The risks of taking journalists for a ride during the Anglo-Irish War

This article focuses on the aftermath of a skirmish between British forces and the Irish Republican Army [IRA] in November 1920 in a remote village near the town of Tralee in the south-west of Ireland. It examines newspaper reports of the incident and an accompanying photograph that purported to show three dead ambushers. The photograph was, in fact, staged after the event in a different location to provide some positive news during a difficult period for the British administration in Ireland. The discovery of the fraud undermined British efforts to cultivate positive relations with the national and international media. The fraudulent nature of the photograph has long been known to Irish historians, but this article examines its appearance in the context of the broader reporting of the crisis by English daily national and provincial newspapers. Finally, this piece also uses the skirmish to examine the creation of stock film footage of the Irish conflict by Pathé News that could be re-produced as news reporting in different contexts.