Media Quite Proud Of The Way It’s Handling Miss Ireland Traveller Contestant

The Irish media has congratulated itself on its coverage of a Miss Ireland contestant who just so happens to be a member of the travelling community.

A number of journalists are said to be ‘dead proud’ of themselves for not mentioning a number of common misconceptions about travellers or using any lazy generalisations when referencing the travelling community in general.

“I was very careful to be as subtle as possible about why we should all view this young girl as a bit of an aberration,” explained a journalist working the Independent, “I didn’t even use ‘aberration’ that’s how careful I was. I mentioned she was educated, but didn’t try to make a song and dance about it while actually making a song and dance about it, ya know?”

Much attention will now be focused on contestant Sarah Jane Dunne when Miss Ireland kicks off on the 19th of July with media reporting expected to remain measured and informed.

Dunne is believed to be a welcome role model and inspirational story for some in the travelling community with the Irish media very conscious of this fact. So much so that one article mentioned that Miss Dunne is a traveller some 49 times.

“We’ll be very sly about how we want our readers to pass judgement, stoking up needless debate. Think we’ll hide it by mentioning Pavee Point somewhere,” explained an unnamed tabloid editor, “we’ll make sure to say she is ‘stunning’, ‘smart’ and a ‘lovely girl’ but we will work hard to prefect the articles to a point whereby you can’t tell we’re simply reinforcing the ‘othering’ of the community”.

Miss Ireland admits that Miss Dunne is their first ever entrant from the travelling community, but reassured WWN that they would seek to exploit this for their own PR gain.

“Nonsense, why would we exploit anything? She will be judged just like all other contestants – solely on her superficial merit,” explained a spokesperson for the competition.