No ordinary Joe steals the show during RTE debate

PEST OF TIMES Mice

RTE had plugged it all weekend, like a Hollywood publicist promoting Tinseltown’s latest blockbuster. It was never ending, every 15 minutes... “coming to a television near you real soon” ...type thing.

So, I all but got out the popcorn and the beer last Monday night to sit down and watch the big debate on the top current affairs programme The Claire Byrne Show where the topic up for discussion and dissection was – drum roll, please – A United Ireland.

All the big names were there including Joe Brolly – barrister and GAA pundit.

Unless you have been living under a stone, there’s a fair chance you’ll have heard there was a massive bust-up not too far into the programme right after the DUP’S Gregory Campbell’s contribution Brolly was next guest up under the lights.

At the start it was all sweetness and light with Joe commenting he didn’t care whether there was a united Ireland or not.

What he would like to see, he said, was a move towards a sensible long-term solution to the problems all who live on the island of Ireland face.

So far, so good – no furniture getting overturned just yet.

He then went up several gears, claiming the Tory government “loathe Ulster Protestants”, stating he knew several Conservative party politicians who felt this way.

And, for balance, he added, it was mutual – the DUP loathed the Tories in return.

Joe was in full flow and hit top gear before, rhetorically speaking, putting his foot all the way to the floor saying: “What we’ve seen is this sort of short-termism, all the time.

“Chuckling and guffawing at people when they’re trying to have a serious discussion.”

And after then going on to criticise Campbell, all hell then broke loose.

Byrne demanded Brolly’s microphone be “pulled” effectively ending his contribution. She suggested he was “name calling” Gregory Campbell who was not there to defend himself.

I am not going to bother re-hashing the fallout other than to state the obvious – there has been a real firestorm since on both mainstream and social media with keyboard warriors aligned on both sides.

I have a certain sympathy with Byrne’s action in that I do think she was nervous about what Brolly was saying.

Back in October 2015 she was the presenter of an RTE radio programme which had been sued by a Sinn Fein councillor Nicky Kehoe for defamation. That can have a chilling effect on any presenter during a live show.

Brolly, however, is a qualified barrister and very successful one. He’s also been involved in the media for years. If he doesn’t know his way around the acceptable parameters of debate at this stage, who does?

As a long-term viewer of RTE – and a former employee many years ago – I would contend Brolly was wading into deep water almost from the off, taking what was intended as an anodyne, “don’t frighten the horses” programme way off in a direction not wanted by those behind it.

Let me explain something about RTE too. There is, I believe, what’s called a “Dublin 4” mentality in the Irish national broadcaster, a tendency to be very protective of unionism.

Presenters patrol the boundaries of what can be said so attacks like Brolly’s on, for example, the DUP’S ideology in regard to issues like homophobia or the Irish language are often deemed as personal attacks on individual members and, therefore, must be shut down.

That approach almost always ensures a protection few others receive.

Brolly, of course, had the last word with a column in one of the Sunday papers with the headline, “What I would have said on RTE about a united Ireland”.

Presenters patrol the boundaries of what can be said

CONTROVERSY Brolly