I bought the Armagh Observer to read some articles for this blog. It’s quite a large paper full of a multitude of stories. One thing that caught my eye about this paper in particular, is the space they dedicate to small stories that wouldn’t make the papers back home. I suppose because Armagh is a small town, they have the space to include everything.

The article I read was titled, “Drink Driver Prosecuted.”

This means drunk driver right?

Why yes it does!

The story was about a man of 53 that was caught swerving in the wee hours of the morning. This is what gets me, he didn’t crash and no one was injured. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is great news! All I’m surprised about is that it’s a story at all. In the states, I would probably get laughed out of a newsroom if I wanted to publish a simple arrest with no “bleeding” aspect to it. It’s an unfortunate way to report news but “if it bleed, it reads.”

I also noticed in a lot of the articles about arrests or court decisions, they publish the defendant’s exact address. I’m not familiar with this happening much in the states. They may say a city or area of a city where the defendant lives, but I haven’t ever seen the full address of someone published.