The Erasure of Women and Children
In a move that can only be described as a “disgraceful journalistic failure,” the recent coverage of the massive rally at Leinster House chose to weaponize the camera lens. While over 400 women and children stood in the front lines, leading the chants for justice, the media intentionally focused their reports and images on “single men.” This is a calculated attempt to frame a peaceful family movement as a “security threat,” ignoring the reality of the families who have been living in limbo for years.
The 22-Day Silence
For 22 consecutive days, members of the Abolish Direct Provision (ADPI) campaign carried out a Hunger Strike at the gates of power. These individuals put their bodies and lives on the line to demand a solution to the asylum backlog. In any functioning democracy, a 22-day hunger strike at the parliament’s doorstep would be the lead story. Instead, there was total silence. No government official reached out, and the national media refused to even acknowledge that people were starving for their dignity.
Misleading Headlines and False Narratives
The headline “Asylum seekers set up protest camp at Dept of Agriculture” is a deliberate distraction. The camp was set up at that location specifically because it is the immediate neighbor to Leinster House. By linking the protest to the “Department of Agriculture,” the media attempts to make the protest seem irrelevant to political decision-making.
Furthermore, reporting “hundreds” when the numbers were in the thousands is not a mistake—it is a strategy to minimize the scale of the most organized asylum seeker mobilization in Irish history.
The “Trump Card” Proposal: Ignored by Design
The media continues to ignore the most important part of the ADPI message: the Independent Discharge Proposal.
The media portrays asylum seekers as people waiting for “handouts.”
They fail to report that ADPI members have officially promised never to apply for social housing and to leave Direct Provision within 6 months of receiving their status.
The media is afraid to report this because it destroys the government’s narrative that asylum seekers are a “burden.”
Conclusion: A Betrayal of Public Trust
When a national broadcaster ignores a 22-day hunger strike, hides the presence of 400 protesting women and children, and mislabels the location of a protest to protect politicians, they are no longer journalists—they are state PR agents. We demand the truth. We demand recognition. And we will not be erased by a camera lens that chooses what it wants to see.