September 10 1974
During this summer, about 120 children from Northern Ireland were allowed to visit the American mid-west. Unfortunately, the American news media exploited these children in various ways.
They appeared on numerous shows and without exception were questioned about their religious views and attitudes towards members of the other religious groups. Many Americans felt that these programmes were in very poor taste.
We realise the great stress and strain that children in Northern Ireland undergo these days but we would like to suggest that, in future, rather than subject these children to exploitation, they be allowed to visit areas in the south of Ireland. The huge travelling expenses for the US project severely restricted the number of children who were able to participate in this programme.
By using rest camps in southern Ireland, many more children could participate and benefit from a vacation away from home.
The US tour was sponsored by Rotary and we would like to congratulate this group for their efforts. However, at this point, we believe that leaders of the Rotarians now realise that Irish children, both Catholic and Protestant, were exploited by the news media. It almost seemed that the British propaganda office ran the television show which emphasised nothing but the religious attitudes and backgrounds of the children involved.
We feel certain that this was very disturbing to many of the children and would suggest that this project be not repeated next summer, for obvious reasons.
Letter from Elizabeth Swartz from Buffalo in New York state, complaining of the simplistic and crude media questioning of children from Northern Ireland who were brought to the US for holidays to escape the Troubles during the summer months.
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Food parcels Ban at Maze
Food parcels and the use of the jail’s tuck shop will be suspended from today for about 800 special category and remand inmates at the Maze Prison.
It is understood the action follows the rejection by loyalists and republicans of all meals which, for the past two weeks, have been thrown over the compound fences.
