THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE isn’t happy.

US business news site Business Insider ran an Irish financial news story today alongside a dramatic photograph of the 12 July riots in Ardoyne – indicating a link between the two events.

The website would appear to be following the example of the Drudge Report.

The Department of Finance exclusively told TheJournal that it had contacted the website saying “the photograph accompanying the article is being used out of context” and demanded that it be removed.

The offending article relates to a breaking story regarding Irish businesses in breach of their loan covenants, a story completely unrelated to the emotionally-charged rioting that occurred in Northern Ireland in July over six weeks ago.

The photograph shows a hooded figure running past a car engulfed by flames and smoke.

Considering Northern Ireland’s troubled past, the choice of words for the headline alongside such an image also seems more than a little crass: “Massive Commercial Real Estate Loans Now Blowing Up in Ireland”.

Last month, the Department of Finance was furious when another news website, Drudge Report, ran a Irish financial story featuring a photograph of the Ardoyne riots alongside the text. By connecting the story with the photograph, the site seemed to imply that Ireland was suffering “Greek-style crisis of rioting and demonstrations”, as the Tribune put it.

Remarkably, the photographs used by the two websites are almost identical.

UPDATE: Business Insider have now changed the image.