I have had a serious problem with the BBC for many years. It began many years ago, about 1987, when a BBC Religious producer invited me to take part in a series he was producing on BBCTV about the subject of ‘violence’. He was to have four different people talk .The only other one I remember now was Ken Maginnis, the then MP for Fermanagh/S Tyrone who as usual talked a lot of drivel. I agreed to take part, on condition that it would not be a confrontational interview. I said I would agree to do it if the interview was going to be conversational. In other words, I wanted to explore the whole issue of violence from a theological point of view and I would like the opportunity to talk about the important distinctions between the different kinds of violence. I stressed this point with the producer and he assured me that would be all right.
I knew this was a very sensitive subject and it was a very sensitive time – and every word I said would be latched onto by somebody to either approve of me or to condemn me and discredit me. I thought it was even dangerous for me because it was so easy to be misrepresented and misunderstood on this very sensitive subject. I could then become a target for those who did not like me. I was used to being condemned in the local press eg in the Impartial Reporter and in the Fermanagh Herald by my opponents. I believed then, and still believe, that in order to discuss this sensitive subject of political violence in the media, it must be done in a respectful and conversational way, not as is usually done when the interviewer accuses the person being interviewed of being a supporter of terrorism and a disgraceful opponent of the police and the state.
So I went along for the interview to the BBC headquarters in Belfast. I had never been there before. It was at night-time in winter time and it was all a bit intimidating. I was told beforehand that the interviewer was to be Anthony Clare (since deceased), a well known psychologist and professor in Trinity College Dublin. I was happy to have a conversation with him about this important subject because, from what I knew about him, I thought he was a fair-minded and intelligent man.
However, lo and behold, when I arrived I was told that Anthony Clare was ill and could not carry out the interview and they had got another man from Dublin, a broadcaster from RTE, called Andy O’Mahony. I was a bit unnerved by this change but I went ahead with it since I had prepared for this and had come all the way from Irvinestown in Fermanagh to do the interview.
So I settled into my chair got ‘miked’ and prepared for the interview. O’Mahony who was sitting opposite me began snorting and hyper-ventilating as a man might do before going into a boxing ring. I thought this was ominous. I never heard anything like this before and I thought to myself, this is not going to be very nice. He hardly spoke to me beforehand.
After a brief introduction on camera, he began by asking me if I condemned IRA violence. I said I am not in the business of condemning but I wanted to understand what kind of violence he was talking about. I said I was in the business of analysing with a view to moving forward and finding the truth rather than just repeating propaganda. O’Mahony did not seem to know what I was talking about nor was he interested in pursuing this line of discussion. Immediately he asked me did I condemn the IRA who carried out the Enniskillen bombing. I said that the Bishop in my diocese had condemned that bombing and I had concurred with him and read out the condemnation as all the priests were asked to do. But he said you personally did not condemn Enniskillen. I said that I did not feel it necessary to add to the bishop’s comments. So he kept on about Enniskillen and I said that I wanted to discus the bigger issue rather than one particular incident –serious as it was. There were many more incidents of violence in which some of my relatives and friends were killed by the RUC. I thought it was too simplistic to single out just one incident. I said that if he persisted with this line of questioning I would terminate the interview because it was not what I had a greed with the producer. The producer intervened and spoke to OMahony. I reminded the producer about our agreement and he said let us go again and this time it would be more general.
However, as soon as we began the second time before long it was back to the Enniskillen bomb. I said I thought we had agreed to talk in general terms and not focus on a particular incident. Again the producer intervened. We went for a third time and once again he was straight in with the Enniskillen bomb. At that stage I was completely exasperated. So I walked out of the studio. I was never invited back- and I decided long ago I would never go back-if invited.
I would not trust the BBC to carry out a fair interview or present a fair programme from a Catholic/Nationalist point of view. The way they have treated many nationalists since then has not changed my mind.
The BBC is a biased organisation. It constantly insults the majority of the residents of Derry by referring to ‘Londonderry’. The Spotlight programme the other night during which an anonymous man accused Gerry Adams of sanctioning the killing of Denis Donaldson was just the most disgraceful piece of journalism I have ever heard. Then today they defended the programme even when the Donaldson family dismissed it as ‘nonsense’. By the way, the BBC broadcast three of the interviews about violence. Ken Maginnis got a very easy time – if memory serves me right.
Joe
If you cannot find the Christian grace within yourself to clearly denounce the Enniskillen bombing then I can well understand how any interviewer would return to that point.
A clear statement of your own personal view that it was unequivocally wrong would have allowed you to move on to talk about other issues.
Your description of the interview makes it appear you were being evasive and reluctant to give your personal view.
I believe Fr. McVeigh in his piece was trying to point out the zero sum game of concentrating on some violence as opposed to all violence and in that context, what religion had to say on the matter.
The BBC didn’t ask about Ballymurphy or Bloody Sunday and were in my opinion highly selective in their requests for condemnation throughout the troubles.
Perhaps I’m wrong. Can you name one example where the BBC asked a government spokesperson to condemn state violence ?
Cal
I am making no claims on behalf of the BBC.
I take your point that Joe McVeigh wanted to talk about violence in general. However I would have thought he could simply give his view on Enniskillen and then move on.
But (just as Peter denied Christ 3 times) the question was put to him 3 times and he could find no answer.
For a priest to struggle with speaking clearly on such an atrocity is hardly credible.
You’ll have to get out more, gio…
Jude
How so?
