In the public interest? Political sex scandals and the media in Ireland

ABSTRACT As with the United States and Great Britain there has been a markedincrease in the prevalence of political sex scandal themed stories reported on by Irish media since the 1990s. This article considers the concept of the political sex scandal, and its relationship with media in the Irish case. It argues that political sex scandal was a frequent part of Irish journalism pre-independence but that, post-independence, this approach was replaced with a reticence to report such scandal until the 1990s. It finds that,today, Irish media avoid reporting on the private lives of politicians and instead focus on incidents wherein politicians intervene in sex-related court cases, when politicians are caught acting inappropriately on camera and on when politicians engage in matters sexual on social media. Thus, unlike the US and Britain, the key structural characteristic of contemporary Irish political sex scandals is not media intrusion into the private lives of politicians but rather media oversight of when and how politicians engage in sex-related issues in public fora such as the judicial system and social media.