TV3’s “Ireland’s Crime Capitals” touted long debunked “Murder Capital of Europe” claim
The documentary, “Ireland’s Crime Capitals” broadcast on TV3 on 29th October retransmitted the claim that Limerick was once Europe’’s murder capital despite the fact that the claim had been debunked over twelve months ago. In fact, Limerick has never been the murder capital of Europe.
The original claim was furst used by the Irish Independent, but was quickly proven to be false.
The assumption was reached by the paper after they calculated that in the period of 2007-2008 there were seven murders in Limerick per 100,000 people.
Limerick City has a population of 60,000 and not all of the murders in that period happened in Limerick City.
Last year, the the makers of More 4 news were forced to issue an on-air apology for touting the same claim, along with a claim that 16 people were murdered in Limerick in 2008.
During a debate at the University of Limerick in 2008, Councillor Diarmuid Scully explains where the Independent came up with their figure:
No. Please. I will take you in a minute but this is very important. What has actually happened is that the Sunday Independent took the crime statistics for the Limerick Garda division, population 175,304 people. They then divided it by the population of Limerick city according to the census, 52,560, and came up with murder rate out of all proportion to reality. That’s like taking the situation whereby when that poor lady, Patricia Furlong was murdered in Glencullen in County Wicklow and saying, “There’s been one murder in Glencullen with a population of 467. Therefore Glencullen has a murder rate of 214 per 100,000 people. That makes Glencullen the most dangerous place in the world.”
Further criticism of the programme has emerged after the Sunday Tribune reported that footage of children vandalising a car which featured in the programme was actually filmed in Dublin several years ago.
The paper also reports that there were even more innacuracies in the documentary, however, these were removed prior to the programme being broadcast.
Viewers were promised by the show’s host Donal McIntyre, that there would be interviews with the perpetrators of the crimes in Limerick, however, the closes he came to this was to feature a YouTube video from members of the McCarthy Dundon family which was uploaded to the internet last Summer.
A number of complaints are to be lodged with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (who took over the job of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission on October 1).
The results of 18 other complaints against TV3 in relation to another show, PlayTV, a late night interactive quiz show, are unknown as their publication has been delayed.