My concern with giving views on Enniskillen then moving on is that in so doing, the context of the interview is set. That is, some violence is worse than others – namely IRA violence.
The show wasn’t about IRA violence specifically so with that in mind, I can understand Fr. McVeigh’s refusal to turn a theology discussion into another IRA condemnation.
Cal
Some violence is worse than others. Planting bombs that blow civilians to pieces (yes that goes for British forces too) is worse than two groups of armed combatants engaging each other. Do you not think so?
Enniskillen was one of the worst of many IRA exploits and I am surprised that anyone much less a priest would hesitate to condemn it outright.
Even Gerry Adams managed to apologise for that one.
Martin McGuinness spoke of shame and called it atrocious.
Yet Joe McVeigh could offer nothing.
Fair comment,Gio.Once again poor Fr Joe casts himself as the victim of the treacherous B B C.I am assuming that this event happened after the Enniskillen Poppy Day bombing by the I R A and perhaps we can understand the lack of an unequivocal condemnation from a Catholic priest in Fermanagh to raise some eyebrows at Ormeau Avenue.Whatever the culture he perceived then,would he not agree that things are a bit different in 2016.Why ,our genial host,Jude is a regular contributor on the local B B C and Sinn Fein politicians appear day and daily on radio and T V.Maybe he needs to take some media coaching lessons from his friends in Sinn Fein!
Genial, Argenta? Don’t bank on it…
I remember on one of the many occasions RTE were slavering over unionist politicians they had Ken Maginnis on the late show. I think it was Bernadette MC Aliskey brought him up short when she reminded him of his disgraceful comments he made on the murder of volunteers. His tuppence worth was one swallow doesn’t make a summer. Then and now if a nationalist politician was to say something similar the bbc/RTE would be racing each other to make an insightful spotlight or prime time programme of the dastardly republicans.
Unfortunately Joe, the BBC is as good as it gets for CRN’s, other tv media simply make their bias more apparent.
It’s hardly ‘biased’ to refer to a city by its correct name.
The BBC/UTV policy is that it must always be called Londonderry first, then you can call it whatever you fancy yourself. This flies in the face of the vast majority of people in our entire community that call it Derry. Only Unionist hardliners out to make a point use the London prefix in my experience. Indeed, a Protestant friend of mine in his mid 70s insists that he never ever heard it called Londonderry until the outbreak of the Troubles, except by the BBC. Of course, the linguistic soft Unionism of the BBC/UTV runs so deep, you could write an entire book about it
“The BBC/UTV policy is that it must always be called Londonderry first, then you can call it whatever you fancy yourself. This flies in the face of the vast majority of people in our entire community that call it Derry. Only Unionist hardliners out to make a point use the London prefix in my experience. Indeed, a Protestant friend of mine in his mid 70s insists that he never ever heard it called Londonderry until the outbreak of the Troubles, except by the BBC. Of course, the linguistic soft Unionism of the BBC/UTV runs so deep, you could write an entire book about it”
It’s not the BBC’s business to make political gestures by not recognising the name of the city. Ironically, it would be demonstrating bias if it were to adopt a political position and choose not to use the correct name.of the city.
It is exactly the BBC’s business to make political gestures of that kind (and so many others). It always has been and probably always will. Unionism, royalism, militarism are the core values it expounds
The BBC is a complete disgrace. There is no impartiality and furthermore it serves only to promote and normalize ‘unionist’ narrative even in the face of blatant obvious evidence.
This piece of journalistic crap tells you all you need to know! Look not one mention of the tricolor being burned despite the picture! Its only news when loyalists attach other nationalities. (i.e. normalizing abhorrent behavior).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18895671
Its been many years since I watched the BBC. Its nothing more than propaganda and completely bankrupt of any credibility as an unbiased news organisation.
No surprises there. The BBC’s reputation has gone from bad to worse, not only here, but in Britain as well, as they unashamedly promote the unionist and establishment’s political philosophy. RTE, of course, with the connivance of the Dail’s NATO and corporate lapdogs, is a similar disgrace to all things democratic.
The BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation is the first line of attack in the British propaganda war.
How can anyone be surprised that such a body has bias etched in its genes?
Condemnation Nation, aka, the Free Southern Stateen, was rightly represented by its RTE Ambassador, on that occasion, Joe, a chara,
-Andy O Mahony.
AOM also stands for Academy of Management and this instance a ‘N’ can be inserted with due diligence, between the O and the M. N for News.
A lifelong book collector, AOM donated the 7000 volumes of his private collection to the Glucksman Library in the University of Limerick.
The keyword here is ‘collector’ because only a speed-reading bibliophile of the Beep ! Beep ! the Road Runner class and even he to be on prohibited drugs could manage to read but a fraction of that number.
Indeed, if any. Book collecting being a time-intensive pursuit, involving, for instance, much snooping in the dusty studies of cobwebbed country mansions in a state of advanced decrepitude,
It can be safely assumed, however, that at least one slim volume was found to be dogeared with over use and perusal by a diligent and dutiful Watch Dog of the Public:
-Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act.
Perhaps Joe would like to make a comment about Enniskillen now; seeing as he raised the subject an’ all?
Or perhaps he wouldn’t.
Pity.
“Again the producer intervened.”
Of course, Joe, one day someone else will intervene, although it won’t be a producer, it will be the Creator; maybe you tell Him what you think of the Enniskillen bombing.
Actually, one day He will require you to tell Him what you think of it.