I’ve just listened to a group of…worthies on Raidio Uladh discussing the BBC Four programme from last night. Naturally, they focused on the part that dealt with the BBC here in the 1960s, and how the British public were kept in the dark about the discrimination, gerrymandering and plain old sectarianism that prevailed at the time. Even when journalists from London were allowed to report, they had to learn to avoid saying “six counties”, and if they ever referred to Derry, to be sure to call it “Londonderry” first.
Gregory Campbell was part of the discussion on Raidio Uladh just now and he claimed that if the “bloody Protestants” prevented the hiring of Catholics by the BBC in Belfast, the opposite was the case now – too many Catholics, not enough Protestants. Though to be fair to him, he did hint that he was talking about Radio Foyle rather than Raidio Uladh.
I watched the programme last night as well, and it was a typical BBC programme. Stylish, absorbing, lots of witty quotations, enlightening. Where it fell down badly – or deceptively – was that it implied that the bad old days of the 1960s and early 1970s were soon gone.
No they aren’t. I was in and out of the BBC in Belfast, in a wide range of roles during the 1980s and 1990s. From the first day, the atmosphere was amiable unionist. The Twelfth marches were still covered live, the newsroom had a distinct unionist tinge (I remember one well-known reporter taking great umbrage (off-air) that the word “Taoiseach” should be used on-air. “We don’t talk about the president of Mexico as El Presidente, do we?” As for Derry and Londonderry, exactly the same rule applied during my years there as was damned by English journalists in the 1960s, and talked about as though it had ended. And did I mention the non-existence of all GAA sports reporting and near-non-existence of southern newspapers or news?
Finally, a point that wasn’t raised (and that I mentioned on my chat with Pat McArt today): the three most prominent presenters of political programmes on Belfast BBC are Stephen Nolan, William Crawley and Mark Carruthers. All three are skilled and experienced journalists and most people would agree they do a good job. What no one seems to notice is that all three come from a Protestant/Unionist background. That’s no reflection on their integrity, but Imagine if on some US channel/station, or South Africa channel/station, the presenters were all white, or black, or Republican.
We may live in a divided society but in some areas you’d never guess it.
I don’t think anyone thinks that Nolan is anything like a journalist. He seems to think his role is to stir up the mentally handicapped. Whoever was interrogating Colum Eastwood about Bryson’s gross court case should be assigned the Balmoral show in perpetuity as an acknowledged expert in bullshit. Can you do a run down on court cases he has been involved in and give us an idea of what his success rate is? This is one and the one involving Hoey and Jimbob about the Act of Union is another. Are there more?
I recall watching BBC TV from NEI on 12 JULY 1960 in The Cock Tavern in Howth. It didn’t report a parade as a news item, just filmed one as it proceded over some hours.
Watching it from a stool by the bar was a visitor from Glasgow, loudly commenting”Effin’ Bastards, Effin’ Bastards, Effin’ Bastards,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Effin’ Bastards.’
Our local trains, bussses and trams were run by the Great Northern Railway with its HQ in Belfast. Many of whose staff were Protestants and some of them Orangemen and I couldn’t understand the Gaswegian’s
vehemence. And we had many Protestant neighbours with no northern connections, of various professions and occupations, largely of British sympathies, who lived as good neighbours with Catholics.
My elder sister, (born 1937) remembers the Orange Order marching on the TWELFTH in Howth,
led by a farmer from whom we bought milk. He had 7 sons, one of whom was a GAA stalwart,
and the sole member of Ben Edar’s Vigilance Committee and enforcer of the ban on Foreign “Garrison” games. The ban was widely ignored. Garda Mairtin De hOra played for Ben Edar on Sunday, and Suttonians Rugby Club as Martin Hoare on Saturday. He was a Kerryman from a long
line of Cute Hoors.
And we had many Protestant …..who lived as good neighbours with Catholics… Kennedy
So had we, but when election time came they voted in the Sectarian Bigots who Gerrymandered total control and discriminated against Catholics on a massive scale ..!!
But the Hill of Howth is not on the Erne
In 1919 Unionist and Sinn Fein Councillors
Co-operated on the local district council.
When the RIC dispersed a Gaelic League
Concert in the Parochial Hall on St Patrick’s
Day in 1920 a Unionist Councillor
denounced the suppression in a letter in the IRISH
TIMES. Sectarian Mrder was almost unknown in Leinster, Munster
and Connaught,