My first instinct is to agree with extopia on this. I've often found the mentioning of someone's ethnicity or nationality jarring in reports where it seems completely irrelevant.
On the other hand, I wonder if this is some kind of hypersensitivity on our collective behalf; do we project our own prejudices onto the new reports, even when we are trying our best to be completely objective. When the Italian student was attacked in Fairview, nobody commented that his nationality was mentioned over and over again (to the extent that I remember it even now). Nobody felt it was relevant or irrelevant, it was just a fact. If he was, say, Nigerian or "Eastern European" (I particularly dislike when they refer to people's ethnicity by saying "African" or "Eastern European" - if you don't know where they were from, shut up about it), our ears prick up; some of us in a protective way wanting equal treatment for foreigners and some of us in a more prejudiced way. It's an interesting point to consider. I suspect that the roots for us picking up on these descriptions are related to difference and theories of The Other (which I only know a little bit about and would love to know where to find more thorough discussions); but is generally related to who we consider to be "one of us" and who we don't. I think this kind of thing was highlighted particularly in the case where the dismembered body of a black man was found in the canal and early reports mentioned some kind of "ritual" killing but then later Irish women were questioned. Are we supposed to be shocked/interested that they were Irish, or women or what?
Another example is if the gender of a victim of crime is mentioned (all of these being examples outside of Garda appeals for info), nobody sees it as anything other than a statement of fact even if the only relevant matter is that a person was killed/whatever; or do they. I suspect that people do attach a kind of hierarchy to crimes and that we do creative narratives, perhaps subconsciously, to even the most detached reporting. I think that deep-down, even if I know it is irrational and I try not to, my first instinct is that a murder of a woman is somehow a "worse"/more shocking crime and conversely,I think I feel the rape of a man is somehow worse, eventhough it clearly isn't. Maybe it's to do with the level of instances of crime where gender is involved, I don't really know.
It's a really fascinating topic though.
Rebecca