Media discourses of "those blond Roma children" in Ireland
This paper addresses media depictions of Roma Communities in Ireland, with a view to evaluating the representativeness of such coverage. Our interest in this subject is stimulated by a concern for the impact of media representations on Roma communities and the how these representations may in turn inform wider public perceptions of this racialised group. Set in the immediate aftermath of the ‘Maria’ case in Greece, this paper focuses in particular on the state abduction of two Roma children in Ireland and the attendant media discourses. The analysis of media content is based primarily on a qualitative content analysis of print media articles drawn from both broadsheet and tabloid national newspapers spanning the critical week in late October 2013 wherein the Irish State saw fit to take into care two Roma children because they did not fit the racialised identikit ‘required’ to be one of the ‘Other’.