Radio Review:There must have been a point - say about two minutes into the interview - when Kevin Dawson wished he too was in New Zealand.
As commissioning editor of factual TV programmes in RTÉ, he came into SeáO'Rourke's News at One, (RTÉ Radio 1) studio on Monday to throw some light on the "Government minister snorts cocaine" claim in Justine Delaney Wilson's programme, High Society. It was the interview of the week, another masterclass from O'Rourke in how to cut through bluster and a lesson to interviewees that when you've dug yourself into a hole, hit yourself hard with the shovel.
Dawson would have done well to have researched his interviewer a bit more, otherwise he wouldn't have started the interview in a chummy, we're-all-RTÉ-chaps-together sort of way, bragging about how important High Society was in documenting middle class drug use; amazed at how hung-up everyone is about the coke-snorting politician bit and moaning about how the nasty newspapers interpreted the station's press releases about the existence - or not - of the taped evidence.
"Listen, can we just deal with the facts here; you are head of factual programmes," interjected O'Rourke, sounding tired of Dawson's spin and nearly audibly switching on his mincing machine. A gruelling 10 minutes later, Dawson came out the other side - just. O'Rourke made it clear - "it beggars belief" - that he doesn't believe that a politician toddled over from Leinster House to Buswell's Hotel to admit to criminality to the previously little-heard-of Delaney Wilson, who is currently on holiday in New Zealand. The commissioning editor defended his programme somewhat weakly with, "I have been satisfied with the account which the author gave to me". Asked whether he knows who the politician is, he answered with the convoluted "I'm satisfied that the identity is known to me."
In an interview on RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime on October 4th, Delaney Wilson said she had a recording of the interview which she was keeping in a safe place. (From her holiday in New Zealand, she said in a statement that she has destroyed the tape).
"We have never believed there was a recording of the minister," said Dawson, effectively putting a distance between himself and the author. He admitted he'd never heard about that Drivetime interview and that the claim of the existence of a recording was news to him. Just to rub it in, O'Rourke played the Drivetime clip three times.
Bit cheeky of Mary Wilson to introduce Drivetime on Wednesday by promising "We'll hear Justine Delaney Wilson's side of the story." In all the coverage of the controversy this week, it's been repeated that the author is in New Zealand - as if that place is a suburb of the dark side of the moon where no telecommunications are possible, so if Wilson had her, it really would be worth hanging on for. Which I did, instead of switching over as usual to Matt Cooper on Today Fm. But no, Wilson talked to Karyn Hardy, Delaney Wilson's new solicitor who lost no time in firing a warning shot across the bow. She acknowledged that destroying the tapes mightn't have been the wisest thing her client had ever done but she cautioned, in that scary legal way, that even suggesting her client made up the whole thing is "an extremely serious allegation".
RTÉ's credibility is on the line with this story, and it's to the credit of the radio side of the house that it's willing to keep up the pressure to get to the bottom of it all, no matter how uncomfortable it gets in the queue for chips in the RTÉ canteen.
NEWSTALK HAS STARTED a new and very welcome homegrown documentary slot, entitled Different Voices, on Sunday evenings. It began this week with Outside the Prison Wall, produced by Sara Parker, which explored the experiences of Irish families of people in jail overseas. Among those interviewed was Eileen, who talked of the misery of having a son in a British prison where he's serving six years. Visits are expensive and difficult, and letters sometimes worse. "Every time we get a letter, we all cry," she said.
Prisoners on remand in French prisons can't even make a phone call, causing anguish to families, including the mother of three who talked of the stress of hiding the fact that her husband is in prison in France from neighbours and friends. If there was a fault in the otherwise excellent production, it was the overuse of quite intrusive and random background music when overseas prison visits and even everyday home life could have offered more interesting sound effects.
