ANALYSIS:Gay Byrne's utterances held powerful sway for decades among the public and politicians
GAY BYRNE this week described himself as “absolutely unpolitical” and added he had never disclosed any political feelings. He may have been referring to politics in the narrow sense of party allegiance. For, in a broader context, it would be absolutely inconceivable to describe his hard-hitting views and opinions uttered over the course of 50 years in public life as “absolutely unpolitical”.
With a dominant position in Irish broadcasting, Byrne's utterances held powerful sway among the public, and indeed among politicians – the archive of Dáil debates is peppered with controversies generated by the Late Late Showor his radio programme. And some of his more flamboyantly controversial remarks – particularly in relation to taxes and to the European Union – are sure to feature during the course of a campaign.
Indeed, two of his putative opponents in the presidential election, Gay Mitchell and Michael D Higgins, have clashed with Byrne in the past – Mitchell over his "constant negativity" about the economy in the 1980s; and Higgins was subjected to a bruising attack when he tried to take on Byrne (and Ivor Kenny) on the Late Late Showin 1994, both of whom virulently opposed that government's plan for a limited residential property tax.
Over the years, Byrne has been associated with a myriad of campaigns and causes – some populist, some worthy, some deeply controversial.
He has raged against compulsory Irish and generally displayed antipathy to the language. He also has railed against the cost of living, and at one stage encouraged people to shop in Newry. He consistently urged people to emigrate during the dark days of the 1980s.
Though a church-going Catholic, he took a strong pro-divorce stance at a very early stage in that debate. What he saw as punitive high taxation was also a bugbear of his for many decades. He has always been regarded as a “law and order” advocate on crime, and has been outspoken in his detestation of the Provisional IRA. And since his retirement he has come out as a virulent and implacable opponent of the EU.
In his 1989 autobiography, The Time of My Life, Byrne wrote of himself: "I suppose I could call myself a very right-wing conservative or reactionary. But in one sense I could be classified ideologically as neither one thing nor the other: right-wing; left-wing; socialist; communist; monetarist."
And that summed up the difficulty. It was always hard to pin him down, to distinguish between Gay Byrne the broadcaster, and Gay Byrne the person. Did he really mean it when he advocated hard labour or was he just hopping a ball?
He has said: “I am a broadcaster and that is the beginning and end of it. I say what I mean or what will go down well on radio . . . A lot of the indignation and crabbiness and thunder-struck apoplexy is feigned. It comes out of something genuine but the manner in which it is delivered is a performance.”
For example, during the 1980s and 1990s a recurrent theme on his radio show was the facilitation of those who believed in “bringing back the birch” for offenders.
During the 1980s he provoked an angry response from the coalition government with his constant portrayal of the country as “banjaxed”. During that time, he also said on his show that people should travel to the Border, go down on their knees, and beg the Queen to take Ireland back into the United Kingdom.
In his book, he wrote: “There is no one in this country up to and including the [then] taoiseach Charles Haughey who does not agree that we are a wretchedly overtaxed people . . . This is the situation that upsets me. It’s a horrible little country for sucking people dry.”
His stance against high taxes, as he saw it, (which he portrayed as “theft”) continued into the 1990s when he ran a campaign on his radio show against a limited property tax that would affect a small – wealthier – section of the population.
He also contended that one of the greatest failures of the State was in not being able to run a country the size of Manchester or a largish town in America, with a mayor and a few officials. “We have two houses of parliament and 166 TDs and a massive Civil Service and a presidency and an army and an air force. There must be a more compact and efficient way,” he said. He was also outspoken on those who knocked successful people in Ireland.
“I am sick of the sleeveen begrudgery that one hears about in Ireland about successful people. I believe we will not achieve maturity as a nation until we can recognise and acknowledge that success in business does not equal jackboots and exploitation.”
In more recent years, his deep antipathy to the expansion of the European Union has become a very big theme, as evidenced by his comments on Wednesday. He voted No in both Lisbon referendums. In other interviews and columns, he has complained about European directives as “trendy leftie rulings driven by political correctness”. He was especially put out by comments made by EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso likening the EU to an “empire”.
“When fellas start talking about an empire I get a shuddering feeling around my knees . . . I don’t want to end up in a super state and a totalitarian state.”
What he said: the world according to Gay Byrne
ON LISBON BEFORE THE FIRST REFERENDUM:
I’m voting ‘No’ in this Lisbon Referendum. The whole thing is so sneaky, dishonest, under-handed and sinister that I now have neither faith nor trust in the whole approach.
“I don’t believe a word from the mouths of any of the Yes brigade and I have deep scepticism about any of their promises or undertakings.
“What we’re being asked to vote on is a series of amendments to amendments to revisions to an existing Constitution . . .
“I feel desperately sorry for my grandchildren that certifiable lunatics in Brussels will dictate every single aspect of their lives . . .
“One other thing I’ll guarantee: within six months of Ireland voting Yes, our special corporate tax rate will be gone, not because of ‘harmonisation’ but because of ‘competition barriers’. And our veto? We’ll be none too politely told to stick it you know where and whistle Dixie to it.”
ON WHY HE SUPPORTED THE MILITARY INVASION OF IRAQ IN 2003:
We should bear in mind which side our bread is buttered on and we should certainly allow the US to use Shannon [airport]”.
ON BRIAN COWEN WHEN HE WAS TAOISEACH:
I question whether you can be Taoiseach and still sit up and have a pint in the local pub. You have to dignify the office. That is what I would have told him, had I been asked . . .
“What everyone is crying out for is leadership.
What I would have recommended Brian Cowen to do . . . at the latest midsummer 2009, he should have been on the television every night at nine o’clock instead of the news. Not being interviewed but there to camera, explaining how bad things are. And then he should have explained what we will do about it and that it is going to be ghastly and that he will be the most hated man in the world.”