotbed of violence. Historically starved of cash (for feck's sake it was never finished) and like many new towns that have been ignored by the authorities, it has experienced problems with drugs and gangs recently. But it has never been a hotbed of anything other than perhaps Buckfast consumption.
Before the Peace Process there were relatively few incidents during the Troubles in Craigavon.
3)The British media has ignored Northern Ireland as a story for too long, its bipolar nature has ignored the problems that allow dissident Republicanism to exist. Nationals have been laying off NI stringers and not paid attention to areas like Craigavon, areas which have not drank at the well of the Peace Dividend to any great extent.
God help us, but Ken Maginnis is the voice of reason so far. Maybe that is a measure of how far we have moved.
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