Irish Times saying US was transporting personal weapons of troops who were not on the plane?

Rising number of foreign troops passing through Ireland Jun 6, 2019, 03:00
Craig Hughes, Pat Leahy

I downloaded the second Tableau Public charting software workbook and exported the .csv "Path of foreign troops through Ireland". It seemed strange that there were many records that described "personal weapons for troops" but the same row listed 0 troops, the data was saying it was transporting personal weapons of troops who were not on the plane? That not how it works as far as I know.



Shannonwatch had previously FOI'd similar info and had a file of flights from 2014/2015.

So I compared flight CMB502 in 2015 which is listed in both files. The earlier FOI says there was 226 troops on that flight.




Craig Hughes tweeted me a screenshot of the data he has...

Here's a screen shot of that reference number from the raw data I received from the Dept, as you can see troops is blank, so an error in digitising (accidentally or intentionally?!) pic.twitter.com/4y1k8TSlHd

— Craig Hughes (@hughescraig90) June 16, 2019

The journalist has already acknowledge (on twitter) that there may be a problem with the information that the department supplied, but if the data is incorrect then perhaps the article needs to be reviewed. I also sent this query to Shannonwatch to see if they thought that there is a problem the data given to the Irish Times.

News legibility and transparency

Denis Hynes of Siptu said some FAI staff were “infuriated” at reports that “in 2016 the FAI began paying rent of €3,000 per month for a house used by John Delaney”.
https://t.co/i78RuCwFiN

— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) March 25, 2019

Some FAI employees ‘ annoyed’ over Delaney financial arrangements Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 16:03 Vivienne Clarke, Harry McGee

Denis Hynes, sports section organiser of trade union Siptu, said FAI employees want answers. “They want to know how did it come to this situation,” he told RTE’s News at One.

He said in 2012 FAI employees agreed to pay cuts of between 10 and 15 per cent and that pay had been restored in January of this year.

He said staff were “infuriated” at reports that in 2016, the FAI began paying rent of €3,000 per month for a house used by John Delaney.

Irish Times suggest its paraphrasing/quoting from RTE News at One when its actually paraphrasing from a press release. Denis Hynes did not say 'began' on RTE News at One The podcast feed was emailed to me at 2:38 PM.
FAI workers call for explanation of CEO’s rent payment while they endured cutsSIPTU 25 March 2019

SIPTU Sport Sector Organiser, Denis Hynes, said: “It has been widely reported that in 2016 the FAI began paying rent of €3,000 per month for a house used by John Delaney.

This press statement was tweeted out at 3:28 PM

Why did the Irish Times not say it was paraphrasing the press release and add the links to both?

I noticed this as I was wondering why it was picked up in the news that SIPTU were complaining that his rent had been begun to be paid in 2016 when the reporters who broke this story said it had been paid for much of the last decade.
FAI chief John Delaney steps aside amid financial queriesTimes Ireland Mark Tighe March 24 2019

John Delaney, who quit as chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) last night, has been living in houses rented by the association for much of the past decade.

Dublin People news standards

Should a local newspaper entirely reproduce a press release written by a Councillor announcing he's going for re-election (only swapping I for name/he). The Northside People news reproduced the whole thing and the councilor paid for an ad on page 2.






Ads and articles = advertorial

I've also seen articles like this, if the whole page is an ad it should say so.

News Transparency

The Irish Times published a series of articles at the end of December 2018 based on an interview with Conor Skehan that took place on 2nd December in which they called him the "outgoing" chair of the Housing Agency, by the time the second and third articles were published he had been reappointed. His reappointment was only publicized in the state gazette on Friday, 5th January, 2018

It would have been helpful for the Irish Times to state when the interview occurred in their articles.


Baby boomers distorting housing market, agency claims Thu, Dec 28, 2017 Olivia Kelly

the outgoing chairman of the Government’s Housing Agency

Families in emergency housing ‘may be gaming the system’ Tue, Jan 2, 2018 Olivia Kelly

according to the outgoing head of the Government’s Housing Agency

No way to end homelessness, says Housing Agency chairman Tue, Jan 2, 2018 Olivia Kelly

Mr Skehan, who will finish his six-year role with the agency in the New Year

Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees Wednesday, 31 January 2018 Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government Role of Chairperson of Housing Agency and Related Matters: Discussion

On homelessness and my recent comments in the media on this matter, I draw members' attention to the fact that, prior to stepping down as chairman, I agreed to give one press exit interview. It took place on 2 December, lasted for about two hours and covered the topic of what I had learned in the past five years. Once it emerged that I was not going to be stepping down, I let the journalists know. The Irish Times subsequently published six articles based on my interview over a period of two weeks.

[The transcript says "journalists" he in fact said "journalist".]

When exactly did he agree to be reappointed? Conor Skehan says he told Irish Times he was staying on, if so why did that make it into the articles?

The Irish Examiner reported that he was due to step down on December 12th, so did he have agreed to the reappointment between December 2nd and December 12th.