The British Media and The Troubles: Thatcherism and the Struggle for 'Ordinary' Britain
“The IED had gone off and his legs were just everywhere, in pieces. The crowd had gathered round and they were shouting “one-nil, one-nil”; the lads were just so angry. Then a dog started, like, biting some of the pieces.”
This harrowing account lays bare the brutal reality of The Troubles, something the British media of the 1980s struggled to reconcile with Thatcherite ideals of a unified, ‘ordinary’ Britain. The tension between reporting the visceral brutality of the conflict and maintaining the government's constructed image of British stability was a defining struggle of the era. The media, a powerful force in shaping British public consciousness, was both an instrument of the state and, at times, a disruptor of government control. Joe Moran writes that the 80s were characterised by the creation of an ‘everyday’ made up of ‘home-owning, car-owning neo-suburbanites.’ This idea of a gentle, largely apolitical consumer group was simply incompatible with a Northern Ireland riven by bombings and sectarian violence. An analysis of the British media, newspapers, countercultural media, and television, provides an understanding of how these varied types of media either supported or refuted ideas of ‘ordinary’ in Thatcher's Britain
The Politics of 'Ordinary' in Thatcher’s Britain
As shown by John Lawrence and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, the Thatcher government emphasised a framework of ‘ordinariness’ to help normalise British social life. Yet, the extreme sectarian violence of Northern Ireland defied easy categorisation. To maintain a cohesive national identity, the government sought to frame the Troubles as the work of a radical minority rather than an issue integrated into Britain’s socio-political fabric. This strategic dichotomy of ‘ordinary’ vs. ‘un-ordinary’ influenced the media landscape. Organisations had to make conscious decisions on covering the Troubles, potentially giving violent groups the ‘oxygen of publicity,’ or on the other hand, the absence of coverage undermined the state's desired concept of ‘ordinary.’
The desire to fold Northern Ireland into the British identity conflicted with the stark reality of daily violence, meaning media portrayals often minimised or distorted the conflict to fit pre-existing frameworks. Any deep or honest coverage risked reinforcing the notion that Northern Ireland was distinct and separate from Britain as the violence and divisions were distinctly foreign to 80s mainland Britain. Roseanna Doughty has recently shown how this became untenable with the mainland bombing campaigns by the IRA, bringing violence over the sea and, for example, into the pubs of Guildford and hotels of Brighton. The British, therefore needed to resolve, or at least address, this contradiction at the heart of the British 1980s. The terrain for this public confrontation with the ‘unordinariness’ of Northern Ireland would be British media.
Newspapers: Reinforcing the State Narrative
British newspapers often mirrored state rhetoric, portraying the IRA as antithetical to the ‘ordinary,’ reinforcing a binary that excluded Northern Ireland from the British cultural and political mainstream. Aogán Mulcahy has shown how mainstream outlets such as The Times and Daily Express framed republican actors as criminals rather than political dissidents, echoing Thatcher’s infamous assertion that “Crime is crime is crime. It is not political.”
However, moments of deviation from this stance did occur. The 1981 Hunger Strikes and the death of Bobby Sands challenged this rigid framing, forcing the media to acknowledge the complex political dimensions of the conflict. The reaction to Sands’ death, both in Britain and internationally, forced newspapers to reckon with the political stakes of the strike, even as the British government dismissed it as mere criminal activity. Nevertheless, the dominant narrative positioned the Troubles as an external disruption to Britain’s stability rather than an issue requiring introspection.
This was particularly evident in the coverage of major events, such as the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands, where newspapers often relied on highly emotive and dramatic imagery that simultaneously dehumanised republicans and framed them as external threats. This image of Thatcher and her Foreign Secretary Pym in the Daily Express in 1982 shows their (literally) overarching viewpoint that the island of Ireland was of less importance than the Falklands. It also fails to depict the British citizens Thatcher was meant to be representing while instead inhabiting the whole island with grotesque caricatures of the Irish ‘threat’ utilising imagery of leprechauns, scowling clovers, and menacing balaclava-wearing men.
Cartoon taken from Daily Express, May 26, 1982
A day before this cartoon was published, HMS Coventry had been sunk by the Argentinians. To support Argentina was seen as tantamount to treason and this cartoon, displaying Irish support for Argentina, reinforces the dichotomy between ‘ordinary’ patriotic British citizens and the threatening Irish as the ‘other’.
However, when the Troubles gained the attention of international media, the British media’s response was to defensively claim a form of ownership over the subject. They would also highlight perceived hypocrisy at the heart of the international reaction to the Troubles, seen in the Daily Express’ cartoon calling for New York’s Mayor to ‘get his own house in order’ before commenting on British policy. The mainstream press helped to create a public consensus that Northern Ireland was Britain’s problem to manage, but not Britain in and of itself.
