On 19th November the British Government imposed the Broadcast Media Ban on Sinn Fein and seven other proscribed Republican and Loyalist organisations. The ban was justified at the time as a necessary measure to starve the IRA of the oxygen supply of publicity.

However in the absence of media exposure the IRA has not disappeared and the media has become the site where long-standing and entrenched attitudes are reinforced and go unchallenged on a daily basis. This comes at a time when the IRA has escalated its campaign in Britain and Europe and is intent on sickening British public opinion, in the words of Margaret Thatcher, ‘Bringing it home’.

Same Difference, Willie Doherty’s new work for Matt’s Gallery, is a slide projection piece with text, which uses four projectors, projecting a static image with changing text onto two of the gallery walls.

Same Difference uncovers the emotive use of language which surrounds the media image of Ireland and the IRA in the propaganda war for hearts and minds. This work attempts to break the silence of the media ban, which as a solution ends up evading the very issues which have caused it to be a problem in the first place.