A fresh take on Irish libel

Kevin Myers, stirring shit as usual. Quite an interesting take on libelling Sinn Fein, though...

Yet why this pervading fear of libel? For a libel to have weight, it must
defame: and what senior members of Provisional Sinn Féin would feel defamed by
allegations that they were in the IRA? The IRA is what shapes and defines Sinn
Féin. Without its stockpile of guns, Sinn Féin is merely Fianna Fáil with
attitude.

When factual compromise becomes part of the journalistic stock in
trade, is it surprising that a culture of inexactitude proves contagious? Thus
the general misinterpretation of a Provisional press briefing after the Northern
Bank robbery, when an unnamed IRA source was then quoted by many newspapers,
including this one, as saying: "We are dismissing any suggestion or allegation
that we were involved." A dismissal of an allegation is absolutely not a denial,
yet it was nonetheless transformed uncompromisingly into one in lead stories
everywhere.