Cartoon taken from the Daily Express, 20 June 1981. Jak [Raymond Jackson], "Mayor Koch? I couldn't help hearing what you said about the British in Northern Ireland!"
Countercultural Media: Alternative Voices in the Music Press
Unlike traditional newspapers, countercultural media, such as the New Musical Express (NME), provided a space for dissent. Historian Sean Campbell claims that the NME amplified alternative perspectives and exposed the limitations of the dominant narrative. Robert Martinez has similarly shown how the NME allowed for a space from which ‘to attack the dominant binary.’ This was aided by punk bands, such as Stiff Little Fingers, within the British music scene using their platforms to challenge mainstream depictions of the conflict.
Through editorial choices and reader contributions, NME’s “Gasbag” section became a unique forum where young people could express their views. These would often diverge from government-endorsed media narratives on topics such as South African apartheid, the miners’ strike, or nuclear weapons. This interaction suggests that while the Conservative government under Thatcher sought to define ‘ordinariness,’ public engagement in countercultural media actively reshaped the discourse.
The NME ran features addressing Northern Ireland directly, challenging the indifference of much of the British public and media. In the 4th October 1980 edition, the NME ran a dedicated letters section titled ‘Gasbag: The Irish No-Joke’ in which young people were able to voice countercultural opinions.
Newspaper clipping from - Campbell, Sean. ”NME’s “Irish Troubles”: Political Conflict, Media Crisis and the British Music Press.“ Études irlandaises, 46-1, (2021). 27.
The magazine's desire to counter a perceived lack of mainstream coverage can be further seen in an interview with Martin McGuinness in the 10th May 1986 edition. This was a bold and controversial move for a publication that focused on the musical scene; as Campbell notes, McGuinness was ‘widely assumed to be the IRA’s Chief of Staff.’
Taken from - Campbell, Sean. ”NME’s “Irish Troubles”: Political Conflict, Media Crisis and the British Music Press.“ Études irlandaises, 46-1, (2021), 48.
An earlier headline illustrates the controversial stance of the NME in relation to the ‘establishment’. In the November 3rd 1984 edition, the NME ran the headline ‘Gunpowder! Northern Ireland - A Suspect Device?’. This was only three weeks after the Brighton Bombings in which Thatcher was targeted and five people were killed.
Placing a spotlight on Northern Ireland while also including young readers’ letters from the highly contested locations, came together to provide a more nuanced representation of The Troubles than shown in traditional media. Popular music, as a medium and a subject, became a battleground for competing narratives, with countercultural voices pushing against state-approved versions of events.
Television: Censorship and Resistance
Television played a dual role in the conflict, constrained by government censorship and the 1988 Broadcast Ban yet still capable of disrupting official narratives. The ban, which prevented Sinn Féin and other political groups deemed linked to terrorism from speaking on air, reinforced the binary of British order versus Irish insurgency, a division highlighted by Élodie Gallet. It reflected government fears that television’s immediacy and visual power might sway public opinion in ways beyond state control.
However, as shown by Max Pettigrew, broadcasters occasionally resisted government pressure, with journalists at times pushing back against restrictive policies—often at significant risk. A striking example is ITV’s 1988 documentary Death on the Rock, which investigated the SAS’s killing of IRA members in Gibraltar. The programme directly challenged the official government narrative, provoking outrage at the highest levels; Margaret Thatcher reportedly felt an emotion ‘deeper than fury’ upon its broadcast. This episode underscored the shifting power dynamics between the state and the media, with both sides acutely aware of the high stakes involved in shaping public perception.
Conclusion: The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Perception
The varied media representations of the Troubles reflect the interplay between political ideology, cultural hegemony, and public perception. Newspapers largely served the state’s effort to construct an ‘ordinary’ Britain under siege from external threats. Countercultural media, particularly NME, demonstrated that representations of the Troubles were not monolithic, providing an alternative space for debate and critique. Television, despite government pressure, occasionally acted as a site of resistance, exposing cracks in the official story.
By analysing newspapers, countercultural publications, and television, this article reveals the mechanisms through which British society attempted to process the Troubles and its broader implications for national identity. Ultimately, the media of the 1980s played a crucial role in either sustaining or challenging the Thatcherite vision of an ‘ordinary’ Britain.
The struggle over how to represent the Troubles was ultimately a struggle over power. The power and right to define reality and whose voices were amplified or suppressed. While the government sought to control the narrative, the persistence of countercultural voices and investigative journalism ensured that the conflict could not be easily reduced to state-approved binaries. The ‘ordinary’ Britain envisioned by Thatcher could not so easily contain the stark realities of war on its own soil.
Photo taken by myself, 29/10/2023
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Image References:
By Can be found online at CAIN, specifically here, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9528606
By Gillfoto - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88816420