Jeeze, that got online quick.

This evening, as no doubt many folk will be off having a beer and enjoying their day – be it Liverpool fans, beer fans, people that love the colour green or perhaps some that just love wearing funny hats and reciting English folk band the Pogues in a faux-O’rish accent – there is a small contingent that remain happy to sit in and spread misinformation on the internet.

Now, perhaps it is better to ignore such behaviour – treat it like you should any other attention seeker – and take away their ability to provoke a response. However, Northern Ireland seems more preoccupied with flags these days, than say, education, hospital crisis’ or welfare reform, so suddenly seeing the blatant and unrepentant dishonesty by some that proclaim to be fighting for their culture is an important story to highlight.

There are others that have noticed the outdated and out of context images. The satire website and blog – LAD – have also encountered this. David McCann, interviewer for Slugger O’Toole, has too.

In their post () LAD posted this image. It clearly shows social media users sharing (and therefore spreading through their friend lists) these false images. Users ‘Yogi Wright’ and ‘Jonny Harvey’ both published an image that was then found to originate from Iran. While Mr Harvey has since deleted the post and admitted the error, another PUP member Gareth Cole has since posted the same image.



Off The Record encountered its own brand of dishonesty. Twitter user ‘‘ aka ‘BangorProdBoy’ replied to our question ‘Do you think the 12th July celebrations will ever match St Patrick’s parade for positivity and inclusivity? Let us know your thoughts!’ with this gem of a photo:

It took all of three seconds to search ‘burning Union Flag’ into Google Images (should have used Bing ProdBoy) to find the same image in a Daily Mail report dated 2011.

The original Daily Mail article – entitled ‘How the Queen opened a new era after a century of bloodshed, distrust and uneasy coexistence’ also miraculously contains the image purportedly taken only hours ago. They must have used one of the DeLoreans from the parade to alter the time perception of the human race as we know it.



This is not unionism, this is not loyalism. This is the spreading of misinformation, the spread of mistrust and the willingness to succumb, and bring others down with them, to segregation and division. It is not culture and certainly not a scene that represents the Northern Ireland that we at Off the Record want to believe exists. Sharing these images is the selective culture of lies. The lowest common denominator in an argument – tactics usually reserved for those that can’t even fight because they have already lost.

Jason Murdock

Off The Record Online Off the Record is an online magazine based in Northern Ireland covering politics, arts, culture and comment. Founded by Jason Murdock and Jason Ashford in 2013. You can reach us on Twitter (@offtherecordni) or contact us via email (offtherecordni@gmail.com). Thank you for reading! Viva la OTR! More Posts - Website Follow Me:



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