Mike Burns
Groundbreaking and influential RTÉ broadcaster who ushered in a golden age of reporting, writes
MIKE Burns was an influential figure in RTÉ, and one of the station’s pioneering broadcasters. The News at 1.30 (later This Week), anchored by Burns and his friend Sean Duignan, grabbed national attention with its coverage of the Arms Trial, the deteriorating situation in Northern Ireland and the reign of Charles Haughey. It was compelling listening and frequently set the agenda for the following week.
In his history of RTÉ, Window and Mirror, John Bowman cites a feasibility study Burns and Eddie Liston produced in 1971, arguing that major changes were needed to bring the station into the modern era.
“The newsreaders tended to be God and created a barrier between viewers and the news,” the report argued. It also said events outside Dublin were largely ignored, there was a lack of analysis and news creation within RTÉ and many reporters “dressed badly, wore shaggy jackets, kept their hands in their pockets and had poor diction”.
Only insiders with the charm and authority of Burns and Liston could have got away with this kind of criticism, but in so doing they helped usher in what some regard as a golden age of radio and television reporting.
Burns was born into an Irish family in Leicester, England, on January 17, 1937, but returned to Ireland as a child and was raised on a farm near Ballintubber, Co Roscommon.
He was largely self-educated and worked at a variety of jobs before landing a position in the Roscommon Champion.
Legend has it that he was a member of the local showband, the Premier Aces. His name does not feature in any of its various line-ups, but as they were originally called the Pioneer Aces (as in, Pioneer and Total Abstinence) he may have bought a saxophone, with the intention of joining, but found the pub more convivial. The story added to his mystique in later life.
Dream a Little Dream of Me, which was played at Mount Jerome, “kind of gets the man”, said celebrant Fr Pat Claffey, adding that Burns was many things, “but no Paddy Cole”.
He emigrated to England and worked at the Sandbach Chronicle in Cheshire alongside Michael Parkinson, whom it is also alleged he advised not to go over to television as it “will never work out”.
Back in Dublin between 1958 and the mid-1960, he worked as a reporter with the Sunday Independent before joining the RTÉ Guide.
Raidió Teilifís Éireann was then based in the GPO, a stone’s throw from the Princess Bar where he was, no doubt, recruited over a glass of whiskey and a large cigar.
At one point he also edited a magazine for the GAA and enjoyed regaling company with the reaction of a perplexed senior official when he raised the issue of how his salary would be taxed. “We’re the GAA, we don’t pay tax,” he was told.
He joined RTÉ in 1962 and later, with Duignan, led a team that included Kevin Healy, Gerald Barry, Olivia O’Leary, Kevin O’Kelly, Brendan Keenan and Dick Hogan, among others, who changed the landscape of broadcasting.
He had a natural gift for persuasion and a list of contacts unrivalled in journalism. At his funeral, Sean Duignan recalled how the influential Irish diplomat and ambassador Sean Donlon told him how much he relied on Burns for contact numbers and introductions to influential figures in Belfast and Washington during his tours of duty.
“He had a wonderful way of looking after people. If you wanted a favour, whether it was an All-Ireland ticket or a ticket to a concert, once you mentioned his name, it was open sesame,” said Duignan.
Former senator Maurice Manning told his funeral mass in Harrington Street on Wednesday how Burns had once arranged for himself and Duignan to go on “a tour” of the United States.
While they were walking through Shannon Airport, there were repeated announcements: “Would Mr Burns or Mr Duignan go to the nearest red telephone.” When Duignan suggested they comply, Burns told him: “You’ll do no such thing, keep walking.”
When they rang from New York, to be told the trip had been cancelled, it was too late.
Manning and his friend, Tim Ryan, agreed last week that if they were to write a memoir of Burns, it would be titled Keep Walking.
He became head of news features and later RTÉ’s correspondent in London, where he enjoyed hobnobbing in the lobby and the bars of Westminster.
He was awarded an MBE for services to British-Irish relations in the New Year’s honours list of 2004, receiving his accolade from Queen Elizabeth on St Patrick’s Day.
After retirement, he started his own media consultancy business and was a familiar figure around town as a director of the Association of European Journalists and media officer of the BritishIrish Parliamentary Assembly.
He also enjoyed long lunches with media and political friends, including some who may not have fared well in the tribunal era. Burns was non-judgmental — as long as they were jovial and entertaining, he was happy to be in their company.
“Everybody wanted to be where Mike was, to hear the gossip and have the fun and the craic,” Duignan said. “He had this gift of generosity and hospitality.”
Described once as “a pair of enthusiastic social drinkers”, they travelled the world together, combining work and pleasure. “But the trips we enjoyed most of all were on our own west coast,” Duignan said.
In other times, “the largest bar in Dublin” would have been needed to accommodate the attendance at the funeral, “to show their esteem and respect and raise a parting glass to one of the greats”.
Burns lived in Glenageary, Dublin. His second wife, Lynette Fegen, died in 2001. Burns, who died on Friday, February 26, at the age of 84, is survived by his sisters, Margaret and Nora, and his first wife, Bernadette.