Why did they kill Barney? Media, Northern Ireland and the riddle of Loyalist terror

This article aims to establish the meanings press photographs give to the r eporting of Loyalist murders in Northern Ireland. It begins by considering a case from 1994 and the selection of a family photograph by the national p ress to 'illustrate' their reports. It goes on to argue that this use of a family photograph functions to individualize and decontextualize the murder , through the photograph's dominant humanistic discourse. It moves on to co nsider this use of family photographs, and other press images, in regional reporting, establishing the meanings that they give to the sectarian murder of Catholics in the context of the divided community of Northern Ireland. Conclusions concerning the ways in which news photographs work to mystify a nd marginalize such murders are drawn through a comparison with the regiona l reporting of the IRA murder of two RUC men.