Tubridy’s ambush of Casey was out of order
IT was frustrating to watch Ryan Tubridy’s cynical interview of Peter Casey on The Late Late Show last Friday night.
Can it possibly be that Tubridy and RTÉ had deliberately set Mr Peter Casey up for ‘ambush’ by the Travellers in the studio audience? I sincerely hope not.
The best that might be said in Tubridy’s favour is that he had ‘lost the plot’ on the night, and became confused by the situation as it careered out of his control.
The ‘hostile interview’ that was imposed on the second-placed candidate in the Presidential election compared with the ‘pussyfooting’ interviewing of Mary Robinson was chalk and cheese.
As for the responses of Mrs Robinson to some of the quite timid questions put to her by Ryan Tubridy, I will highlight some aspects. Her statement that the world’s human population will increase (from 7.5billion to 9.6billion) without her mentioning about any attempt to curtail this increase (which will have dire consequential effects on the Earth and its environment) beggars belief.
The former President surely did more harm to the atmosphere by the emissions caused by her flying (in first class) to far-flung places, in undertaking her UN Human Rights role – while preaching to ordinary people about climate change and how they must reduce their carbon footprint – certainly seems hypocritical to me.
Mary Robinson’s support for the Irish Climate Change Advisory Council chair makes me wonder if she understands the man’s history – as an economist that had not seen the economic crash coming down the track, but who now understands everything about climate change, although John Fitzgerald is not a climatologist – certainly points to a lack of knowledge about related issues by the former President.
TOM BALDWIN, Midleton, Co. Cork ...THE disgraceful way Peter Casey was treated by Ryan Tubridy on Friday’s Late Late Show begs a question, why should any public figure leave him or herself open to such unprofessional treatment?
It would never happen if Gay Byrne was in the chair. The badmannered way in which Ryan Tubridy bombarded Peter Casey with questions, in a very vindictive fashion, without giving him the chance to give a full reply, must leave a question for the executives to sort out, and that is, is Ryan Tubridy suitable to present the Late Late Show?
I personally felt that Peter Casey was ambushed, set up, shafted, call it what you like.
This was quite obvious when Ryan Tubridy gave the floor to a group of Travellers who were not interested in what Peter Casey had to say, they had their own agenda. It was neither the time or the place for such a discussion. The fact that Peter Casey went from 1% in the polls to 23% at the ballot box, over 300,000 votes, went right over Ryan Tubridy’s head.
To his immense credit, Peter Casey kept his cool all the way through. I would have walked out. If he decides to form a new party, totally unrelated to Fianna Fáil, I would certainly vote for him to be Taoiseach; he has more integrity and honesty going for him than most of the occupants of seats in the Dáil.
There is hope for Ireland for the future, if we get people of the calibre of Peter Casey in the Dáil.
JOHN FAIR, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
Trump’s ominous echoes
I AM worried and concerned with what Donald Trump is saying. He is deciding that the South American people who are walking from their homeland, probably barefoot, to the United States are potential rock-throwing terrorists. As president of America, he has ordered additional troops to face these migrants at the US border with guns.
Donald Trump has been quick to coin the phrase ‘fake news’. Yet he appears to be turning the fact that desperate South Americans escaping poverty are potential dissidents carrying weapons such as: rocks. As president, he continues to hold campaign-like rallies where he incites public passions and feeds paranoia with his ‘us and them’ talk. Through his parlance these impoverished South Americans become non-human and appear a threat to the average US citizen and their supposed way of life. Let us not overlook – we are one family – the family of the human race.
We are living in a time that echoes the 1930s – the Great Depression and this current depression/ recession – the Hitler rallies of the 1930s fed purpose, incited blame, created anti-Jewish sentiment and the resultant Holocaust.
Hitler rose from obscurity to power: Trump rose from a nonpolitical background to become president of America. In his short reign as president, he appears all too quick to decide what race is un-American and a threat to the American way of life. Let us not forget that America is a nation of immigrants.
Cynically, Trump’s view of the South American migrants is being lauded, in a timely way, to rile up the American people to vote in the midterm elections. In today’s difficult economic times, Trump seems to be playing on people’s fears over work and earning a wage. Trump never had to struggle to earn a living. He is as farremoved from the ordinary US citizen as the man in the moon.
Name and address supplied.